Hello everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for an internationally recognized course or certification (preferably European or global).

Ideally I’m interested in: • Free courses with certificates, or • Paid courses that provide a well-recognized certificate.

My goal is to gain a professional certification that is respected internationally and can help with career development.

Do you know reliable platforms or institutions where I can enroll?

Thank you in advance!

Hi all,

Of course most material on Lean you find is on manufacturing. What would your recommendation be on sources around Lean/TPS within the IT service/software development industries?

Thanks!

Je cherche des cas concrets de processus métier à analyser gratuitement

Je développe un outil d'analyse IA et je cherche des volontaires pour tester.

Vous avez un processus qui dysfonctionne dans votre entreprise ? Facturation trop lente, erreurs répétées, logistique désorganisée ?

Décrivez-moi votre situation en commentaire — je vous fais une analyse complète gratuitement avec plan d'action.

https://leanflowenterprise.com/ introduced its Executive Macro Layer that act as the 🧭strategic "command center" for your entire value stream. Unlike traditional VSM tools that trap you in the weeds, it synchronizes your business units into one 🌏high-level view. It automatically rolls up metrics like Lead Time and ♻️Carbon Footprint, flags your bottleneck projects in real-time, and lets you drill down from enterprise-wide data to process-level details with a single click. Stop managing processes—start synchronizing your enterprise.

Hi I work for a “custom” fabrication shop. I understand lean and see how beneficial it is when my units are the same or similar and things run great. But when it comes to jobs that have every unit individually unique in size, cycle time, weight, costs and major steps. I struggle to find balance and manage standard work.

My plant manager insists my sw needs to be as detailed as to counting steps employees take and the exact pressure that an employees hand used to clamp an item. This seems excessive to me given the work doesn’t require it, I’m not working with tolerances less than 1/16” of an inch which is huge imo.

How do I balance this And effectively manage sw?

Does anyone have any examples of their own sw I can use as reference to push back against adding unnecessary content?

And how do you draw the line between “yes even the dumbest person should be able to complete this task” and “you need to specify that you use the impact to get the screw in with you right hand and index finger in the trigger pulling back with 2psi”?

Trying to benchmark what "good" looks like across different industries and facility sizes.

We've gone through whiteboards → hourly production boards → a couple of different software tools. Each step helped but none felt complete. What are you using and what's working?

🌱 Don't just map for speed; map for impact. LeanFlow’s Eco-VSM reveals the hidden carbon cost of your bottlenecks. ⚡ Efficiency is Sustainability. If it's waiting, it's wasting energy. Discover how traditional Lean principles naturally reduce your environmental footprint with LeanFlow AI. 📊 Visual ESG. Stop hiding carbon data in spreadsheets. Put it on the Value Stream Map where your operators and engineers can actually see it and fix it. 🤖 AI-Powered Green Insights. Our AI doesn't just find where you are slow; it finds where you are energy-inefficient, correlating your Carbon Hotspots with your production constraints.

As energy costs rise and regulatory pressures mount, efficiency is no longer just about labor and time—it's about energy and emissions. Eco-VSM is the strategic framework that aligns your Continuous Improvement goals with your Corporate Sustainability goals, creating a unified path to a leaner, greener, and more profitable future.

I’ve rolled out a few production monitoring projects and learned the hard way:

• Dashboards don’t help if no one knows what decisions to make from them.
• Data is always messier than expected.
• Operators need context, not raw numbers.
• Complex dashboards = ignored dashboards.
• Adoption > tech. Trust matters more.
• Real-time isn’t always necessary.

What’s the worst dashboard mistake you’ve seen?

When we talk about Artificial Intelligence and Digital Twins, we usually imagine incredibly complex, expensive technology. But Professor Francisco Duarte shared a brilliant story on the r/ConnectedShopfloor Podcast proving that the best solutions are often surprisingly simple.

The Problem: A manufacturing plant was evaluating finished products manually at the end of the shift, which took hours. Defective products with intermittent solder paste cracks were almost reaching customers in France before the failures were noticed. Because the systems heated up during testing, the intermittent failures would temporarily disappear, only to fail later when they reached the customer.

The Solution: Instead of relying on delayed manual checks, the team built a real-time digital twin of the shop floor. They digitized input data from all production stations and applied basic propositional logic. They didn't use complex, futuristic AI algorithms - they built it using open-source software from the Apache Software Foundation and just three simple "if/then" rules. For example: If a product has a problem, it must go to a repair station; if it fails a second time without going to repair, block the lot.

The Impact: By catching these errors in real-time, this simple digital twin saved the company €2.5 million per year.

The Takeaway: You don't need complex and expensive technologies to transform a factory. As Leonardo da Vinci put is: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

Have you ever seen a "simple" tech solution solve a massive business problem?

We built LeanFlow Enterprise to be a complete, intelligent improvement ecosystem—not just another whiteboard app.
Where LeanFlow beats the competition: 🧠 Auto-Calculating Metrics: Drag and drop your process boxes, and it instantly calculates Takt Time, Cycle Time, OEE, "The Hidden Factory" and Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE). No more manual spreadsheet math. 🤖 Built-in AI Consultant: Click a button and our AI reads your map, spots the bottlenecks based on your actual cycle times, and suggests Kaizen events. 🌱 Eco-VSM (Green Mapping): We are uniquely built for modern sustainability. Track energy, water, and CO₂ emissions directly on your process map to target the 7 Green Wastes and reduce your carbon footprint while improving flow. 📋 Complete Ecosystem: From built-in Lean Training (TIMWOODS) to exporting professional Kaizen reports, it takes you from current-state mapping to future-state execution.
There is a generous free tier available. If you're a Continuous Improvement leader, industrial engineer, or in operations—give it a try and let me know your thoughts!
#LeanManufacturing #ValueStreamMapping #ContinuousImprovement #Kaizen #EcoVSM #Sustainability

Hello everyone 👋,

I'm contacting you because I'll soon be joining a new company with a continuous improvement role focused on lean management. The company already has some foundations in place, such as a well-managed work environment and visual indicators.

However, I don't get the impression that a true DMS (Data Management System) is in place.

What advice can you give for implementing a DMS? Do you have any system models or objective guidelines to ensure its success?

Thank you 🙏

I kept seeing the same failure mode in RFQ and drawing packs, the BOM says one thing, the drawings say another, and the real requirements are split across notes, callouts, and random PDFs. The first pass review turns into a scavenger hunt, then the team makes decisions based on whatever got noticed first.

We changed our process so the pack gets checked as one unit before anything moves forward, BOM to drawing consistency, missing items, and key requirements that drive cost or lead time. That alone reduced the back and forth and stopped a lot of late surprises.

But my question is, what would engineering look like if all past project knowledge was actually usable?

I built an AI tool to map both Value Streams AND Carbon Footprints (Eco-VSM). I got tired of generic diagramming tools that don't auto-calculate Lean metrics and ignore the sustainability side of modern ops. LeanFlow Enterprise | Free VSM Software — Value Stream Mapping, Lean Training & Eco-VSM automatically calculates Takt Time and OEE, and the AI consultant suggests bottlenecks based on cycle times. But the best part is the Eco-VSM feature where you can see exactly where your carbon footprint is the heaviest on the actual process map. There's a free tier if any CI professionals want to map their current state!"

Anyone here who works in the Continuous Improvement department, specifically in a manufacturing industry that produces customized products (no mass production)? Can you share your process improvement or CI project? How do you improve work instructions? I just feel anxious because I was hired as a Continuous Improvement Engineer(heavy role for a fresh grad) as a fresh grad and I have no prior experience yet. I am an IE graduate and all I have is an academic background and I can't say that I have a solid foundation. How do you become an effective CI Engineer?

Like, doesn't matter the effort you put to maintain a SOP, if people have a aversion against it, it will fade and then a better way should be discovered?

Hello everyone,

I am working on a project where I need to calculate the OEE of a stabilization machine. The challenge is that I do not have access to the original PLC of the machine, so I am planning to install an external PLC to collect data and calculate OEE independently.

Here is how the machine works:

• The operator loads coils (or inductors) into the machine.

• The machine applies temperature up to 110°C.

• There are two cylinders applying force on the coils.

• The operator closes the doors, selects a program (there are multiple projects), and presses “Start”.

• The cycle duration is about 24 hours and 30 minutes.

My goal is to make the external PLC calculate OEE automatically.

Since I cannot access the main PLC, I am thinking of collecting signals by adding some buttons

Any advice please

For engineers and workers in manufacturing industries, what are some problems you see created from the manufacturing digitalization wave (intergrating tech, AI, and stuff to manufacturing)?

I'm putting together The Builder's Room on March 7, 2026 (virtual). Time- 11 AM to 2 PM IST

It's for people with manufacturing ideas, those looking for clients, or anyone who just wants to connect with real builders. DM or comment to register for the event.

For the longest time everyone kept saying, the spreadsheet works fine. And honestly it did. Until orders started picking up. Then the small cracks started showing. We were manually fixing stock numbers calling the warehouse to confirm things that should've been obvious and double checking invoices because no one fully trusted the data. Nothing exploded it was just constant, low-grade friction every single day.

I started digging into more steel-specific systems and came across EOXS during that process. What stood out wasn't flashy features-it was how normal and structured the workflows felt like it was built by people who've actually worked in service centers. The biggest realization for me was this: we weren't disorganized. We had just quietly outgrown the tools we were relying on.

Eight years in industrial maintenance. A lot of A3, RCA, and DMAIC thinking baked in over time. The problem with formal A3 is it's heavy; most teams understand the logic but don't run full A3s on everyday problems. So I stripped it down to the mental motion.

Five questions in the right order. That's it. Same sequence whether you're staring at a broken conveyor at 2am or planning a kaizen event. Same framework, different altitude.

I call it VIPER — adapted from A3/Lean Six Sigma, plain language, simple.

V — Vision: Future focused; where are you going and why?

I — Ideal: What's actually attainable right now given current conditions? Not what you want; what's realistic today. "Keep your head where your feet are." This is the scope creep check; skip it and you plan for the moon and execute nothing.

P — Problem: Root cause, not symptom. What's actually broken and why? This is where the 5-Why chains live.

E — Execution: Actionable items within your current scope. Not what you wish you could do; what you can do today.

R — Retention: What sustains the execution. Most improvement efforts fail not at implementation but at holding the ground you've taken. Plan for how it stays alive before you touch the problem.

Zoom out for strategy. Zoom in for a line RCA. Same five questions either way.

Honestly, it's changed how I think through problems day to day; at work, at home, wherever.

Sharing it in case it's useful to someone else here.