Lean Math is a New Blog You Should Read

Our good friend Mark Hamel has a new project that I would like to share with you.


The Blog
We would like to announce a new entrant into the lean blogosphere, it’s called Lean Math (leanmath.com).

We know what you’re thinking, “Lean Math?!” Now, that’s a subject that evokes passion in the heart of every lean practitioner…right?

But, the truth is effective lean transformations require some level of math, whether it’s the often deceptively simple takt time calculation, sizing kanbans, calculating process capability, or anything in between. It’s hard to get away from math. There is no such thing as math-free lean and certainly not math-free six sigma!

Lean Math is not intended to be some purely academic study and it does not pretend to be part of the heart and soul of lean principles. Rather, it’s a tool and a construct for thinking. Here we want to integrate lean math theories and examples with experimentation and application. 

The Background

Within the next year, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers will be publishing a book, tentatively entitled, Lean Math. Mark Hamel, author of the Shingo Award-winning book, Kaizen Event Fieldbook and founder of the Gemba Tales^TM blog, and Michael O’Connor, Ph.D. (a.k.a. Dr. Mike) are co-authoring this work. They are also getting a ton (!) of help from Larry Loucka, friend, colleague, and fellow-blogger at Lean Sigma Supply Chain.

Here are some of the first blog posts:

• Time
• Cycle Time
• Square Root Law
• Min/Max Cut Theorem
• Coefficient of Variation

Personally, I am excited about this new addition to the lean blog frontier. I think there is a lot to be learned by Hamel, Loucka, and O'Connor. I hope you visit this new blog and find it useful and enjoyable.  I'd like to hear your feedback.