If your operation lacks predictability, flexibility, and agility—the hallmarks of an effective and efficient operation—then the traditional management approaches you’re likely employing have reached their limits. The Operations Practice of Lean Focus transforms operational challenges into competitive advantages through systematic application of proven Lean principles.
We deploy hundreds of Lean principles to revolutionize operations.
While traditional operations management relies on expediting, firefighting, and pushing production to meet targets, Lean thinking fundamentally reimagines how work moves through your organization. Our approach doesn’t rely on cutting staff, instead it eliminates waste, builds capable processes, and empowers your people to operate more effectively and efficiently. The following three principles (chosen from among the hundreds of Lean principles that we regularly utilize) demonstrate how Lean thinking results in the operational predictability, flexibility, and agility that traditional methods cannot achieve.
Principle 1: Flow eliminates the stop-and-start chaos that plagues traditional operations.
Traditional management accepts bottlenecks, batch processing, and work-in-progress pileups as unavoidable realities. This fragmented approach creates unpredictable lead times, quality issues that compound downstream, and operations that cannot respond quickly when conditions change. Flow thinking reimagines your operation as a continuous, connected movement of work from start to finish. By identifying and removing the obstacles that interrupt this movement—the waiting, the batching, the unnecessary handoffs—your operation gains the predictability that traditional methods promise but never deliver. When work flows smoothly, you can accurately predict completion times, respond to customer needs with confidence, and redeploy resources where they create the most value.
Principle 2: Pull systems create flexibility by responding to actual demand.
Traditional operations push work through the system based on schedules, forecasts, and production targets. This approach guarantees overproduction in some areas and shortages in others, tying up capital in inventory while still failing to meet customer commitments. Pull systems reverse this entirely. Work begins only when the next step in the process signals readiness, and production responds to real demand rather than projections.
This principle gives your operation genuine flexibility: the ability to shift priorities, accommodate changing customer requirements, and scale output up or down without the chaos that accompanies these changes in push-based environments. Your operation becomes responsive by design, not by heroic effort.
Principle 3: Standardization provides the stable foundation that enables true agility.
Traditional management often confuses agility with improvisation, or the ability to figure things out on the fly. This approach creates dependence on individual expertise, inconsistent outcomes, and an operation that cannot improve systematically because no one agrees on how work should be done. Standardization establishes clear, agreed-upon methods that represent current best practice. Far from creating rigidity, this foundation enables genuine agility. When everyone understands the standard way, deviations become immediately visible, problems surface faster, and improvements can be implemented by way of shared knowledge across the operation. Your teams can adapt quickly to new challenges because they’re building on proven foundations rather than reinventing solutions under pressure.
The Lean Focus Business System™ (LBS™) turns principles into practice.
The hundreds of Lean principles that drive a company’s operational transformation—including the three above—come to life through the proven Tools contained within the Operations Practice of LBS™. These Tools represent systematic activities—workshops, process implementations, and structured improvements—that your operations staff will undertake side-by-side with our seasoned, senior-level practitioners. The Lean Focus Business System™ is truly among the most respected business systems in the world, providing repeatable, proven solutions that work across industries and countries.
Your operations problems won’t solve themselves, and traditional approaches have already proven inadequate.
Contact the senior-level LBS Experts of our Operations Practice today to schedule a presentation of the Lean Focus Business System™. During this session, we’ll demonstrate exactly how the proven Tools used by the Operations Practice will give you the visibility and approaches you’ll need to transform your current operational challenges into competitive advantages.
Industry Experience of Our Operations Practice
PACKAGING
RENEWABLE ENERGY
BUILDING MATERIALS
AEROSPACE & DEFENSE
AUTOMATION EQUIPMENT
AUTO PARTS & COMPONENTS
MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEMS
COMMERCIAL VEHICLES & TRUCKS
GENOMICS & PRECISION MEDICINE
TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS
CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS
CARDIOVASCULAR DEVICES
INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY
INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS
LIFE SCIENCES TOOLS
TEST & MEASUREMENT
HVAC SYSTEMS
& MORE
A Selection of Businesses Our Operations Practice Has Served
Our Operations Practice Regional Leaders
RYAN LISIAK
Lean Focus North America
+1 (630) 800-8519
[email protected]
About Ryan
Ryan is the Senior Vice President, Operations Practice of Lean Focus. He is a proven business leader with extensive experience in general management, supply chain management, process improvement, strategic marketing, business development, data analysis, and solution presentations. He has led teams through both the creation of innovative solutions to challenging problems as well as the execution of improved processes that ultimately generates measurable results. He is an accomplished commercial leader and continuous improvement specialist with 20+ years of experience in applying lean principles across executive, commercial and operational functions
Ryan has led the application of lean principles starting with the Danaher Business System (DBS) and continuously applying lean solutions across operational & supply chain teams as well as in commercial and P&L environments. Ryan holds a B.S. Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University as well as both a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Masters of Engineering (MEM) from Northwestern University.
MANUEL JANS, PHD.
Lean Focus Europe
+49 173 2505762
[email protected]
About Manuel
Manuel has over 20 years of experience in Human Resource Management and Organizational Development. He has initially provided support for lean business transformations at all levels as a HR Consultant and later by leading customer-focused Talent and HR organizations in multi-national companies (up to $2.2B and 40+ locations). His assignments include various Talent leader roles at Danaher´s Water Quality Business and Head of HR positions in Pharma and Biotech. As an entrepreneur he has (co-)founded start-up businesses and professional networks. He is passionate about applying lean and agile thinking to build, improve and sustain impactful HR and talent practices, placing and developing key talent to drive the transformation journey, and building a lean leadership culture at all levels of the organization. Manuel holds a MBA (Diplom-Kaufmann) and Ph.D. in Business Administration (HR focus) from Essen University.
MICHAEL REINHOLT ANDERSEN
Lean Focus Nordic
+45 4030 3080
[email protected]
About Michael
Michael is the CEO of Lean Focus Nordic, bringing over 25 years of leadership experience. His career includes ~18 years at Danaher Corporation, where he held multiple executive roles, including General Manager/Managing Director Dentistry and Biotech businesses, as well as several VP Operations & Supply Chain and VP of Lean Business Transformation. In his role as Danaher Corporate Director, he was responsible for Danaher Business System implementation in EU. Most recently, he led Operations & Supply Chain of a $1B acute care diagnostics business, transforming it into one of Danaher’s most Lean-mature organizations.
An expert in driving transformational change, Michael specializes in implementing Lean practices and applying Lean business systems in large-scale organizations to enhance quality, delivery, innovation speed, and cost efficiency. He has successfully led cross-functional Lean transformations across diverse industries, cultivating high-performing, problem-solving cultures on a global scale.
Michael is renowned for driving radical business transformations and delivering impactful results. He excels in building enduring cultures of Continuous Improvement, anchored in collaboration, empowerment, and mutual respect.
Contact Our
Operations Practice Today.
Operations Practice Case Study
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Locations Worldwide
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Employees
1. Challenge
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2. Opportunity
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Operations Practice Client Testimonials
“I was confident that engaging key experts from Lean Focus would accelerate our efforts to build a culture of continuous improvement—one that embraces curiosity, rapid experimentation, data-driven learning, and problem solving. The people and the tools integrated seamlessly with our team to establish visual performance goals across safety, quality, delivery, inventory, and cost. This partnership enabled me, as the leader, to drive greater predictability and flexibility as we scaled our organization.”
“Lean Focus has served as a valuable extension of our team, using the Lean Focus Business System™ to enhance agility across critical business processes. Their long-term collaboration led to measurable improvements in reduced order entry time, increased OTIF performance, and a significant decrease in financial deductions stemming from process delays. More recently, they’ve supported us in identifying and recruiting key Lean talent, further strengthening our organizational flexibility for future growth.”
Start A Conversation With Our Operations Practice
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Lean Focus North America
P: +1 (630) 800-8519
E: [email protected]
Lean Focus Europe
P: +49 173 2505762
E: [email protected]
Lean Focus Nordic
P: +45 4030 3080
E: [email protected]
International Phone Number: +1 (630) 800-8519
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