Founded in 2004, the Lean Thinking Network’s objective is to leverage the collective knowledge, experience and motivation of the network to significantly improve the competitiveness and profitability of all member companies. As the network has developed and matured, two distinct focuses have been created.

1. Our internal network: We have found the beginning of the Lean journey, with it’s excitement and the relatively simple process of picking low hanging fruit, is usually fairly easy. The period following this “honeymoon” can be much more challenging. With much of the excitement gone, and improvements more difficult to implement, companies need total employee involvement. Going “to see” other companies working towards similar objectives, struggling with mistakes and frustration can be transformational. The network, located in the Harrisburg-Reading-Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania, puts companies on similar Lean journeys together, focusing on showing and sharing successes and failures.

2. Our external network: “Competing” podcasts were first produced in August 2006. The concept was to test a new media while sharing Lean stories, techniques, media, and book reviews that get to the heart of Lean transformation. Podcast friends were found shortly thereafter in Mark Graban’s “Leanblog” and Ken Rayment’s “Better Process Podcasts”. “Competing” has been fortunate to interview such Lean notables as: Pascal Dennis, Steven Spear, Dave Nelson, John Kravontka, Dan Markovitz, and Drew Locher.