Articles and case notes
Observations from mandates, case examples, occasionally an opinion.
apx.ai: from data to control
Intelligent platform for operational control. Connects source systems, steers processes with data, surfaces variances before they become overruns.
Why frigates arrive years late
Two to four years of delay across western navies. Where delivery capability can be regained.
Lean Group receives the TOP CONSULTANT 2025 seal
Lean Group has been recognised as TOP CONSULTANT 2025 for consulting quality and measurable results in the German Mittelstand.
Why 85% of programmes fail at implementation
Strategy rarely fails on the concept, almost always on the execution. Where the break happens, and how to close it.
Lean Construction live: an engaging workshop
One day, one hotel simulation, multiple rounds of takt planning. How students experience lean construction in 90 minutes rather than just read about it.
Digital tools and lean principles: new ways in construction planning
How Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Lean Construction work together in construction planning, shown on an industrial building: takt planning, collaboration sessions in the model and just-in-time deliveries on site.
Efficiency in healthcare: a hospital takes a new path
A leading hospital examined its operations with multi-moment analysis, work-pressure analysis and shadowing. The result: waiting times down 20 percent, working hours down 15 percent, value creation in patient care doubled.
Transformation to a "doer" organisation: the key to operational excellence
Decision backlogs, departmental silos and a culture that treats mistakes as a stain hold many organisations back. What a "doer" organisation does differently and how the transformation works structurally and culturally.
Lean digital transformation in construction: the Stavanger hospital case study
How lean planning and a unified digital planning tool made the Stavanger hospital project in Norway manageable. Autodesk named it the world's best digital construction project.
Rescuing a supply chain: a case study in operational excellence in automotive
An automotive supplier was struggling with supply chain disruptions and cost pressure. How productivity was lifted and supply capability secured.
Lean management in process plants: efficiency through takt and modularisation
How modularisation, flow and takt make process-plant projects more efficient: in engineering, procurement, manufacturing and construction.
AI Management Consulting Services
How we support companies adopting AI: strategy, technology selection and implementation, plus data management, process optimisation and change management.
Make your battery factory a success
Consulting for battery manufacturers across the full life cycle of a factory: project strategy and contracting, project management and scheduling, factory and logistics design, supplier evaluation and award.
Top Consultants Award 2022 — for the third time in a row
Top Consultants Award 2022 — third time in a row. Lean Group has once again been recognised as one of Germany's best consultancies.
Lean Group goes Norway
At the start of the year, Lean Group founded a Norwegian subsidiary based in Stavanger.
TOP CONSULTANT 2021 — Lean Group awarded the consultancy seal
The TOP CONSULTANT competition examines consulting quality / scientifically grounded customer survey.
Lean administration: MMA for greater office productivity
Administrative processes hold valuable optimisation potential. In classical production, waste is identified through observation.
What is decisive for the production restart after a crisis?
Crises confront companies with challenges of unexpected magnitude. Production has to come back online after a standstill.
Takt planning and takt control: the origin of a method
Jörn Steinbeck transferred the assembly line to the project industry. The inventor of the project-management method takt planning / takt control (TPS) is Jörn Steinbeck.
Lean reorganisation: productively into the new future
Now is the time for strategic efficiency. Filip Specht has experience handling epidemiological challenges on board.
From a prototype line to efficiency: the transformation at VIA Optronics
VIA Optronics GmbH is a provider of interactive display solutions. Their portfolio covers Optical Bonding technology, copper-based metal-mesh touch sensors and customer-specific interactive display systems.
Happy New Year — and on to the next ten!
2020 has started as an eventful year for Lean Maritime: the consultancy is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
Top Ten People: Theo Herzog profiled as a lean expert
Theo Herzog is one of the Top 10 Coaches profiled in November 2019 in a dedicated supplement of Lufthansa Exclusive Magazine and in January 2020 in Manager Magazin.
Lean Construction: "Industry 4.0 in single-piece manufacturing"
"Producing first results in a lean-construction pilot project is fairly easy," says Theo Herzog. The harder question is how to make it stick.
Cardboard simulation: students experience "Lean Construction"
In the summer semester of 2019, Lean Maritime partners Theo Herzog and Holger Segler taught students at the Institute of Geotechnical and Construction Engineering at TU Hamburg the idea and methods of "Lean Construction".
A lean nuclear power plant? A project example
Can lean process improvement work in industries with the highest safety standards? Project example: the Paluel nuclear power plant in Normandy, France.