A few decades ago, U.S. companies were making progress on the operations front, but now they seem to have lost their way—and business schools are in a position to help set them right again. Let me explain.
In the 1980s, our organizations learned a great deal about how to improve productivity, quality, and costs from Japanese practices. Lean production, which includes a vastly expanded role for front-line workers in addressing problems, was brought to the United States by Toyota in its auto plants but has now spread to health care, professional services, and virtually every other industry.
Image: https://hbr.org
