It is the ultimate irony of the Continuous Improvement industry. We spend our careers walking gemba, identifying bottlenecks, and relentlessly eliminating waste from production lines. We preach the gospel of “Just-in-Time” manufacturing and “One Piece Flow.” We scold operations leaders for harboring excess inventory, explaining that it ties up cash and hides inefficiencies.
Yet, when it comes to how manage Lean training on these very principles, we violate almost every rule in the Lean playbook.
Consider the traditional training model. We schedule a “Green Belt” wave months in advance. We batch-process twenty employees into a conference room for five consecutive days. We push vast amounts of information – knowledge inventory – into their minds, regardless of whether they have an immediate application for it. Then, we release them back into the wild, hoping they retain enough of that information to execute a project three months later.
In manufacturing terms, this is a “Push” system characterized by massive overproduction and excess inventory. If you walked into a factory and saw piles of finished goods collecting dust because there was no customer demand, you would immediately flag it as a crisis. Why, then, do we accept this exact dynamic in our Lean training?
For Continuous Improvement leaders tasked with driving operational excellence, this antiquated approach is more than just ironic; it is a drain on your budget and a barrier to the culture change you are fighting to develop. It is time to treat training and knowledge management with the same rigor we apply to supply chain management.
The Problem with “Push” Training Models
To understand why traditional training fails, we must look at it through the lens of the Seven Wastes. The most egregious offender in the corporate classroom is Overproduction.
When you teach a comprehensive Lean Six Sigma curriculum to a general audience, you are producing knowledge that has no immediate customer. The “customer” in this scenario is a real-world problem requiring a solution. If you teach Design of Experiments (DOE) to a Green Belt who is currently working on a 5S project, you have overproduced. You have supplied a complex tool that they do not need and cannot use yet.
The Hidden Cost of Knowledge Inventory
In the podcast episode “Why Lean Training Doesn’t Actually Change Behaviors,” Calvin L. Williams, host of the Impruvers Podcast, draws a sharp parallel between physical inventory and knowledge inventory. He notes that if you want an honest assessment of a factory’s efficiency, you simply look at the piles of inventory. The same logic applies to your training program.
When you load an employee with hundreds of data points, acronyms, and statistical formulas during a one-week bootcamp, you are creating Knowledge Inventory. Just like physical stock in a warehouse, this inventory comes with carrying costs. It requires maintenance, tracking, and worst of all, it is subject to “shrink.”
Inventory Shrink: The Forgetting Curve
Physical inventory gets damaged, stolen, or expires. Knowledge inventory degrades even faster. The human brain is efficient; it discards neural connections that are not reinforced by experience.
Williams suggests a simple test: tell a friend ten facts, change the subject to something really exciting for five minutes, and ask them to recall those facts. You will likely get two or three back. Now, imagine expecting an employee to recall the nuances of a Fishbone Diagram three months after sitting in a slide-heavy presentation.
Without immediate application, the “neural connections” required for competence never fully form. We are left with a workforce that is “certified” on paper but incapable in practice. This leads to the common complaint among CI Directors: “We trained 50 Green Belts last year, so why aren’t we seeing 50 completed projects?”
The answer is that the knowledge expired before it could be used.
Certification Does Not Equal Capability
There is a dangerous conflation in our industry between certification and capability. Many organizations treat Lean training as a linear academic progression: sit in the class, pass the test, get the certificate.
However, capability – the ability to actually change behavior and drive results – comes from a cycle of experience, failure, success, and repetition. It requires coaching, not just lecturing.
By focusing on “certifying” large batches of employees, organizations often inadvertently prioritize the vanity metric of “number of belts trained” over the impact metric of “ROI delivered.” This disconnect is often why leadership support wanes over time. If the C-suite sees a line item for training costs but no corresponding improvement in the bottom line, the CI program becomes viewed as a cost center rather than a strategic asset.
This is one of the reasons Impruver University prioritizes application over knowledge. It does this by starting the project component of your Lean Six Sigma certification process before the training. This way candidates learn the concepts in parallel with executing a project that delivers measurable business impact.
The Solution: On-demand Lean Training and Knowledge Management
If the problem is a “Push” system, the solution is to move to a “Pull” system. We must transition from traditional training to On-Demand Knowledge Management.
In a Pull system, production is triggered only by customer demand. In a training context, this means delivering instruction only when a specific problem arises that requires it. This is Just-in-Time training.
How On-Demand Training Works
Imagine a production supervisor encounters a bottleneck on Line 4. This problem creates “demand” for a solution. Instead of waiting for the next scheduled training wave, the supervisor accesses a bite-sized, specific module on “Theory of Constraints” or “Line Balancing” right there on the shop floor.
Because the training is tied directly to active work, the retention rate skyrockets. The supervisor learns the concept and immediately applies it to fix the jam on Line 4. The feedback loop is instantaneous. The neural connection is cemented by the experience of solving the problem.
This approach offers several strategic advantages:
- Eliminates Waste: No time is spent learning tools that aren’t needed.
- Increases Relevance: Content is consumed in the flow of work, making it inherently practical.
- Demonstrates ROI: Every “lesson” is tied to a specific operational improvement, making it easy to quantify the business impact for leadership.
Replacing Full Courses with Micro-Learning
The modern operational landscape is characterized by information overload. Attention spans are fragmented by constant digital noise. Asking busy professionals to disengage from their work for a week is becoming increasingly untenable.
On-demand training respects the reality of the modern workflow. It replaces the 40-hour course with 5-minute refreshers. This “micro-learning” approach allows employees to pick up a new skill or idea exactly when they have the capacity and the need to use it. It is efficient, respectful of their time, and highly effective.
The Role of AI in Scaling Lean Knowledge
Until recently, the logistical challenge of “Just-in-Time” training was the primary barrier to adoption. How do you ensure the right person gets the right module at the exact right moment?
This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics bridge the gap. We are currently at a pivotal moment in history where technology has caught up to the Lean vision of demand-driven knowledge transfer.
Impruver Software is leading this charge by integrating with your existing business intelligence data (e.g., Power BI) to automate the coaching process. Impruver University has already formatted Lean training in bite-sized modules and lessons to be delivered on-demand.
AI-Driven “Pull” Signals
By analyzing real-time performance data, AI can identify specific operational deficiencies—for example, a spike in defects on a specific machine. The system can then “trigger” the assignment of a relevant Root Cause Analysis tool to the operator or engineer responsible for that area.
This is the digital equivalent of a Kanban card. The process defect creates the demand signal, and the AI supplies the necessary knowledge to resolve it.
Furthermore, AI-driven coaching (like Impruver’s AI Sensei) can guide the user through the application of the tool, ensuring they aren’t just watching a video, but actually executing the methodology correctly. This allows Continuous Improvement leaders to scale their expertise across the entire organization without needing to be in every room at once.
Upcoming Opportunity: The AI & Lean Knowledge Management Event
To dive deeper into how technology is reshaping our industry, Impruver is hosting a special event on February 11th at 4pm EST. This session will explore the intersection of AI and Lean Knowledge Management, offering a blueprint for organizations ready to abandon wasteful training practices.
This event will cover how to transition from static learning models to dynamic, AI-enabled knowledge systems that drive autonomous improvement.
Click this link for details about the event.
Lean Training Waste Calculator
Calculate the “Sunk Cost” of batch-style training
Case Example: The “Pull” Method in Action
Consider two hypothetical organizations facing a sudden increase in changeover times.
Company A (Traditional) notices the issue and decides to schedule a SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) workshop. They look at the calendar, find a free week next month, and invite the engineering team. In the interim, changeover times remain high, costing the company thousands in lost capacity. When the training finally happens, half the engineers are distracted by emails regarding the ongoing crisis.
Company B (On-Demand) uses an integrated Lean management platform. The system detects the trend in changeover times and immediately pushes a “Quick Changeover” refresher module to the line leads and setup technicians. It prompts them to perform a Gemba observation during the next changeover, providing a digital checklist on their tablets. The team watches a 4-minute video on “Internal vs. External Setup” immediately before the changeover begins. They apply the concept instantly, reducing setup time by 15% that same shift.
Company B didn’t just train; they solved a problem. They treated knowledge as a utility, not an event. This is the difference between checking a box and driving operational excellence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Won’t moving to on-demand training dilute the depth of our Six Sigma expertise?
Not at all. In fact, it often deepens expertise. Traditional training often values breadth over depth—teaching a little bit about everything. On-demand training focuses on “depth of application.” By learning a specific tool and immediately using it to solve a real problem, the practitioner gains a profound understanding of how that tool works in reality, not just in theory. You can still offer advanced tracks for Master Black Belts, but the general workforce benefits more from competence in specific, relevant tools.
How do we track certification if we aren’t doing formal classes?
Certification should be based on demonstrated capability, not attendance. Modern platforms like Impruver track the successful completion of projects and the application of tools. You can structure your “Green Belt” certification to require the successful application of a specific set of tools (e.g., Charter, SIPOC, Root Cause) within the flow of actual work. When the system logs that a user has successfully used these tools to drive a result, they get certified and have completed a base set of coursework. This makes the belt meaningful again.
How does this approach help with leadership buy-in?
Leadership speaks the language of ROI and speed. Traditional training has a long lag time between investment (paying for the class) and return (project completion). On-demand training shortens this cycle dramatically. When you can show a CEO that a training module accessed on Tuesday led to a process improvement on Wednesday, the value proposition becomes undeniable. It positions the CI function as an agile partner in solving business problems, rather than an administrative burden.
Moving from Waste to Value
As leaders in the Continuous Improvement space, we must hold ourselves to the same standards we impose on our operations. We cannot continue to run “batch and queue” training programs while demanding “one piece flow” production.
Your training program is currently a form of inventory. It is expensive, it creates waste, and it depreciates quickly. By shifting to an on-demand, just-in-time model, you not only eliminate this waste but also unlock a higher level of engagement and efficiency from your workforce.
The technology to enable this transition is here. The methodology is sound. The only question remaining is whether you are ready to stop pushing knowledge and start pulling value.
Take the next step in modernizing your CI strategy. Join us on February 11th for our deep dive into AI and Lean Knowledge Management, and discover how Impruver can help you automate your path to operational excellence.
