Overview
LGN institutes and partners have been active throughout Asia Pacific for over a decade. Currently we have institutes in three countries – Australia, China and India. We are in the process of developing working relationships with lean practitioners, universities and associations in other parts of the region such as Sri Lanka, Singapore, and the Philippines to name a few examples. We recognize there is growing interest in the region for more lean knowledge and technical support.
Our goal for advancing lean thinking and practice throughout the Asia Pacific region is to identify like-minded lean thinkers and practitioners and facilitate connections and learning opportunities among interested companies, institutions and individuals. Our approach is to provide a unified and coordinated strategy to advance lean thinking in the region through selective education and awareness activities, as well as engage in co-learning projects and partnerships.
Our development activities in Asia Pacific are led by John Shook and Jikku Mohan of the Lean Enterprise Institute.
If you or your organization would like to learn more about our activities in the region, please contact us at info@leanglobal.org or reach out to John or Jikku directly.
Leadership Team
Jikku Mohan
Product and Services Strategy Manager
jmohan@lean.orgJikku Mohan is responsible for strategy deployment and Lean Product and Process development at LEI. His professional background is in software development at Oracle. Jikku holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and he is interested in strategy, management systems, and product development.
John Y. Shook
Senior Advisor
jshook@lean.orgJohn Shook is recognized as a true sensei who enthusiastically shares his knowledge and insights within the Lean Community and with those who have not yet made the lean leap.
Shook learned about lean management while working for Toyota for nearly 11 years in Japan and the U.S., helping it transfer production, engineering, and management systems from Japan to NUMMI and subsequently to other operations around the world. While at Toyota’s headquarters, he became the company’s first American kacho (manager) in Japan. In the U.S., Shook joined Toyota’s North American engineering, research and development center in Ann Arbor, MI, as general manager of administration and planning. His last position with Toyota was as senior American manager with the Toyota Supplier Support Center in Lexington, KY, assisting North American companies implement the Toyota Production System. As co-author of Learning to See John helped introduce the world to value-stream mapping. John also co-authored Kaizen Express, a bi-lingual manual of the essential concepts and tools of the Toyota Production System. In his latest book Managing to Learn, he describes the A3 management process at the heart of lean management and leadership.
Shook is an industrial anthropologist with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee, a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii, and is a graduate of the Japan-America Institute of Management Science. He is the former director of the University of Michigan, Japan Technological Management Program, and faculty of the university’s Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering. Shook also helps companies learn lean management through the Lean Transformations Group, LLC, and the TWI Network, Inc.
Other Regional Initiatives
