AI & Lean Thinking: A match made in Kaizen heaven?
When people ask me what I think about AI, I always smile.
Not because I think AI is the answer to everything (it isn’t), and not because I think it’s scary or threatening (that debate is, frankly, a waste of time). I smile because when you look at AI through a Lean lens, it becomes glaringly obvious: this is simply another tool in our kit. Like a stopwatch, like Post-its, like kanban boards, only this one is turbocharged.
So instead of asking “Is AI good or bad?” the Lean question is really: “How do we focus on getting the best value out of it?”
AI as the 5S for my messy mind
Let me start personally. AI has become my mental 5S. If you’re new to Lean, 5S is a method for workplace organisation: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise, Sustain. It clears the clutter so work flows smoothly. But honestly, my biggest cluttered workplace isn’t my office, it’s my brain.
I have ideas firing constantly, dozens of projects on the go, and questions that spiral into rabbit holes. My mental desk is usually full of sticky notes, stray paperclips, and yesterday’s teacup, figuratively speaking.
That’s where AI comes in.
Sort: When I throw 15 tangled thoughts at ChatGPT, it helps me sort them into neat piles.
Set in Order: It arranges them into categories, priorities, or even a framework.
Shine: It polishes my rough draft so I don’t spend hours tweaking grammar.
Standardise: It helps me create reusable templates, like the ones I use for Leanier’s task banks with 000s of micro-tasks.
Sustain: It keeps me on track by nudging me back to the structure I’ve chosen.
AI doesn’t think for me, but it keeps my brain decluttered so I can actually think. And that’s HUGE!
Spotting wastes in AI use (and misuse)
Now, here’s the Lean trick. We know Lean is obsessed with spotting and removing waste, TIMPWOOD: Transport, Inventory, Motion, People (unused talent), Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing, Defects. AI has the power to reduce these wastes, but it can also create them if we’re not careful.
Take Overproduction. AI can churn out 20 pages of “stuff” in seconds. Impressive, but if I don’t use it or no one reads it, that’s just digital overproduction. Waste.
Or Inventory. Data lakes hoarded “just in case.” How many companies are guilty of this already?...I am too, actually.
Or Defects. If your AI is trained on poor-quality data, or you take onboard everything it gives you without question, you’ll get biased or plain wrong outputs. Garbage in, garbage out.
But instead of wringing our hands about these risks, Lean teaches us: recognise the wastes so we can design guardrails. AI is like a powerful new machine on the factory floor. The operator (that’s us) must decide whether it creates flow or chaos.
AI as my 'Relationship FMEA'
Here’s an outside-the-box one for you. One of my favourite Lean tools is FMEA, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. It’s usually used in engineering: you look at all the possible ways something could fail, assess the risk, and put in safeguards.
Well, I use FMEA in my marriage. Yes, really. I’ve been with my husband for 35 years. One reason we’ve lasted is because I treat our relationship like a Lean system, we analyse risks before they become breakdowns.
For example:
Failure mode: One partner gradually feels invisible because real conversations get replaced by “busy talk” or silence because we are exhausted. Effect: Emotional distance creeps in, leading to resentment or disconnection over time.
Safeguard: Intentional rituals like a 10-minute evening “download” chat, a weekly walk together, or even using AI to nudge us when our calendars show too many separate commitments and not enough shared ones.
Now imagine AI helping with relationship FMEAs. It could nudge you: “Michelle, you’ve been working 12-hour days, time to schedule a date night.” Or flag patterns in your tone over text messages. Scary? Maybe. Useful? Definitely. That’s Lean and AI working together to protect value, and in this case, the value is love.
Lean & AI in everyday life
You don’t have to be a Lean practitioner to benefit. Even “unLean” friends of mine (yes, I see you 😜) can get value.
Meal planning: AI can suggest meals based on what’s already in your fridge. That’s eliminating waste of food (Inventory).
Fitness: It can design short workouts that fit your day. That’s reducing waste of Waiting (“I’ll exercise when I have time…”).
Travel: It can build itineraries that cut wasted Motion, no more zigzagging across the city.
Every time it saves you stress, steps, or seconds, it’s Lean thinking at work.
The Human Role: Value Creation
Now, the danger is thinking AI can “do Lean for us.” It can’t. AI is brilliant at crunching, predicting, and automating. But it cannot decide what’s valuable. Only humans can do that.
Lean, being value-centric, has always been about people, respecting them, unleashing their creativity, making their lives flow better. AI doesn’t replace that; it enhances it. Think of it this way:
AI can identify your bottlenecks.
Lean helps you decide which ones matter.
You bring the empathy, context, and wisdom.
AI without Lean is like a Ferrari without a driver: fast, but potentially dangerous. Lean without AI is like a cyclist with flat tyres: slower than it needs to be. Together, they’re unstoppable.
My personal productivity boost
I’ll be completely honest: AI has turbocharged my own productivity. Not in a flashy “look at me, I wrote a book in a week” way. More in the sense of raising my Lean bar. Every time I’ve challenged ChatGPT or asked it to help me refine an idea, I’ve come away sharper. It pushes me to interrogate my own assumptions, spot blind spots, and stretch further.
In Lean terms, it’s like having a sensei available 24/7. Not a perfect one (you have no idea of our “arguments”!), but a patient, infinitely knowledgeable sparring partner who never tires of my “why?” questions. That’s not just productivity. That’s Kaizen for the mind.
From 'Reactive to Predictive' Kaizen
Traditionally, Lean has been reactive: we observe, measure, and then improve. AI shifts this into predictive mode.
It can spot patterns before we notice them.
It can suggest improvements before the pain is felt.
It can close feedback loops in real-time.
Imagine a digital gemba walk that never sleeps, constantly feeding you insights. That’s where Lean and AI together can take us: from fixing yesterday’s problems to preventing tomorrow’s.
Getting the best out of AI the lean way
So, if we agree the debate about AI’s existence is a waste, what should we do instead? Here’s my Lean 2-cents:
Start with value. Don’t use AI for AI’s sake. Ask: what problem am I solving?
Spot the TIMPWOOD traps. Avoid overproduction, unnecessary data inventory, or shiny overprocessing.
Keep humans at the centre. AI can augment, but only people define value.
Treat it like Kaizen. Experiment, learn, iterate. Don’t expect perfection; expect progress.
This is how we focus on getting the best out of AI, not fear it, not glorify it, but flow with it.
AI isnt the end of Lean
For me, AI isn’t the end of Lean. It’s a new chapter. Lean thinking keeps AI honest; AI keeps Lean fresh, fast, and fun.
And maybe that’s the secret: instead of obsessing over whether AI will “replace us,” why not use it to make us more us? More thoughtful, more creative, more present, more human.
After all, the ultimate Lean goal has never been about machines or processes. It’s been about freeing people, from waste, from struggle, from frustration, so they can live better lives.
And if AI helps us do that? Well, I say: welcome to the team!
So that’s my take. I’d love to hear from you: how are you using AI in your life or work right now? Has it reduced your TIMPWOOD wastes, or has it created a few new ones? Let’s compare notes, and maybe even do an FMEA on our digital habits together.
