Free Lean Tools
37 free, interactive tools for lean manufacturing and continuous improvement — full builders for standardized work, material flow, and problem solving, plus quick calculators for takt, OEE, kanban, and more. Everything runs in your browser: no signup, no install, and the builders export clean print-ready documents.
Standardized Work 7
Document the current best way to do the work — times, sequence, and layout.
Standardized Work Combination Table
Visualize manual, auto, walking, and waiting time against takt time. Draw timelines, add work elements, and export print-ready documents.
Work Instruction Template
Break any job into important steps, key points, and reasons — the TWI Job Instruction method — with a photo per step. Manufacturing, healthcare, café, warehouse, and home examples, plus a free print-ready Excel template.
Yamazumi Chart Builder
Stack each operator's work against takt time, spot overburden, and calculate the theoretical minimum operators. Drag elements to rebalance. Free Excel template included.
Standardized Work Chart
Map your work area layout, trace the operator walking path, mark quality checks and safety points, and record takt/cycle metrics. Export print-ready charts.
Process Capacity Sheet
Calculate machine capacity per shift, identify bottleneck processes, and document tool change impacts. The foundation for standardized work analysis.
Time Observation Sheet
Record 10 observation cycles per work element, identify the lowest repeatable time, flag outliers, and export print-ready study forms.
Takt Time Calculator
Calculate takt time from available time and customer demand. Add workstations to compare cycle times against takt with a visual bar chart — find bottlenecks and balance your line.
Material Flow & Pull 8
Size, level, and deliver material with pull systems instead of push.
Kanban Card Calculator
Size a pull-system replenishment loop from daily demand, lead time, container quantity, and safety factor. Shows cards, max WIP, and days of supply.
Kanban Card Configurator
Design and print Kanban cards for manufacturing, warehouses, offices, and healthcare. Customize production, withdrawal, supplier, signal, and two-bin cards with photos, QR codes, and your own fields.
Runner, Repeater, Stranger Sorting Sheet
Decide which parts belong on a kanban before you build one. Score each part on usage, unit cost, and lead time against thresholds you set, and the sheet sorts it to two bins, a reorder point, or MRP. Worked examples for manufacturing, healthcare, office, and warehouse.
Heijunka Box Designer
Level production by volume and mix. Compute takt and pitch from demand, then fill an interactive leveling box slot by slot — and see what a truly leveled schedule looks like before you build the board.
Milk Run Planner
Design timed material delivery routes. Sequence stops, assign standard times, and check route utilization against your delivery interval — standardized work for conveyance, not just operators.
SMED Changeover Calculator
Estimate setup reduction impact from current and target stopped time. Calculates time saved, capacity gained, and annual value.
EPEI Calculator
Calculate Every Part Every Interval for mixed-model production. Estimate run time, setup capacity, and lot quantities by part family.
Mapping & Analysis 3
See the whole process before you improve any part of it.
Spaghetti Diagram
Trace the path a worker, patient, material, or document travels through a space. Measure total distance, count the crossings that reveal motion waste, and prove a layout redesign. Manufacturing, restaurant, healthcare, construction, and office examples, a watch-and-trace practice mode, and a free print-and-walk Excel template.
SIPOC Diagram
Map a process at a glance across Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers — the standard Define-phase tool for scoping a Six Sigma or improvement project. Editable columns, process boundaries, manufacturing and healthcare examples, and print-ready export.
Problem Solving & Quality 7
Find root causes and measure whether the process can hold spec.
5 Whys Root Cause Analysis
Build a 5 Whys chain for your own problem, then get an instant read on your reasoning — broken causal links, rungs that stop at blame, and whether your root cause is something you can actually change. Free Excel template included.
8D Report Builder
Build a customer-ready 8D corrective action report across all nine disciplines, with the two root causes side by side — why the defect was made and why it escaped — plus containment scope, read-across, and a print-ready export. Free Excel template included.
A3 Problem-Solving Builder
Build a complete one-page A3 with guided sections — background through follow-up. Print at true A3 landscape. Free Excel template included.
Fishbone Diagram
Ishikawa diagram for root cause analysis. Map causes across Man, Machine, Material, Method, Measurement, and Environment, then drill down with 5-Whys to reach root causes.
Pareto Chart
Sort problem categories by frequency and overlay a cumulative line to find the "vital few" causes behind most of the effect. Set an 80/20 focus threshold, edit your own counts, and export print-ready charts.
Toyota Kata Storyboard
Run the improvement kata with a free browser storyboard. Track target conditions, plot measure trends, and record PDCA steps. Download the free Excel template that opens in Google Sheets.
Coaching Kata Cards
Conduct daily coaching cycles with printable reference cards. Access the five coaching questions, reflection routine, and improvement steps. Download the free double-sided PDF layout for US Letter and A4.
Six Sigma 5
Measure, analyze, and control variation — the statistical core of DMAIC.
Process Capability (Cp, Cpk)
Calculate Cp and Cpk from spec limits and process statistics — or paste raw data. Get estimated PPM out of spec, the sigma level, and a normal capability curve with your spec limits and out-of-spec tails shaded. Capable, marginal, and not-capable industry examples.
FMEA Builder
Score failure modes for Severity, Occurrence, and Detection with automatic RPN ranking, action tracking, and before/after re-scoring. Manufacturing and healthcare examples, plus a free Excel template.
Gage R&R Calculator
Run a crossed gage R&R study — enter part, operator, and trial measurements to get %GRR, repeatability vs reproducibility, and ndc with a clear verdict. AIAG average-and-range method.
Sigma Level & DPMO Calculator
Convert any defect rate into a Six Sigma level, DPMO, and yield. Enter units, opportunities per unit, and defects — with the 1.5σ shift, a color sigma gauge, a full conversion table, and worked examples across manufacturing, healthcare, software, and financial services.
Daily Management 5
Run the day: track performance hour by hour and keep standards alive.
Hour-by-Hour Board
Track plan vs actual output every hour at the line. Enter takt to auto-calculate the hourly plan, log actuals and reason codes, and watch a cumulative pace line and a live loss Pareto build. Print your own production analysis board.
Leader Standard Work Builder
Organize leader routines across three cadences, view daily fractions for weekly or monthly items, and protect remaining shift time. Includes a printout layout and an Excel template.
OEE Calculator
Calculate Overall Equipment Effectiveness from availability, performance, and quality inputs. Identify your biggest loss category and get actionable improvement guidance.
5S Audit
Score your workplace across Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. 25-item manufacturing checklist with radar chart, action items for low-scoring areas, and print-ready export.
Training Matrix Builder
Map team skills with Toyota-style quadrant circles. Spot coverage gaps and single-point risks, and plan cross-training. Free Excel template included.
Simulations 2
Run experiments you cannot run on a real line — and watch lean principles prove themselves.
Pull System Simulator
Follow two-card Kanban replenishment between fabrication, a supermarket and assembly. Change card quantities, collection intervals and production times, then compare inventory and demand fulfilled on time.
One-Piece Flow Simulator
Watch batch production race one-piece flow on two identical lines. Live WIP and lead-time counters, adjustable batch size, and a hidden-defect round that shows why small batches catch problems sooner. Factory, café, and office scenarios — the classic penny game, in your browser.