The Lean Smarts Academy

Make training your organization in lean easy.

Let’s guess… you’re here for at least one of three reasons:

You’re convinced that people have enormous value and feel a duty to help them realize their full potential.
You’re tired of lean training that is complicated, boring, or wildly expensive.
Or, you’re overwhelmed by the work required to find, develop, or create your own in-house lean training program.

If so, you’re in the right place!

We built the Academy to make lean fun, simple, and unlock the full potential of every person.

The Academy will help you…

Engage frontline employees

Deliver training to your employees that is fun, simple, bite-sized, and focused on the essential lean skills that matter most.

Help them to “get it” and participate effectively in your transformation and improvement efforts.

Teach every associate to master kaizen!

While it’s true that our videos are down-to-earth and fun, the Lean Smarts Academy is dedicated to helping you craft a high-engagement frontline culture that does three things very effectively. They are the primary activities of “kaizen” and are backed by decades of success:

Eliminate waste

Teach every associate how to practically and powerfully improve a process by eliminating the seven wastes of lean.

Practice good housekeeping

Establish a culture of discipline, productivity, and problem discovery through the daily practice of 5S methodologies.

Standardize everything

Sustain your gains and communicate change effectively through the practice of standardization.

Develop in-house experts

There’s no way around it… you must develop in-house experts if you’re going to have long-term success.

With the Lean Smarts Academy you can transform any manager, leader, or specialist into a lean pro!

Make them kaizen masters

Learn 5S, waste elimination, standardization
Connect improvement efforts to quality, cost, and delivery
Drive scientific thinking and action

Discover fundamental lean tools

Pull systems/kanban
Heijunka/leveled production
Takt time
Continuous flow
Problem solving
Jidoka
and more!

Transform your organization

Remove training barriers that prevent you from getting started now. Spend your time creating change that matters!
Access training, virtual tours, and guides for troubleshooting your learn journey.
Make your future sustainable with an on-demand library of people-developing resources.

How To Use The Academy

In your daily standup meeting

Play videos on-demand in your standup meeting one or two times a week. Videos are 3-7 minutes long and perfect for bite-sized education and on-going reinforcement. Do this consistently over time and build a raging lean culture!

In scheduled training events

Add some excitement to your scheduled training events! Either pick and choose which videos to use, or adopt each course as a start-to-finish training curriculum.

In kaizen events

Prepare all participants in a kaizen event via pre-event training focused on the topics of your choosing. Many kaizen events make use of 5S, waste elimination, standardization, and kaizen best-practices, which are all included in the Academy!

For new hire training

Jumpstart every new hire’s lean comprehension by educating them with my training curriculum. Help them acclimate to your lean culture quickly and effectively!

Enjoy training that doesn’t suck!

We know (and you know) from years in industry that poor-quality training does little to inspire and motivate everyday associates.

You’ll be delighted to find our videos to be simple, clear, fun, and very high quality.

View all Courses

Customer Testimonials

“I have enjoyed and greatly benefited from being a Lean Smarts Academy customer for the past three years. Daniel Crawford has developed an outstanding program in presenting Lean concepts clearly and concisedly. He demonstrates real-world examples of continuous improvement that I can implement immediately. I strongly endorse anyone to take the Lean Smart journey with Daniel.”

John Kean Kean’s Detroit Yatch Harbor

“It’s not easy putting things across simply unless you truly understand them and Daniel has done just that. He has created a lean masterclass that everyone can follow, and everyone can learn from, beginner and experienced lean practitioner.”

John Watt Many Caps Consulting

“I have found Daniel to be able to make things quite simple that most others over complicate. Thank you so much!”

Ricky ScarboroughScarborough Industries

“Whether your organization is new to lean or simply has a need to freshen-up on lean principles, Lean Smarts Academy is a game-changer in working smarter, not harder. The videos and resources are clear, concise and to-the-point for everyone, from front-line employees to management. The Customer Service is second to none. The newsletters provide great tips and re-enforcement for incorporating and maintaining ‘lean smarts’ into your organization for years to come.”

Genevieve IversA&P Technology

“Lean Smarts is a terrific resource for any business, large or small. These resources can train in small bites and Daniel’s love of measuring results ensures that you will reach your milestones if you are committed to lean. I have so much to learn, but am so excited to be on this Lean Journey with my team, customers and vendors—all will benefit!”

Kevin TruanQA Group

“Dear Daniel, I am writing to let you know how happy I am with purchasing your Lean Smarts training videos. Finally someone took the Lean processes and made it simple and easy to understand. I am looking forward to this new year implementing Lean in my small company.”

Scott AlvarezQualident Dental Lab

Scaleable Membership Options

Whether you just want simple access to the Video Library, or to enroll up to 250 employees in our Learning System (that we host), or to integrate all videos into your own system via LMS Integration, we’ve got plan for you!

Please Select Your Plan

Monthly

Yearly (save 15%)

Video Library

$95.00 per month

Community Access
All Courses
1 Master Account

Video Library

$995.00 per year

Community Access
All Courses
1 Master Account

Learning System

$195.00 per month

Community Access
All Courses
1 Master Account
250 User Accounts

Learning System

$1995.00 per year

Community Access
All Courses
1 Master Account
250 User Accounts

Custom LMS

N/A

Community Access
All Courses
1 Master Account
Custom LMS integration

Custom LMS

$2995.00 per year

Community Access
All Courses
1 Master Account
Custom LMS integration

Learn more about our LMS options

Not sure which membership is right for you?

Answer these few questions and we’ll tell you exactly what will work best!

How do you want to deliver training?
- In groups of employees
- To individual employees via a computer/device
- Both
The Video Library membership is for you!

Since you need to be ability to deliver training in groups, you should do well with one login account that is shared among facilitators to access and deliver training. Note: if you want to have multiple login accounts (for example, one for each facilitator), you should consider the Learning System membership.
Do you need to track the progress of individual employees or want each employee to have a unique login account?
- Yes
- No
Then the Video Library membership is for you!

If you don’t need to track progress of individual employees or have a unique account for each employee, you can save money by sharing the one account available to you via the Video Library membership. Your employees will share the same login account to access training. Note: to take quizzes, your employees will need to “retake” a quiz, since a previous employee may have already taken it.
Do you have your own LMS that you want to integrate with?
- Yes
- No
Then the Learning System membership is for you!

This membership gives you the ability to add up to 250 sub-accounts to the Lean Smarts Academy website. Simple reports are included to help you monitor and track the progress of individual users as they complete courses and take quizzes. You can also add or remove sub-accounts on your own with ease.
Then the Custom LMS membership is for you!

This membership allows you to integrate all Academy videos into your own learning management system (LMS). All you need is a modern LMS with the ability to embed Vimeo.com videos (most of them do this very easily). If you want to instead integrate training via SCORM files, contact us to learn more.
Still unsure?

Tell us a little more below and our team will get back to you soon!
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Frequently Asked Questions

How many people can use a single online subscription?

All learning platforms at Lean Smarts license you to train unlimited people, permitting that they are 1) members of your organization and 2) located geographically in the same country.

The primary difference between subscription plans is the number of user accounts. The “Video Library” plan comes with one login account to the Lean Smarts Academy site. This login account is often shared among multiple people within an organization to access training. The “Learning System” plan adds 250 additional user accounts so that a unique login can be created for each employee. The “Custom LMS Integration” plan let’s you add videos to your own training software, allowing you to control user access on your own terms.

How many login accounts does my subscription come with?

The “Video Library” subscription comes with only one login account that you may share among multiple employees at your organization. To get more login accounts you need the “Learning System” subscription which adds 250 sub-accounts to your subscription master account. Alternatively, the “LMS Integration” plan places account quantity and access into your own hands via your external learning management system.

Can I change to a different subscription plan at a later time?

Yes! You can upgrade or downgrade your subscription plan at any time. Furthermore, your first payment after changing your plan is automatically prorated.

Can I upgrade to an annual plan down the road?

Absolutely. You can upgrade from a monthly to an annual plan at any time with just a few clicks inside your account.

How do I add or remove sub-accounts to a “Learning System” subscription plan?

The sub-accounts are managed by you via the master account login (the account used when purchasing your subscription). At any time you can add or remove sub-accounts. A maximum of 250 sub-accounts are permitted with the “Learning System” subscription. If more sub-accounts are needed please contact us to share more.

What is the integration process for the LMS Integration plan?

There are three integration components to the Lean Smarts Academy: videos, quizzes, and supporting documentation.

Integrating Videos:
Watch a demonstration of the integration process here. The first step is to provide us the domain of your LMS. This is something like https://training.yourcompany.com or https://yourcompany.litmos.com. We’ll email you at sign up requesting this information. Within three business days of receiving your domain we will setup permissions with our video host provider (vimeo.com) enabling you to play videos on your training site. After permissions are set, you will be able to add videos to your LMS using our master video listing—a spreadsheet resource contained inside the Academy.

Adding Quizzes:
Quiz questions and answers are contained within individual Facilitator Guide PDF documents which are created per video. We recommend that you copy/paste the quiz questions into your LMS.

Supporting Documentation:
Some training modules contain downloadable resources such as Word documents, excel spreadsheets, or PDFs. You may want to add these to your LMS modules as supporting materials or downloadable resources.

Can I test integrating a video in our LMS before purchasing the LMS Integration plan?

Sure! The following videos have no integration restrictions and can be added (embedded) to a module/page in your LMS.

Introduction to the 7 Wastes of Lean
https://vimeo.com/404014052

Remember: this video cannot be viewed directly at vimeo.com but once it is embedded in your LMS it will play seamlessly.

If you encounter difficulty integrating the video contact us and we’ll troubleshoot the problem with you.

What if I don’t enjoy my subscription to the Lean Smarts Academy?

We know you will LOVE the Lean Smarts Academy; however, if for whatever reason you’re not 100% satisfied in any way we have a 30-day money back guarantee (no questions asked). We want you to succeed, and know that if you become a member of the Lean Smarts Academy and apply what you learn, you will see amazing results!

What happens if I decide to cancel my membership?

If you do decide to cancel obviously we’ll be very sad, but if you’re intent on leaving then you’ll be able to do so with just a few clicks of a mouse.