Lean Jax: Where organizations learn and improve together through lean thinking and practice

A collaborative community of practice serving organizations across Northeast Florida since 2003.

Learning and Improving Together Through Lean Thinking and Practice.

Every organization faces problems. That is not a weakness. It is reality.

The question is not whether problems exist. It is whether your organization can develop a proven way to solve them one by one and embed that capability across the enterprise.

Many leaders already know lean thinking offers a path forward. They have read about Toyota, attended conferences, and perhaps run improvement events. They have seen results. But sustaining those results, and building a real problem-solving culture across the organization, proves harder than expected, especially when trying to do it alone.

The gap is not commitment or effort. It is the challenge of developing improvement as a daily practice while running operations, without a structured community for learning and support.

Lean Jax was created to close that gap.

Who We Are

The Jacksonville Lean Consortium (Lean Jax) is a collaborative community of practice for organizations committed to lean transformation. Since 2003, we have worked with organizations across Northeast Florida in virtually every industry.

What connects our members is not industry or size, but a shared conviction: sustainable improvement takes more than tools or initiatives. It takes developing capable people, building thriving systems, and learning together.

We provide structured learning at the gemba, fresh perspective from peers across industries, and a community solving problems together.

How We Work

This happens through practice at the gemba. We treat lean as an enterprise-wide management system, not a set of tools deployed only when problems appear. The focus is on developing people who can see problems clearly, think systematically, and improve work in real operating conditions.

Learning occurs where value is created and problems are visible. Members regularly host and participate in Lean Leader site visits. These visits provide opportunities to observe work as it is actually performed, study how processes flow, and discuss constraints and tradeoffs in context.

Visiting members gain perspective on how others approach similar challenges. Host organizations benefit from outside eyes that ask questions, offer insight, and collaborate around shared problems.

This exchange matters because building improvement capability is difficult in isolation. Organizations working alone often solve the same problems repeatedly, with limited perspective beyond their own walls. Learning together shortens those cycles. Members test their thinking with peers, compare approaches, and reflect on what actually works.

Our goal is to help our members develop internal problem-solving capability: the ability to see, respond, and improve without being told what to do next. When people learn to frame problems clearly, test ideas, and reflect on results, improvement becomes part of how work gets done.

We support this development through structured education, peer learning sessions, practical problem-solving cycles, and access to resources that reinforce consistent thinking across all levels of our member organizations..

Membership Overview

Lean Jax membership is structured to support organizations at different stages of their lean journey. Our four membership tiers range from foundational access to comprehensive transformation support, allowing organizations to engage at a level that matches their needs, capacity, and readiness.

Membership is designed to build capability over time. Depending on level, organizations may participate in lean fundamentals education, lean leader meetings, webinars, leadership development workshops, facilitated problem solving, value stream mapping, kaizen events, and embedded consulting support. Each tier deepens the opportunity for learning, practice, and reflection in real operating conditions.

The structure reflects both organizational maturity and commitment. Higher tiers provide deeper engagement, more intensive support, and direct access to experienced practitioners who can help accelerate learning and strengthen internal capability across the enterprise.

For complete details on membership levels, pricing, benefits, and expectations, download the 2026 Lean Jax Value Proposition below to see how organizations engage at each stage.