The lean tools directory · 2026
Find lean tools that earn their place in your stack.
Independent guides, sourced tool profiles and free calculators for lean manufacturing, continuous improvement and lean startup teams. Skip the bloat and pick what fits how you work.
How we publish
Every profile is researched from public sources, and nobody can pay for placement. See the methodology →
- categories
- 28categories
- lean practices
- 7lean practices
- terms explained
- 78terms explained
- paid placements
- 0paid placements
Tool directory
Start from the practice you run
28 categories across 7 lean practices. Each one comes with a buying guide, the questions to ask vendors and the techniques it supports.
Lean Manufacturing Software
OEE, andon, TPM, work instructions and e-kanban for factories.
Continuous Improvement Software
Kaizen, daily management, audits and root cause tools.
Lean Six Sigma Tools
SPC, statistics, value stream mapping, CAPA and FMEA software.
Lean-Agile Software
Kanban, flow metrics, portfolio and retrospective tools.
Strategy Deployment Software
Hoshin kanri and OKR tools that cascade goals.
Lean Startup Tools
MVP, A/B testing, customer discovery and lean canvas tools.
Lean Tools
Lean methods explained, plus templates, training and books.
New every day
Recently added tools
We research and publish new tools in small daily batches. 171 tools are live so far.
Tractian
Price on request
CMMS bundled with wireless vibration and temperature sensors to detect failures early and schedule maintenance.
Smartsheet Lean Templates
Free
Free collections of downloadable lean and Six Sigma templates, including A3, DMAIC, kaizen report, kanban card and process map forms in Office and PDF formats.
PATLITE WD System
Price on request
Wireless transmitters on PATLITE signal towers send light and buzzer status to a WD PRO receiver, which shows an andon display and logs data to CSV.
Guidewheel
Price on request
Clip-on current sensors feed a FactoryOps platform that measures uptime, OEE and downtime on any machine regardless of age.
Lean Enterprise Institute
Free plan + paid
Nonprofit offering lean e-learning courses, workshops, books and the Lean Lexicon via its online learning portal.
LEAN6 Toolkit (Leanmap)
Price on request
Low-cost set of Excel worksheets for project charters, FMEA, QFD, control charts, DOE and gauge R&R.
Flagsmith
Free
Open-source feature-flag and remote-config service with segments and A/B test support.
Bolt.new
Free plan + paid
StackBlitz's in-browser AI agent that writes, runs and deploys web apps from prompts for quick prototypes.
What is a lean stack?
The smallest set of tools that keeps improvement moving
Teams often end up with tools added one at a time. A lean stack is the opposite: one tool per practice, each earning its place by supporting the loop every lean team runs. See the work, measure the flow, solve the problem, standardize the fix, then improve again.
Paper and whiteboards are often the right first step. Software comes in when the manual version stops scaling.
Read the guide to building a lean stack- 01See the work
- 02Measure flow
- 03Solve problems
- 04Standardize
- 05Improve again
Stack blueprints
A starting stack for every kind of team
A common order for adding layers. Start at the top and add the next layer only when you need it.
Manufacturing plant
See the line, protect uptime and solve problems at the source.
Software and IT team
Limit WIP, measure flow and forecast without guesswork.
Early-stage startup
Test the riskiest assumption first, then build what customers pull.
CI program office
Align strategy, run the project pipeline and prove results.
Why trust our shortlists
Sourced facts. No paid placement.
Each profile says where its facts come from and when they were checked. No tool has a lean-stack score yet, and none can pay for a better position.
What every profile shows
- Sources. Every fact links to the page it came from, with the date it was checked.
- Pricing. Published prices and plans, or a plain note that pricing is on request.
- Ratings. G2 and Capterra ratings as linked, dated numbers. Never copied review text or an average.
- Fit. Strengths, limitations and who it suits, from the vendor's own documentation.
“Lean is about removing waste. A tool that nobody uses is waste with a subscription fee.”
Independent by design
No tool can pay for a place on a list or a kinder write-up. There is no paid placement.
Sourced, not scored yet
Every profile is built from public sources that are linked and dated. We have not scored any tool.
Lean, not long
We list the tools that fit a lean practice, with their sources. Shortlists are published in batches after a criteria check.
Free lean calculators
Run the numbers in seconds
OEE Calculator
Availability, performance and quality from one shift's numbers.
Open calculatorTakt Time Calculator
The pace your process must keep to meet customer demand.
Open calculatorLittle's Law Calculator
See how work in progress drives cycle time.
Open calculatorSix Sigma Calculator
Sigma level, DPMO and yield from your defect counts.
Open calculatorProcess Capability Calculator
Cp, Cpk and the share outside spec from your limits, mean and standard deviation.
Open calculatorControl Chart Calculator
Center line, control limits and out-of-control points from your own readings.
Open calculatorFlow Efficiency Calculator
The share of lead time spent on real work, step by step.
Open calculatorKanban Calculator
How many kanban cards or bins a pull loop needs.
Open calculatorGuides
Practical lean guides
October 31, 2026 · 9 min read
Cohort analysis: how to build and read a retention table
Cohort analysis explained: cohort types, starting events, retention and churn metrics, how to read a retention table, a spreadsheet method and mistakes.
October 30, 2026 · 9 min read
A/B testing: how to plan, run and read an experiment
A/B testing explained: hypotheses, primary and guardrail metrics, sample size, test types, reading results, a QA checklist and common mistakes.
October 30, 2026 · 8 min read
Actionable metrics vs vanity metrics, with examples
Actionable metrics explained: how they differ from vanity metrics, the three A's, examples by team, flow metrics for predictability and a checklist.
Lean glossary
Lean terms in plain language
From andon to yamazumi: 78 techniques explained in a few sentences, each linked to the tools that support it.
Open the glossary- 5 Whys
- 5S
- 8D
- A/B testing
- A3
- Actionable metrics
- Andon
- Bottleneck
- Build-measure-learn
- Catchball
- Cohort analysis
- Control chart
- Cumulative flow diagram
- Customer discovery
- Cycle time
- DMAIC
- DPMO
- Fishbone diagram
- FMEA
- Gemba
- Genchi genbutsu
- Hansei
- Heijunka
- Hoshin Kanri
- Jidoka
- Jobs to be done
- Just in time
- Kaikaku
- Kaizen
- Kamishibai board
- Kanban
- Layered process audit
- Lead time
- Leader standard work
- Lean
- Lean Canvas
- Line balancing
- Little's Law
- Minimum viable product
- Monte Carlo forecasting
- Muda
- Mura
- Muri
- Nemawashi
- Obeya
- OEE
- OKR
- One-piece flow
- PDCA
- Pivot
- Poka-yoke
- Process capability
- Pull system
- SIPOC
- Six big losses
- Six Sigma
- SMED
- Smoke test
- Spaghetti diagram
- SPC
- SQDC metrics
- Standard work
- Supermarket
- Takt time
- Throughput
- Tiered meetings
- Toyota Production System
- TPM
- TWI
- Validated learning
- Value stream
- Value stream mapping
- Value-added time
- Visual management
- WIP limits
- X-matrix
- Yamazumi chart
- Yokoten
A faster way to choose
How to pick lean software without losing a quarter to demos
The usual way to buy improvement software is to collect vendor names, book demos and compare feature lists. It takes weeks, every demo looks good, and the options become hard to compare. A lean approach starts from the problem and only then looks at products.
Name the practice you need to support and the pain the manual version is causing. Then shortlist two or three tools that fit that practice, and test them with real work from one team for a couple of weeks. Decide in advance what success looks like, such as shorter huddles, fewer overdue actions or faster cycle times, and let the pilot decide.
lean-stack exists to make the shortlisting part fast. Every category page explains what matters, what to avoid and what to ask vendors. Tools are added in batches after a criteria check, and every fact links to its source, so you can check what you read.
Your two-week tool pilot
- 1Name the practice and the pain
- 2Shortlist two or three tools that fit
- 3Agree what success looks like
- 4Pilot with one team on real work
- 5Decide, standardize, then scale
FAQ
Questions, answered
What is lean software?
Do I need software to practice lean?
How does lean-stack choose and order tools?
Is lean-stack free to use?
Can I suggest a tool?
For vendors
Built a lean tool?
Submit it for review. Every tool is checked against our listing criteria and researched from public sources. Approved tools join their category in the next published batch.