What is a lean maturity assessment?

A lean maturity assessment scores how far a site's lean system has developed, across areas such as leadership, daily management, standard work, problem solving and flow. It shows which parts are strong and which are holding the rest back, so you know where to work next. Repeated every six to twelve months, it shows whether the system is improving.

How is this assessment scored?

Each of the 24 statements is scored from 1 (not in place) to 5 (everywhere, sustained). A dimension's score is the average of its three statements, and the overall score is the average of all 24, so every dimension counts the same. Scores are rounded to one decimal and read against four bands: Starting below 2.0, Developing from 2.0, Established from 3.0 and Sustaining from 4.0. It is an example model made for this page, not a certified standard.

How is this different from a lean readiness assessment?

A readiness assessment is done before a lean rollout, to check the foundation lean depends on, such as leadership commitment and stable processes. This maturity assessment is for a site that already runs lean practices and wants to see how far each part has come. The free lean readiness assessment template on this site covers the first case.

Who should fill in the assessment?

Several people on their own: leaders, supervisors, operators and support staff, including people who are not enthusiasts. Compare their results before discussing them. Where scores differ a lot, go and look at the floor together before deciding which view is right.

Is there a version for a whole team to score on paper?

Yes. The operational excellence assessment template and the TQM self-assessment template on this site let several people score the same statements and work out averages and the spread between them in Excel.

Are my answers stored?

No. The assessment is scored in your browser and nothing is saved unless you choose to email yourself the results. The link to your results carries your answers as digits in the address, so anyone you send it to sees the same scores.

Free tool

Lean maturity self-assessment

A lean maturity self-assessment scores how far your lean system has come. Rate 24 statements from 1 to 5 across eight dimensions: leadership, daily management, standard work, problem solving, CI culture, flow, quality and people. You get a score and a band for each dimension and overall, the dimension to start with, and next steps that link to free templates and guides.

Dimension scoreequalsSum of its 3 answers divided by 3

Overall scoreequalsSum of all 24 answers divided by 24

Each answer is 1 to 5. Bands: Starting 1.0 to 1.9, Developing 2.0 to 2.9, Established 3.0 to 3.9, Sustaining 4.0 to 5.0. This is an example scoring model made for this page, not a certified standard or a validated instrument.

How the scoring works

Score what you see, then start with the lowest dimension

Score the site as it is today. A practice that runs in one model area but not elsewhere is a 2 or a 3, not a 5. A 5 means it runs everywhere and survives a change of supervisor or a busy month.

Every dimension counts the same. Each has three statements, so the overall score is simply the average of all 24 answers. There are no hidden weights.

Start with the lowest dimension. Lean practices lean on each other: problem solving is hard without standards to compare against, and daily meetings fade without leaders who show up. The next steps begin with the dimension that scores lowest.

Ask more than one person. Have leaders, supervisors and operators score on their own and compare. For a pre-rollout check instead, use the lean readiness assessment template.

Worked example

Illustrative numbers, not a benchmark

A components plant that has run lean for two years scores itself. Daily huddles and 5S are in place on most lines, but standards are out of date and problems keep coming back.

1Leadership 4, 3, 3 = 10 ÷ 3 = 3.3, Established. Daily management 4, 4, 3 = 3.7, Established.
2Standard work 2, 2, 3 = 2.3, Developing. Problem solving 2, 3, 2 = 2.3, Developing.
3CI culture 3, 3, 2 = 2.7. Flow 3, 2, 3 = 2.7. Quality 3, 3, 3 = 3.0. People 3, 2, 2 = 2.3.
4Overall = 67 ÷ 24 = 2.8, Developing.
5Lowest: standard work, problem solving and people, all at 2.3.

Overall 2.8, Developing. The plant decided to rewrite the standards on its two main lines with the operators and add weekly standard work checks by team leaders before pushing more problem solving training, since root causes are hard to find when nobody agrees what normal looks like.

The eight dimensions

What each dimension covers. The statements are short on purpose: score them with an example from the floor in mind.

Leadership: How leaders set direction, show up at the gemba and coach.
Daily management: How teams review performance every day and get problems answered.
Standard work: Whether the best known way of doing each job is written, followed and kept current.
Problem solving: Whether problems are solved at the root, with facts from where they happen.
CI culture: Whether everyone improves their own work, and whether improvements are noticed and shared.
Flow: How smoothly work moves at the pace of demand, with little waiting and stock.
Quality: Whether quality is built in at each step instead of inspected in at the end.
People: Whether people have the skills, cover and time to do the work and improve it.

Embed this assessment

Teaching this, or writing about it? Paste this code into your site, course page or intranet and the assessment works right there. It is free, with no sign-up.

<iframe src="https://www.theleansuite.com/tools/lean-maturity-assessment/embed" title="Lean maturity self-assessment by LeanSuite" width="100%" height="5500" style="border:0;max-width:1000px" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write"></iframe>
<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif"><a href="https://www.theleansuite.com/tools/lean-maturity-assessment">Lean maturity self-assessment</a> by LeanSuite</p>

How LeanSuite helps

In LeanSuite you can build an assessment like this in Lean Creator with rating questions, schedule it in Daily Standard Work with a repeat rule, and set rules on the answers that raise actions automatically.

See Audit Management

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