Professional Standards & Ethics Flashcards
7 cards from real LMC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Professional Standards & Ethics flashcards as text
A lean practitioner is pressured by a plant manager to report a 20% efficiency gain before the quarterly review, but actual gains are only 12%. The practitioner should:
Answer: Report 12% and document the pressure received
Accurate reporting is a non-negotiable professional standard; documenting the pressure protects the practitioner and creates an audit trail.
The concept of 'genchi genbutsu' (go and see) has an ethical dimension because it:
Answer: Prevents managers from making decisions based on assumptions rather than facts
Going to the actual place to verify facts directly is an ethical stance against decision-making based on hearsay, bias, or unverified data.
Which scenario represents a conflict of interest that a lean consultant must disclose?
Answer: Recommending a specific software vendor in which the consultant holds equity
Financial interest in a recommended vendor creates a conflict of interest that must be disclosed so the client can make an informed decision.
A lean team identifies that a proposed waste-reduction change will eliminate 15 jobs. Ethical lean management requires the team to:
Answer: Communicate transparently with affected employees and work with HR on transition plans
Ethical lean practice balances operational improvement with genuine respect for workers, which includes honest communication and active support for affected employees.
In continuous improvement, 'yokoten' (horizontal deployment of best practices) becomes an ethical issue when:
Answer: A practice is copied to other sites without verifying its safety and applicability
Deploying a practice without validating its safety and suitability for the new context can harm workers and operations, making due diligence an ethical obligation.
A lean practitioner who knowingly uses copyrighted training materials without a license is violating which professional standard?
Answer: Intellectual property and legal compliance standards
Professional ethics include compliance with intellectual property law; using unlicensed materials violates both legal and ethical standards.
Which action by a lean leader best exemplifies ethical accountability after a failed improvement project?
Answer: Conducting a blameless post-mortem and sharing lessons learned organization-wide
A blameless post-mortem followed by transparent knowledge sharing demonstrates accountability, a core ethical value in lean leadership.