Apilean

What Apilean does

Apilean is a privately-held Lean management consulting and training firm founded in 2013 in Paris by Carlos Cardoso, operating through a French SASU structure (share capital €40,000, SIREN 797855947) and wholly-owned subsidiaries in Switzerland (Apilean Suisse, Geneva, operational since March 2023) and Portugal (announced 2024, Porto). The firm serves industrial and service-sector enterprises across pharmaceutical (Sanofi, Pfizer, UCB, Corden Pharma, Carbogen AMCIS), automotive (Renault, Michelin, Gestamp, Forvia), aerospace and defense (Airbus, Thales, Safran, Framatome, Orano), luxury manufacturing (Chanel, Cartier, Patek Philippe, Piaget), and nuclear/regulated sectors, with 50+ named enterprise clients including Saint-Gobain, Bobst, Dassault Systèmes, La Banque Postale, Canal+, Michelin, and EDF. Headquarters are at 78 rue Truffaut, 17th arrondissement, Paris, with a second regional hub in Geneva (Carouge Apilab) and a Portuguese office.

Core offerings combine on-site consulting engagements (half-day workshops through multi-year transformation programs), certified Lean training (White Belt through Black Belt, with Green Belt registered under France Compétences RS7114), soft-skills and coaching services, and a benchmarking-club community. The proprietary "Lean for People" methodology integrates operational tools (VSM, Kaizen, 5S, SMED, TPM, QRQC) with human-development content and a "Happy Attitude" brand culture. Supporting assets include the Lean Observe mobile application (workplace observation, multi-language, customizable branding), two Apilab physical training centers equipped with production simulation lines, and an annual Baromètre Lean thought-leadership publication (6th edition in 2025). Certifications include Qualiopi (training quality), France Compétences RS7114 (Green Belt credentialing), and PFA habilitation for the French automotive supply chain.

Revenue is generated through professional services day rates for consulting and coaching, per-participant fees for inter-company training (e.g., €1,990 HT per Green Belt participant), custom-quoted intra-company on-site programs, and recurring Club Lean annual memberships across five regional clubs (France, Suisse, Normandie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Office). Distribution is exclusively direct — no resellers or marketplace channels — with customer acquisition driven by community events, masterclasses, Lean Drinks meetups, the monthly Apiletter newsletter, blog content, and event participation (GIFEN PEON, PFA, Lean Japan Tour). GTM combines enterprise field sales with event- and community-led demand generation, targeting enterprise and mid-market industrial buyers primarily in France, Switzerland, Portugal, and select international engagements.

Name

Apilean

Legal name

Société Apilean

Website

https://www.apilean.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Apilean is a lean management consulting firm for the pharmaceutical and automotive industries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Management Consulting

NAICS

Other Management Consulting Services (541618), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Lean Six Sigma for Services & Transactional Processes (EDABAKAC)

Keywords

• Lean management consulting
• Operational excellence training
• Lean certification programs
• Continuous improvement services
• Industrial performance consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Consulting and professional services: On-site consulting engagements ranging from half-day meeting facilitation to multi-month transformation programs. Billed at day rates with travel expenses included. Core revenue driver covering operational performance improvement, organizational transformation, and coaching.
2. Training and pedagogical engineering: Certified Lean training programs (White Belt to Black Belt) delivered as inter-company sessions or intra-company on-site. Revenue recognized per participant or per program. Includes certification exam fees.
3. Club Lean and benchmarking membership: Annual club membership fees for access to benchmarking visits, strategic days, and peer exchange communities across multiple regional clubs in France, Switzerland, and Portugal.
4. Coaching and empowerment: Individual and group coaching engagements for managers and teams, supporting leadership development and Lean mindset adoption.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

Apilean is a Lean management consulting and training firm that helps industrial and service organizations improve operational performance by combining Lean methodologies (VSM, Kaizen, 5S, SMED, TPM, QRQC) with human development ("Lean for People"). It sells on-site consulting engagements ranging from half-day workshops to multi-year transformation programs, certified training from White Belt through Black Belt, soft-skills coaching, and access to regional benchmarking clubs (Club Lean France, Suisse, Normandie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Office). Supporting assets include the Lean Observe mobile app for gemba walks and the Apilab simulation training centers in Paris and Geneva.

Product overview

Apilean is a Lean Management consulting and training company offering a comprehensive portfolio centered on the 'Lean for People' methodology. The core offerings include consulting services for operational performance improvement, certification-based training programs spanning White Belt through Black Belt levels, and Soft Skills development. The company operates dedicated training facilities (Apilab in Paris and Geneva), facilitates regional benchmarking clubs (Club Lean France, Normandie, Rhône-Alpes, Office, Suisse), and offers innovative formats including a Lean Escape Game and Lean Practice Labs. Apilean also provides a mobile application called Lean Observe for workplace observations. The company is certified Qualiopi and its Green Belt programs are registered with France Compétences (RS 7114).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Lean Observe: Mobile application for workplace observation, Gemba walks, and continuous improvement tracking, available in multiple languages.

Products and services

• Lean Management Consulting On-site advisory services helping organizations improve operational performance through Lean methodologies (VSM, Kaizen, 5S, SMED, TPM, QRQC), including process optimization, continuous improvement, organizational transformation, and team empowerment. Engagements range from half-day workshops to multi-year transformation programs for enterprise industrial clients.
• Certified Lean Training Programs (White Belt through Black Belt) Professional training programs covering Lean methodology at all certification levels (White Belt, Yellow Belt, Green Belt Lean Manufacturing, Green Belt Lean Office, Black Belt, plus Leandership). Delivered as public inter-company sessions or on-site intra-company programs; Green Belt is registered with France Compétences RS7114 and eligible for OPCO/CPF financing.
• Soft Skills Development Training programs focused on developing interpersonal and managerial competencies, including individual and group coaching, leadership postures, and organizational empowerment. Supports leadership development and Lean mindset adoption for managers and teams.
• Lean Observe Mobile Application Mobile app for workplace observation that guides users through systematic review of workstations under 5 angles with 25 questions, with photo and comment attachment, countermeasure planning, and PDF export. Available in 4 languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese) with customizable branding for enterprise clients.
• Club Lean Benchmarking Memberships Annual membership-based peer communities organized regionally (France, Normandie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Office, Suisse) that enable member companies to visit each other's facilities and share Lean best practices through site visits and strategic reflection sessions, typically 3 factory visits and 1 strategic day per year.
• Apilab Training Facilities Dedicated physical training spaces in Paris (Batignolles) and Carouge, Geneva, equipped with production simulation lines designed for immersive, hands-on Lean practice and gamified learning sessions.
• Lean Escape Game Gamified training experience that teaches Lean principles through an escape-room format, used for team engagement, awareness building, and large-scale enterprise events.
• Lean Practice Labs (Switzerland) Short-format modules (1+1 days) in Switzerland for deepening and mastering Lean tools, designed to strengthen team competencies and accelerate autonomy in Lean practice.
• Apilean Masterclasses Expert-led workshops under Masterclass or Experience formats covering specialized Lean topics such as supplier development, offered periodically to the Lean community with testimonials from practitioners at firms like Thales and Renault.

Quantifiable outcome

• Saint-Gobain: 3-year partnership on team autonomization with professional, engaged, motivating team delivering results meeting expectations
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers24 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• GIFEN (Groupement des Entreprises de la Filière Nucléaire Française)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 October 2025Apilean is a member of GIFEN, France's nuclear industry association. Through this membership, Apilean participates in the PEON (Programme d'Excellence Opérationnelle Nucléaire) conference series, contributing expertise in Lean for People to the nuclear sector's operational excellence transformation.
• Le Rire MédecinminorOthers · 1 January 2019Apilean has partnered with Le Rire Médecin since 2019, contributing €5 per mission day to support the association's hospital clown programs for children. Over 200 children benefit annually from this partnership. All Apileaners participate in supporting the charity, which performs ~90,000 shows/year in 46 pediatric services across 15 hospitals in France.
• Codesign-itminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 January 2016Carlos Cardoso participates in the codesign-it collective, a group of professionals dedicated to developing collaborative innovation in companies. The collective serves as a referral and knowledge-sharing network for design and innovation consulting.
• Plateforme Filière Automobile (PFA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 April 2014Carlos Cardoso (Apilean founder) was habilitated by the PFA as an authorized Lean consultant supporting the French automotive supply chain's competitiveness programs through industrial performance initiatives. PFA brings together constructors, equipment suppliers, and their professional organizations.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Kaizen Institute: Global consulting firm founded by Masaaki Imai dedicated to Lean / continuous improvement transformations across manufacturing and services. Closely comparable to Apilean in core methodology (Lean/Kaizen), boutique consulting motion, and enterprise client base, though much larger in scale and geographic reach.
• TBM Consulting Group: US-headquartered Lean / operational excellence and supply chain consulting firm serving global manufacturers with transformation programs. Direct peer in mission and methodology, with comparable training-plus-consulting delivery model.

Others

• Lean Enterprise Institute: Non-profit publisher and educator behind the 'Lean Thinking' canon (Womack & Jones), running conferences, training, and a global Lean practice network. Adjacent to Apilean via shared methodology and certification ecosystem rather than direct consulting competition.

Broad incumbents

• McKinsey & Company: Global management consultancy whose Operations Practice covers Lean / continuous improvement engagements at large enterprises. Overlaps Apilean in space and client base but competes as a broad, full-service incumbent rather than a specialized Lean boutique.
• Bain & Company: Top-tier management consultancy with a Results Delivery / Operations practice serving many of the same blue-chip industrials as Apilean (e.g., automotive, aerospace). Larger portfolio and global delivery, but only part of its work touches operational excellence.
• Oliver Wyman: Global management consulting firm with deep industrial and operations transformation practices across Europe, often competing for the same Tier-1 industrial accounts (automotive, aerospace, energy). Broader portfolio than Apilean, but overlapping service line in operational performance.
• BearingPoint: European-origin management and technology consultancy with strong operational excellence and supply chain practices across continental Europe, including France. Comparable European client footprint and multi-sector lean transformation offerings, but at significantly larger scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCUkrcyVmJYBVXu5fBOjXRCg
• Facebookfacebook.com/Apilean
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/apilean-com
• Instagraminstagram.com/apilean
• Xx.com/apilean

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Apilean