Key points

• Concepts from lean manufacturing and Kanban production can usefully be applied to writing for academic publication.
• Value and pull focus the author's attention on the needs of reviewers, editors, and readers.
• Value stream and flow emphasize an end‐to‐end process of prioritization, writing, editing, revision, resubmission, and publication
• Perfection places emphasis on publication quality.
• A Kanban board is advocated to plan and monitor the writing and publication lifecycle.
• The author's experience shows a steady improvement in output rankings and researcher reputation metrics over a four‐year period.