Having been involved with progressive management for 30 years, and having written a lot (a lot!) about it for 26 years, you may wonder what inspires me to keep going — especially given that I am often a lone voice in the wilderness. This is what inspires me: The obvious need for improvement My ability […]

Despite 100 years of research, academic papers, books, magazine articles, all imaginable types of training programs, etc., the focus on improving the behaviors of leaders, from CEO to supervisor, have been mostly a failure. From one generation to the next, leaders behave pretty much as they always have: however they want to, more or less. […]

STOP PRESS – just too late for the main roundup below, here’s the episode I recorded on Monday for the Clean at Work podcast with hosts John Barratt and Sarah Baca. Enjoy! Clean at Work: Episode 14 Strategizing Clean – Mike Burrows on Integrating Clean Language More: media In this edition: February TTT/F; 15-minute FOTO, Obstacles Fast and Slow, […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #497 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Tobias Gilk, the founder of Gilk Radiology Consulting (GRC). He is an architect by training, but has spent 20+ years focusing on MRI safety… initially through the architecture and planning of MRI facilities, but […]

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of January 2024.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.     The Pearls and Turds of Continuous Improvement – Kevin Meyer illustrates keys points of continuous improvement in small sequential steps and learning from failure from the documentary Stutz he recently […]

If you feel in a rut at work, many people overreach looking for the big problem or the big solution. Sometimes we can simply reactive the beginners mind through small changes, which then activates curiosity, observation, and the spririt of experimentation. These things can spill over from small changes to more important parts of your […]

How you think and do things — and especially how top leaders think and do things — is deeply rooted in the past. Only a small amount reflects the present. Therefore, we must always be attentive to ask ourselves these questions: “Why keep doing things today as they have been done in the past?: “What […]

Twenty-five years ago, the first Lean tool book was published, Learning to See, a workbook about value stream mapping. This was the start of the mania for Lean tools. Many other Lean tool books soon followed. Prior to that time, from the late 1970s to the early 2000s, the focus has been kaizen. This was […]

I am in the lucky position of seeing a lot of different shop floors through my work. This requires me to quickly understand what is going on on the shop floor and to estimate how well the shop floor is managed. What my hosts tell me and what I see unfortunately does not always match. […]

With classical management, waste is a feature, not a bug. Every type of resource that you can think of is wasted, to greater or lesser extents: money, material, equipment, space, energy, people, time, etc. Why? Because it is the leader’s prerogative to waste (or save) as they see fit. Most top leaders see fit to […]

Like spouses in murders, errors are always the prime suspect when measurements go awry. As soon Apollo 13 had a problem, a Mission Control engineer exclaimed, “It’s got to be the instrumentation!” It wasn’t the instrumentation. In general, however, before searching for a root cause in your process, you want to rule out the instrumentation. […]

As we sit in seat 26A, mindlessly watching a movie, we take for granted that our cell phone (or the shirt off our back) won’t be suddenly sucked into a gaping hole in the side of a plane. That’s because the odds of this happening are unimaginably low. Until now, that is. We seem to […]

How do I engage with my clients? This is best described as ACT with Purpose, where ACT stands for Advising, Coaching, and Thought Partner. In this brief video, I explain what that all means, and how it works.   The post A description of the JFlinch ACT with Purpose appeared first on JFlinch.

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to […]

Over the last 15 years, having presented various heterodox ideas and practices to the Lean community, as well as steadily pointing out numerous problems, I have learned the following things about people and systems: There is limited interest in facts. People would rather talk about big problems than solve big problems. Big problems that finally […]

Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace better. Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation Your employees have good ideas. Just ask […]

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on […]

Manufacturing is a complex process that involves various stages, from the creation of raw materials to the final product. One of the most critical aspects of manufacturing is ensuring that the production quality is top-notch. Improved production quality in manufacturing can lead to increased efficiency, better product performance, and overall customer satisfaction. In this blog […]

What do Boeing frontline mechanics and engineers think about this day? What did they expect going into it? How did the day turn out? I’d love to know. “Quality is made in the boardroom.” W. Edwards Deming I rolled my eyes hard when I read this announcement from Boeing, as part of the aftermath of […]

The strategic significance of adopting business improvement software cannot be overstated in today’s dynamic business landscape. As organizations strive for operational excellence and sustained growth, leveraging advanced software solutions becomes paramount. This blog delves into the transformative impact of business improvement software, exploring how these tools play a pivotal role in streamlining processes, fostering innovation, […]

I’m excited to be hosting and moderating a new webinar that’s part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement webinar series, to be presented by Ed Pound, the managing director of the Operations Science Institute. The free webinar is titled “Apply Operations Science to Accelerate Success Now.” Join us on February 6th at 1 pm ET. The […]

Have you ever seen a team fall apart because of bickering, infighting, or a failure of accountability? Not only is it frustrating to watch, it’s also incredibly disheartening. Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, defines “Teamwork is the state achieved by a group of people working together who trust one another, […]

Move from Technical Expert to Influential Leader Do you want to move beyond being a tools or process improvement project “doer” or technical expert to a transformational change leader? Have you wanted to step into greater influence and impact in your organization? Or perhaps you’re a leader seeking to create broader organizational change but don’t […]

In healthcare, leaders saying “we’ll hold them accountable” too often means, in reality, “we’ll punish individuals for mistakes that have many systemic causes.” To the extreme side of this spectrum, a nurse, RaDonda Vaught, was criminally prosecuted and convicted as an individual, while the organization and its leaders she worked for were not “held accountable” […]

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Every workplace undergoes changes, and how we manage them can significantly impact our operations’ success. The 4M changes—Man, Machine, Material, and Method—are critical areas where alterations might occur. Today, we dive into a detailed work instruction (WI) sheet designed to navigate these changes effectively. Man Changes in personnel, whether due to leaves, new operators, or […]

Below is a list of book recommendations sorted by subject, area of interest, position, or job function. Most books are under 200 pages. Supervisor Speed Leadership: A New Way to Lead for Rapidly Changing TimesA Changed Perspective: An Essential Guide for Emerging LeadersThe Aesthetic Compass: Foundation of Leadership Action and Inaction Manager Speed Leadership: A […]

Efficient business processes are crucial for organizational success because they directly impact every element of operations, contributing to effectiveness, competitiveness, and sustainability. How can businesses effectively balance innovation with the requirement for established, efficient processes? Striking the right equilibrium between adaptability and stability is a common challenge in today’s dynamic business environment. This article explores […]

Thanks to Timothy R. Clark and Junior Clark for this excellent episode of their “Culture by Design” podcast from LeaderFactor: In the episode, they debunk myths and misunderstandings about Psychological Safety that unfortunately get spread in workplaces and publications. In this case, it was an article in the Harvard Business Review titled: “Can Workplaces Have […]

The great consolidation continues apace! Landing this morning on the newer of the two Agendashift Academy platforms was part I of the latest version of the Inside-out Strategy module. Part I introduces many of our most popular exercises, most notably: Our trusty, context-capturing kickoff exercise Celebration-5W The inspiring (and sometimes cathartic) True North: Ideal Our […]

Recently I had the chance to visit the high-end luxury car assembly lines of two German car makers, Audi and Mercedes, making the Audi A8 and the Maybach respectively. The feel of these plants is more about craftsmanship than mass production, quite different from “normal” cars.   Audi A8 The Audi A8 is the luxury […]

Get enthusiastic about kaizen! Own a limited edition “Kaizen Forever” Hoodie! Jerzees NuBlend® hoodie, pre-shrunk 50 cotton / 50 polyester with fleece interior for extra warmth. Great swag for kaizen teams! Available sizes are Medium (2), Large (5), and Extra-Large (3). Price $75 + $15 for shipping and handling (U.S. addresses only). DM me if […]

Image source: LinkedIn, 22 January 2024 Looks like times have changed! 27 years ago, when I was a Supply/Commodity manager at Pratt & Whitney and a lead aerospace team member for the new UTC Purchasing Initiative, I/we faced immense pressure from the P&W and UTC VPs of purchasing to move small machined parts manufacturing to […]

Quality affects a company in a variety of ways, from productivity and profitability to customer satisfaction and public perception. In addition, quality affects the overall operating costs of a company. Focusing on quality helps keep a company strong in all areas. In this article I highlight three effects on how poor quality can affect your […]