Image Source: Pexels.com When businesses were forced into remote work a few years ago due to the pandemic, many were just focused on making their operations work in a digital environment. They were hardly focused on revamping their company cultures to support such a transition. But now, we’re seeing remote work become a staple in […]

An opinion piece published in The Connecticut Mirror on 22 December 2020. For more than 15 years I have taught a graduate course where students perform formal failure analysis of senior management decisions. We study disasters such as the Wells Fargo fraud, Equifax data breach, GM faulty ignition switch, Morandi bridge failure, Vale mining disaster, […]

Condolences to the family of Mr. Norman Bodek (obituary). I had many wonderful phone and e-mail conversations with Norman over the last 18 years. He was a beloved figure, always accessible and always helpful. A humble man, life-long learner, and earnest in his life’s mission to help humanity and the planet. He would help anyone […]

Empathy? No. Appreciation? No. Gratitude? No. Leadership? No. Better late than never: UPDATE (16 December 2020). “Remembering Norman Bodek, the “Miraculous Life” of an Author, Teacher, and Publisher of Groundbreaking Business Books” by Chet Marchwinski UPDATE (1 February 2021). “Two Giants, Two Communities, One Lasting Thing” by John Shook.

For more than 30 years, CEOs have claimed that wages for workers are too high. American CEOs were the first apprehend and exploit this claim followed by CEOs in most other countries. Is this true? Are wages too high? Consider that Western-style business is normally conducted under the doctrine of force and fraud (where “force” […]

This case study shows the progress of the Planned Maintenance Pillar of a food manufacturing facility. The facility is located in North America. Situation Before TPM Analysis of the situation was d4one using 4M methodology: Man Low level of skills People with high stress Low spirit of work team Lack of trust and cooperation between […]

I am saddened to hear of the death of Ritsuo Shingo (1947-2023), as announced by the Shingo Institute. He was the son of Shigeo Shingo, for whom the Shingo Prize and Shingo Institute were named. I want to express my deepest condolences to the family, his friends, and everybody who knew and worked with him. […]

What have we learned after 30+ years of training people in Lean tools and methods, Lean thinking, Lean management, and Lean leadership? As I look back on my experience as a trainer, I am grateful for the opportunities, experience, income, favorable reviews, and feedback for improvement. Yet I, and certainly most other Lean trainers, are […]

This post compares five management approaches: Lean, Flow, Standard, Continuous Improvement, and Respect. These approaches discuss their underlying principles, methodologies, and practical implications for businesses. The post highlights each approach’s strengths and weaknesses and suggests ways to be integrated to optimize organizational performance. Introduction Organizations must be agile and adaptive to survive and thrive in […]

In today’s blog, we’ll be talking about preventive vs predictive maintenance — both of which are designed to increase the reliability of assets, and reduce the risk of equipment breakdowns and failures.  Preventive vs Predictive Maintenance What is Preventive Maintenance? Think of preventive maintenance (PM), or also known as planned maintenance or planned preventive maintenance, […]

As a Lean person, you are an iconoclast — a Type 1 iconoclast. Type 1 iconoclasts seek to attack or destroy settled ways of thinking and doing things. You disrespect certain traditions and believe it is important to dismantle that which stands in the way of needed progress in both leadership and management practice. Yet, […]

The image below visually depicts how the books that I authored or co-authored have evolved since 2003. The main line pertains to Lean transformation and Lean leadership, proceeding to critiques of Lean leadership and Lean management, and then on to planning for Lean in the future. Above the main line is a second major line […]

This is the back story to the book Wheel of Fortune. Several years ago, Massimo Torinesi, who had read and liked several books I had written, ventured to contact me to get to know me and inquire about working together to deliver workshops and seminars in Italy. After a while of getting to know each […]

A common bit of feedback that I receive now and then is that I am “courageous” or “brave” to say the things that I say about Lean management, the Lean movement, business leaders, and the like. I don’t see it as courage or bravery. From my perspective I am simply sharing the facts as I […]

Business is not known to be a citadel of truth-telling. Bargaining, salesmanship, exaggeration, misstatements, omission, flattery, puffery, and deception are common in the conduct of business. Leaders commonly analogize business to war or sports, but business may be closer to the card game poker. In both poker and business, bluffing, misdirection, concealment, duplicity, and the […]

University Boards of Trustees are populated mostly by business leaders, followed by former politicians and other community leaders. As such, Boards tend to reflect business needs and interests. Only rarely are experienced classroom teachers and researchers (i.e., academics) found on Boards of Trustees. Isn’t it odd that those who preside over institutions devoted to the […]

Problem-solving is an essential skill that enables us to navigate through the challenges that life throws at us. When faced with problems, we often feel overwhelmed and struggle to find effective solutions. But what if there was a step-by-step guide that could help us overcome these obstacles with ease? Today, we will discuss an 8-step […]

There is a need for a vision more grand than just process improvement. Please read The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review TPS and EarthDownload

“Go See, Ask Why, Show Respect” is the phrase made famous by former Toyota president and chairman, Mr. Fujio Cho. He was referring to how managers should interact with workers and address problems that occur at the genba. “Go See” means to go where the problem occurred to thoroughly understand the situation, “Ask Why” to […]

Business leaders’ declining interest in Lean in recent years is a problem for the Lean movement and those who promote Lean management. How might this important problem be solved? Is there a quick and easy way to do it? A solution one can jump to? Business leaders are skilled creating canards and diverting their biggest […]

Dear @ALF: You have provided an excellent example of attacking the person and avoiding the argument, yet you lecture on “Respect for People.” Tsk tsk. @Michael – I don’t always agree with your takes. And, to be frank, you can kinda come off like a jerk sometimes too. It is easy to come off sounding […]

What was the purpose of writing 24 books? It was equal parts an intense personal curiosity, a desire to share what I have learned with others, and to make it easier for leaders to understand and practice progressive management. It is the last of these — to make it easier for leaders to understand and […]

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. Insights about improvement, innovation, and leadership… Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation SPC > ERP ERP systems: the ‘do everything’ systems we love to hate. ERP […]

Mr. Taiichi Ohno had a theory of nonproductivity that people know but which they do not truly understand. In the image below, Ohno-san makes a clear differentiation between the types of work that workers do: Work that is waste Non-value added work that is necessary under present conditions Net work By “net work,” Ohno-san meant […]

Aside from the compulsory obsequity, what is notable about this comment from my esteemed colleague, Dr. Michael Ballé, is his mistaken view that it remains a mystery as to why CEOs are uninterested in Lean management. This so-called “mystery” has been comprehensively unraveled in the three books shown below. They are the result of 13 […]

Empathy is often misunderstood as simply feeling for others or sharing their emotions. However, empathy is much more profound and more complex than that. It is the ability to understand and share another person’s feelings from their perspective, and it can be a powerful tool for fostering connection and growth. In this blog post, we […]

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Lean manufacturing is a widely recognized and practiced business philosophy as many manufacturers have implemented some variation of practice into their operations. But, what are the benefits of lean manufacturing? In today’s blog, we’ll first detail what lean manufacturing is and then we’ll get into why companies use lean manufacturing. What is Lean Manufacturing? Lean […]

Since the grand awakening of the Lean community to the “Respect for People” principle in 2007, and especially post-2014, it has been interesting to see how it has been both used and misused. When used correctly, in its proper context — the management of business enterprise, in the workplace — wonderful things happen. With these […]

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 […]

It is common knowledge that the biggest management consulting businesses go from company to company “solving” the same problems using the same or similar “solutions” whose trade names change over time. The long-lived success of top tier consulting’s business model is significantly aided by the short-lived tenure of CEOs who think the problems they face […]

WEB SERIES – Episode 3 of our docuseries on lean in Brazil takes us to the second largest bank in the country. Learn how Bradesco is striving to improve its processes to provide more value to its customers using Lean Thinking. Scripted, edited and narrated by: Roberto Priolo In January, I visited Bradesco in its giant […]

Our most ardent promoters of Lean have great expectations that business leaders will magically see the need to care for people — employees, customers, suppliers, and communities. That they will develop employees through the coaching and improvement katas rather than treating them as disposable assets, that they will put customers first rather than viewing them […]

So much chatter these days about “Respect for People,” developing people, learning, worker appreciation, and so on. All good stuff, but do people correctly understand the context? Yes, perhaps, but only superficially, in my view. Mr. Taiichi Ohno was a senior executive of a large corporation — not just an “operations guy” focused on process […]