Expert Interview: Kevin Meyer on Driving Lean Transformation and Onshoring | Lean Blog Podcast #20
The LeanBlog Podcast is back with episode #20, our guest is Kevin Meyer, the founder of Superfactory Ventures, which can be found at Superfactory.com. You may know Kevin from his popular blog, Evolving Excellence. We'll be talking about a number of lean topics including his upcoming panel moderation at the Kellogg Manufacturing Business Conference, being held in Evanston IL in May.
If you enjoy this podcast, I hope you'll check out the rest of the series by visiting the LeanBlog Podcast main page.
Show Notes and Approximate Time, Episode #20
- 1:30 How Kevin got started with Lean
- 3:00 About the Evolving Excellence Blog
- 5:00 Blogging as a learning experience
- 6:00 Kevin will be speaking at Northwestern University, moderating a panel discussion on in-sourcing on on-shoring at their Manufacturing Business Conference
- 6:20 Companies that have been able to build manufacturing competencies in the U.S., rather than running overseas, looking at total cost, rather than just labor cost
- 8:00 The conference is May 12, open to registration by the public (main conference page)
- 8:15 A list of companies Kevin has talked about on the blog
- 9:10 How can we spread the word and fight the perception that you can't do manufacturing here?
- 9:45 Kevin's example of a custom ski manufacturer who imports very small quantities from China rather than doing it here
- 10:30 Danaher as a good example of lean and U.S. competitiveness
- 10:50 American Leather, building furniture here in Texas
- 12:20 Kevin's example of Avery Dennison
- 13:30 Are retailers encouraging lean practices or pushing suppliers overseas?
- 14:30 Are there some valid reasons for building in China?
- 15:40 Kevin's example of American Apparel
- 16:30 New Zealand manufacturing and off-shoring pressures
- 17:30 Kevin talks about lean and the value of experience in the workforce, Whirlpool example of moving to Mexico and throwing away that experience
- 20:30 The book from the blog, written by Kevin and Bill Waddell : Evolving Excellence: Thoughts on Lean Enterprise Leadership
If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the “Lean Line” at (817) 993-0630 or contact me via Skype id “mgraban”. Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.
Click here for the main LeanBlog Podcast page with all previous episodes.
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Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.
He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean.
Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.