Keith Champion on the Lucid (Motors) Production System

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Scroll down for info, videos about Lucid Motors, how to subscribe, and more


My guest for Episode #410 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Keith Champion, Senior Manager ofOperational Excellence at Lucid Motors, a new entrant in the electric vehicle marketplace, with their Lucid Air luxury sedan hitting the market very soon.

Keith worked for Toyota for more than 17 years (thanks to fellow Toyota alum and previous podcast guest Tim Turner for making the connection). As Keith talks about in the episode, he started as a Team Member at Toyota Georgetown, progressing his career to Team Leader, Group Leader, and other roles. He then spent nine years working for Tesla Motors. Keith then joined Lucid in 2019 — BTW, the CEO of Lucid, Peter Rawlinson, was previously Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla and Chief Engineer of the Model S.

The Lucid Motors Factory in Casa Grande, AZ (courtesy Lucid Motors)

Topics and questions in today's episode (and related links):

  • What's your Lean / TPS origin story? It sort of starts before Toyota
  • What happens when you “pull the andon cord” at Toyota?
  • How is Lucid trying to build the culture right the first time?
  • What is the leadership team like at Lucid?
  • Is there a management “philosophy” as Toyota might talk about?
  • What are the core values of Lucid Motors?
  • What's the biggest operations (and supply chain) challenge related to starting a new factory in Arizona?
  • How do you build for scalability?
  • How important is it to have “built in quality” for a luxury vehicle (or any car)?
  • What is an empowering continuous improvement program? Not just suggestions, but implement…
  • What are the five key goals and metrics that are used throughout the factory?
  • Lucid article (and video) about General Assembly
  • A look at the paint shop

The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.

This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network

Courtesy Lucid Motors


Videos about Lucid Manufacturing and the Lucid Air:


Thanks for listening or watching!

Automated Transcript (May Contain Defects):


This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network… check it out!


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Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. 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.

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