Twenty years ago, on July 16, 2006, the Lean Blog Podcast began with a conversation with Norman Bodek. Norman was my friend and mentor–and the person who suggested that I start doing audio interviews in the first place. What began…
On a factory table in Japan, in December 2019, there was a binder. White cover, the word KAIZEN in big orange letters, a photo of cherry blossoms underneath. Inside the front cover, someone had printed a word cloud — IMPROVEMENT,…
Blog What Toyota’s 1992 Booklet Leaves Out About Leadership ByMark Graban July 8, 2026 Comment (0) 36 The 1992 Toyota booklet says surprisingly little about leadership. There’s a Kiichiro Toyoda quote… Read More Blog The Taiichi Ohno 1981 Story Keeps…
The Sign on the Wall Was a Confession Two staff members are repositioning a patient by hand. The lift assist that’s supposed to be used for this — the equipment the hospital bought specifically so nobody does it this way…
Why does Lean fail to stick so often? Thomas Cox and Andre DeMerchant join me on Episode 547 to make the case that the missing precondition is psychological safety, and that it has to exist at the top before any…
Nearly two million improvement proposals in a single year. Ninety-seven percent implemented. That doesn’t sound like the suggestion-box model most organizations know. It sounds like something else. The number comes from Toyota’s April 1992 publication “The Toyota Production System.” It…
Somewhere along the way in my career, someone handed me a copy of “The Toyota Production System,” published by Toyota Motor Corporation in April 1992. I don’t remember who gave it to me. The document itself is unassuming – a…
Why do so many quality programs fall apart the moment the firefighter walks out the door? In this conversation, Chad Diggs talks about his new book, Below the Surface, and what it takes to build quality systems that outlast the people who…
TL;DR: Lean daily management is the system that makes improvement happen between the projects — visual boards, huddles, gemba walks, leader standard work, and strategy alignment working together. The boards don’t do the work. The leadership behaviors do. Most Lean…
Every organization has a small number of people who will speak up no matter what. They’ll raise the uncomfortable issue in the meeting. They’ll flag the problem everyone else has learned to walk past. They’ll push back on the plan…
TL;DR: Kaizen means “change for the better.” Everyone improves their own work, one small change at a time, using the scientific method. It’s not a suggestion box — it’s collaborative, fast, and action-oriented. Success depends on leadership engagement and psychological…
Executive Summary for Leaders Continuous Improvement–often called Kaizen–is not a program, a department, or a suggestion box. It is the daily practice that makes Lean real. At its core, Kaizen means improving systems by engaging the people who do the…
