Manufacturing is where many Lean ideas were first developed—but lasting results never come from tools alone. This archive explores manufacturing through the lens of leadership, safety, culture, and systems thinking, drawing lessons from real plants, executives, and frontline experiences that still matter today.
From Toyota and NUMMI to modern aerospace, appliance, and industrial operations, these posts show how manufacturing excellence depends on respect for people, learning from problems, and designing systems that make the right work easier.
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #518 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jerry Wright, author of the new book The Insanity Trap: What Your MRP Consultant Won’t Tell You. Jerry M.…
Jacob Stoller challenges common productivity myths and explains why true productivity growth comes from improving processes, quality, and culture–not just cutting costs or adding technology. Drawing on Lean principles, he shows how people-first leadership enables sustainable growth across industries. Scroll…
TL;DR: A zero-injury bonus may look like a safety incentive, but it usually distorts behavior. Lean and Deming teach us that punishing bad numbers doesn’t improve systems–it drives problems underground. A friend of mine–with deep experience in Lean and the…
I was talking recently with a trusted friend in the Lean community. He told me a story. It’s certainly believable, even if it’s second or third-hand to me. He had no reason to make up a story like this. A…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
I’ve already written one blog post about this excellent Bloomberg BusinessWeek article about the Lean transformation at GE Aerospace, a post that focused on CEO Larry Culp saying that “a problem-solving culture is far more effective operationally than a finger-pointing…
The other day, I read about the passing of Donald E. Peterson, who was a key CEO for Ford Motor Company in the 1980s (from 1985 to 1990). From the Detroit Free Press: Former Ford CEO Don Petersen, who spent…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #502 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is DeWayne Allen, an executive, speaker, and workshop facilitator. DeWayne is a results-driven executive with over 20 years of experience,…
tl;dr: GE Aerospace is redefining its culture under CEO Larry Culp through a Lean operating system called “Flight Deck,” built on safety, SQDC, and respect for people. Their Safety Management System, independent oversight, and commitment to continuous learning reflect a…
2024 Preface: I’m re-posting this blog post from 2012 about Lean at Boeing. The WSJ headline emphasizes “speed up,” but that could be the fault of their editors not realizing that Lean means quality and flow go hand in hand.…
As I recently shared on LinkedIn, I really appreciated the annual shareholder letter that was published and shared by Larry Culp, who has been CEO of General Electric for just over five years now (the first-ever outsider CEO in their…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #496 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Randy Carr, the CEO of South Florida-based World Emblem – one of the largest embroidery companies in the world with plants in…
