Tag: Whiskey

Thanks to posting about the trip on LinkedIn, I learned that Mike Bukowski is now working for Sazerac, the parent company of Buffalo Trace, in a process improvement role. Last year, Mike attended the site visit and class that Joe Swartz and I hosted at Franciscan St. Francis Health. Mike has embraced might call "lessons from Toyota," as taught to healthcare people, and is now training and coaching people who make some very fine bourbon, including Aaron Krentz, Processing Supervisor (at right).

Back on the podcast for the sixth time is my friend David Meier, a Lean / TPS consultant who is a former Toyota leader at their plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. As we mentioned in our April episode (#304), he's gotten into what's, perhaps, the most Kentucky of industries... distilling bourbon (and more) at Glenn's Creek Distillery. In this episode, there's a lot of bourbon talk, with some Lean concepts thrown in. If you share our interest in Lean and whiskey, then this might be your most favorite episode ever. Of course, if you don't have any interest in bourbon, you might well skip this one.

tl;dr: Suntory's acquisition of Jim Beam highlights a classic Kaizen culture clash--where well-intended continuous improvement meets pride, identity, and tradition. The lesson for Lean...

My wife and I just got back from four days in Napa and Sonoma counties doing, ahem, "gemba walks" at a number of wineries,...