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.
The Taguchi Loss Function says that variation from target has a cost — and that cost grows non-linearly as you drift further from center. It’s a manufacturing concept. But Steph Curry’s shooting data illustrates it better than most textbook examples.…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guests for Episode #438 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller, the authors of the recently released book Steel Toes and Stilettos: A True Story…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #426 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John Gallagher, Founder and CEO of Growing Champions, LLC, an Executive Coach, Mentor, and Consultant. John was with Simpler Consulting for…
I don’t always share new episodes of the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast with you here, but when I do… it’s a Lean practitioner. Today, that guest is David Meier, a former Toyota team member and leader, author of two books…
I don’t always share new episodes of the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast with you here, but when I do… it’s a Lean practitioner. Today, that guest is Bob Rush, who has roughly 30 years of Lean experience with different companies,…
Eight years ago today, I published a piece originally on LinkedIn as part of their “Influencers” series: Rather than Blaming Employees, Managers Must Take Responsibility for Problems – in a Taco Joint, a Hospital, or a Factory Here is the…
Today’s episode of “My Favorite Mistake” is another one that Lean practitioners will especially like. My guest, Sabrina Moon, talks about how she (unfortunately) learned “command and control” management in her early days at General Motors. She talks eloquently about…
For Episode #371, we bring the discussion back to Lean Manufacturing applications, as our guest is Marc Lushington-Murray. He currently lives in the Fort Worth, Texas area but, as you’ll discover from his accent, he was originally born and raised…
My guest for Episode #366 is Harry Moser, founder of the Reshoring Initiative. We talk about “reshoring,” in general, and why that’s such an important issue in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Harry definitely falls into the…
Joining me for Episode #364 is a returning guest, Mitch Cahn, the president of Unionwear, a Newark-based company. Back in Episode #234, we talked about how Lean manufacturing has helped them be competitive in the labor-intensive apparel industry, sewing goods…
It’s great to see examples of manufacturing companies being flexible and adaptive in these challenging times. Lean methods are often providing a huge boost in what can be life-saving efforts. Lean often gets mislabeled as a “low inventory” system (or…
Back in 2006, I wrote my first blog post about the unfortunate use of “assembly line” to mean “bad quality.” The context there was healthcare people complaining about Lean as being a pathway to “assembly line medicine.” Not all assembly…
