Don't Go Down the Rabbit Hole

Kaizen Snapshot

Setting: Armstrong World Industries – St. Helens, Oregon plant
Challenge: Multiple simultaneous operational issues overwhelming leadership
Stakes: Safety, uptime, morale, and credibility
Approach: Prioritization, delegation, team ownership
Outcome: Clear focus, aligned action, stronger leadership discipline
Key Lesson: You don’t win by fixing everything. You win by fixing the right thing

The Situation

One thing you learn quickly in manufacturing is this:
Even when things are going well, there’s no guarantee they’ll stay that way.

People, processes, equipment, weather, raw materials, any one of them can tip a good day into a bad one.

At the St. Helens ceiling tile plant, we were in the middle of one of those weeks. Equipment downtime was high. Safety concerns were surfacing. People issues were piling up.

As Operations Manager, I felt responsible for all of it.

What Was Getting in the Way

I approached the situation the way many engineers do, by trying to solve every problem at once.

I believed:

• Every issue mattered equally

• I needed to stay on top of everything

• Speed meant touching everything personally

In our morning review meeting, I rattled off dozens of problems.

What I didn’t have was a clear direction.

The Moment That Changed Everything

As I started diving deep into a relatively small issue, one that wasn’t driving major loss, Olivia, our plant manager, stepped in.

“Adam, stop worrying about all the little details.
Let’s focus on the key problem, build the plan, and execute it.
Then we’ll move on to the next.”

It was obvious. And I had completely missed it.

What Changed

Olivia had the team identify the top three problems for the day.

Then she did something even more important. She had them self-assign ownership.

Suddenly:

• Focus replaced overwhelm

• The team leaned in

• Progress accelerated

I took one of the assignments myself and learned more about leadership that day than I had in months.

The Takeaway

Trying to fix everything is a fast way to fix nothing.

Strong leaders create focus, trust their teams, and resist the pull to dive into every detail.

Why This Matters

When leaders chase every problem, teams hesitate.

When leaders create clarity, teams act.

Focus isn’t avoidance, it’s discipline.

Ready to Build Focused Improvement?

If your organization feels overwhelmed by competing priorities, Kaizen may not be the problem, focus might be.

Squarely in the Middle of the Action

Kaizen Snapshot

Setting: Armstrong World Industries’ Pensacola ceiling tile plant
Challenge: Inconsistent board squareness affecting downstream processes
Stakes: Reliability, quality, and future changeover success
Approach: Observation, cross-functional collaboration, high-speed analysis
Outcome: Root causes identified and eliminated, lasting reliability gains
Key Lesson: Some problems aren’t solvable until you ask the right question

The Situation

During my corporate career at Armstrong, I was known as someone who would do whatever it took to help the team win.

In the late 1990s, we were reconfiguring the Pensacola plant to dramatically expand the range of ceiling tile sizes and shapes we could produce.

That meant one thing: far more changeovers.

Before we could make changeovers fast, we had to make the process reliable.

What Was Getting in the Way

After the dryer, large ceiling boards were cut down to size by a massive panel saw. We called it the Dry Saw.

I noticed something subtle but concerning.

The boards appeared to enter and exit the saw at a slight angle. That small misalignment was enough to create downstream quality problems and it was happening consistently.

Bob, a highly experienced engineer, was scheduled to rebuild the saw. I shared what I was seeing.

At first, he was skeptical. Then he looked and saw it too.

Going Where the Problem Lived

We locked out the saw and climbed onto the table.

We raised the blades and lay directly beneath them, close enough that I could see the teeth inches above my face. Nothing obvious appeared out of square.

Then Bob had an idea.

“What if we use high-speed cameras and slow everything down?”

At the time, this was cutting-edge technology.

We rented the equipment, set up cameras at critical points, and recorded the process.

What We Learned

When we slowed the footage down, three issues became obvious:

• The pusher bar feeding the first saw was slightly misaligned

• The conveyor chains feeding the second saw weren’t square

• The saw shaft slipped slightly with each full rotation

None of this was visible at full speed.

What Changed

All three issues were corrected during the next maintenance downday.

Immediately:

• Boards ran square

• Downstream processes stabilized

• Changeovers became predictable

Bob designed the fixes into the rebuild and added preventative maintenance to keep it that way.

The Takeaway

Until we slowed the process down, we were guessing.

Once we asked a better question, the answer became obvious.

Why This Matters

Many reliability problems persist not because teams lack skill, but because they haven’t found the right way to see the problem.

The right question changes everything.

Want More Predictable Changeovers?

If reliability issues are undermining your improvement efforts, it may be time to look at the problem differently.

Tearing Down the Monuments of Poor Leadership

Kaizen Snapshot

Setting: Armstrong World Industries’ Lancaster, Pennsylvania vinyl flooring plant
Challenge: Low morale, poor discipline, and eroding trust
Stakes: Productivity, safety, and plant survival
Approach: Visible leadership action, standards reinforcement, symbolic reset
Outcome: Behavior change, improved discipline, productivity lift
Key Lesson: Culture changes when leaders make standards visible and non-negotiable

The Situation

When I became Business Unit Manager at Armstrong’s Lancaster vinyl flooring plant, the history was obvious.

Demand was down. Trust was low. Discipline was inconsistent.
And when people lose confidence in the future, they find ways to disengage.

During a leadership rotation through all shifts, we decided to experience the plant the way every employee did, including nights.

That’s when I found something I didn’t expect.

What Was Getting in the Way

During an overnight walk, I noticed lines running with missing crew members.

Breakrooms were empty. Work areas were quiet.

So I started looking in unused areas of the facility, nine floors of old industrial space.
On the sixth floor, I found stacks of fabric arranged into makeshift “beds.”

The rumors were true.

What We Did

Instead of calling people out, accusing, or lecturing, we took a different approach.

We formed a “bed-hunting” team and searched the facility. Over several days, we found six sleeping areas.

On a Wednesday morning, without announcement, we gathered all the beds and dragged them outside where everyone could see them.

Then we destroyed them in a controlled burn.

No speeches.

No accusations.
Just a clear message: this is not how we work here.

What Changed

Sleeping on the job stopped.

Productivity improved.
The mood lifted.
People saw that leadership was serious about standards.

Sometimes discipline, applied consistently and respectfully, creates stability that people actually crave.

The Takeaway

Culture doesn’t change with posters and speeches.

It changes when leaders remove the monuments to poor behavior.

Why This Matters

When standards are unclear or inconsistently enforced, people fill the gaps.

Visible, consistent leadership resets expectations and restores trust.

Ready to Reset Culture?

If inconsistent standards are holding your organization back, disciplined Kaizen can help reset expectations.

Safety Taken to the Extreme

Kaizen Snapshot

Setting: Dal-Tile manufacturing plants (Southern U.S.)
Challenge: Asbestos sampling under extreme conditions
Stakes: Worker safety, compliance, personal resilience
Approach: Strict protocols, long-duration sampling, extreme heat exposure
Outcome: Complete audit, deeper respect for safety discipline
Key Lesson: True safety work demands discipline, endurance, and respect for risk

The Situation

During my time at Dal-Tile, I worked as the environmental, safety, and mining liaison for 12 manufacturing plants.

There was little trust between the plants and the corporate safety group, so I was assigned to shadow a corporate environmentalist during asbestos audits.

His name was Richard. He wasn’t exactly customer friendly, but he was meticulous.

What Was Getting in the Way

Asbestos sampling wasn’t done during normal shifts.

We worked nights, weekends, and off-hours, when plants were quiet.

Richard wore a full Tyvek suit in the middle of summer in the South.
I was told to stay at least 30 feet away.

Even from 30 feet, I was uncomfortable.

Going Where the Risk Was

At one plant, Richard climbed on top of a ceramic tile dryer, hundreds of feet long and extremely hot.

I followed him.

The surface temperature was between 120 and 140 degrees. He was sealed in Tyvek. I was not. I have no idea how he tolerated the extreme heat. I was melting.

We worked 14–16 hours per plant. In four days, we slept less than 12 hours total.

What Changed

Richard never slowed down.
He followed every protocol.
He documented everything precisely.

It was one of the most physically demanding and disciplined safety efforts I’ve ever witnessed.

And I learned something important about myself.

The Takeaway

I gained a deep respect for the rigor behind real safety work and clarity that this wasn’t my long-term path.

Safety isn’t a slogan. It’s discipline under pressure.

Why This Matters

Many organizations talk about safety. Few truly understand the rigor required to protect people in high-risk environments.

Discipline saves lives.

Want Safety That Actually Sticks?

If safety feels reactive instead of disciplined, Kaizen can help build systems that protect people consistently.

A Gemba Walk Like No Other

Before I facilitated my first Kaizen event at CITY Furniture, we agreed I should learn the business from the inside. So, I spent a week embedded in their distribution center, shadowing employees and learning the flow.

The culture was strong, engaged, and motivated. But people were frustrated. They hadn’t had a Kaizen in a while, and they were hungry for change. I was there to help reignite that spark.

I spent time in the repair shop, helped planners with order tracking, and eventually got paired up with an order picker named Andy. His job was to locate furniture across a 1.6 million square foot facility and deliver it to the floor for shipment.

Andy showed me how he used barcode scanners and optimized routes to work efficiently. Then he asked, “Want to help me with an order?”

Next thing I knew, I was wearing a harness and vest, clipped into an “order picker,” a lift with a platform designed to retrieve furniture from towering racks.

Up and down we went, pulling product from the sky. At one point, 45 feet in the air, Andy turned to me and said, “I forgot to ask, are you afraid of heights?” I laughed and replied, “You picked a fine time to ask!”

We kept working, and I gained a deep appreciation for the skill, care, and judgment required in that role. It’s easy to underestimate the complexity when you're watching from the ground.

By the time I returned to the office, everyone had heard about the consultant in the air. They also knew I wasn’t there to sit on the sidelines. I was there to understand, serve, and support.

You can’t lead improvement from behind a desk. Real change starts when you walk the floor, get your hands dirty, and show people that their work matters.

Get it Right Early, the Rest will take Care of Itself

I’d been running reliability and center lining events across the country, and it never ceased to amaze me how small adjustments like leveling rollers, aligning equipment, straightening processes, could transform an entire line. We were seeing 90% fewer jams, 20% higher yields, 40% productivity gains, and a massive boost in team ownership. It was life-changing.

I decided to convince another client to try this approach in his composite decking factory. While the product was thicker and more stable than others I’d worked with, I knew the principles would still apply.

When I reviewed the concept with my sponsor, he admitted they were battling jams that caused serious disruption. He immediately invited me to run a reliability Kaizen on a key production line.

At first glance, the line seemed simple: straight path, thick product. But once we dug in, the misalignment was obvious. Early in the process, a set of rollers fed stabilizing sheets into melted vinyl. The roller system was out of level, causing tension and stress at the mixing point. Once corrected, the sheets fed evenly, drastically improving flow.

Next, we tackled the water bath where the decking was formed. The “carrier” that transported product through the bath was tilted. That misalignment made the material rise or fall, throwing off the next equipment in the line and potentially causing jams.

We built custom brackets using materials on hand to support the carrier at the precise height and alignment. Then we created easy-to-use visuals to ensure it could be consistently set up.

Once everything was lined up and squared off, we started up the line. It ran beautifully. From that stable foundation, we aligned every piece of downstream equipment. The results? Significant productivity gains, reduced safety risks, and a team that now applies the method to other lines in the plant.

When you take the time to get it right early in the process, everything becomes easier downstream. In reliability Kaizen, precision builds momentum and momentum builds belief.

No Barrier Too Big for the Team

We were running a reliability and center lining Kaizen for a vinyl siding plant in Maryland. These events often unlock 5% gains in yield and productivity and drastically reduce safety risks by 90% or more.

It was cold, so cold you could see your breath on the shop floor. Still, the team stayed focused. We spent the first two days teaching principles and establishing a center line for the process, leveling equipment, and planning the rest of the week.

Then, on day three, disaster struck. A critical water line broke, shutting down the fire suppression system. The plant was evacuated. We couldn’t even grab our tools. The event was abruptly canceled.

I left wondering: What would happen to the half-done work? Would the changes help or hurt? Would the team lose momentum?

One week later, the plant was operational again. Two months after the shutdown, we were back. Not only to finish the first line but to tackle a second. We had mostly the same team, plus a few new faces. We did a quick refresher on reliability principles and techniques and then went to Gemba. I was amazed. During the downtime, the team had already improved results using what they’d learned. They were fired up and ready to go.

We deployed most of the team to the new line, which had many of the same reliability issues. A smaller group returned to the first line to finish what we started. Over the next few days, we aligned, leveled, and pinned every critical element on both lines.

By day three, both lines were running better than anyone could remember. We locked in improvements and implemented the Wheel of Sustainability to ensure long-term results.

The approach has now been replicated throughout the plant and across their entire network of four additional sites. Better yet, they’ve built a workforce that believes in improvement and is hungry for more.

Even when the plan falls apart, a committed team can rise to the challenge. Reliability work is about precision and attention to detail. Culture is about perseverance and the drive to get things done.

The Ultimate Leadership Commitment

When I engage with new clients, I always gauge one thing up front: Do they have true Leadership Commitment? Without it, even the best Kaizen efforts will fizzle. With it, anything is possible and sustainable.

One example I’ll never forget came during a follow-up 5S Kaizen in a New Jersey manufacturing plant. Our first event had reduced tool and supply search time by 90% and lit a fire in the maintenance team.

Not everyone had been part of that first event. Some sat out to keep operations running and were skeptical their voices would be heard. But once they saw the results, they were eager to join round two.

We expanded to new areas: the electrical repair shop, outside storage, a mezzanine, even a pair of old shipping containers in the parking lot. Deep into “Sort” on Day one, we got word of a serious chemical upset in the plant. Our team leader, the Maintenance Manager, had to leave. I assumed the Kaizen would be put on hold.

But the leadership team made a bold decision. They would personally handle the crisis. They donned hazmat suits and tackled the environmental emergency so our team could stay focused on improvement. We got the Maintenance Manager back quickly.

It wasn’t easy for our team leader to stay on the sidelines. Normally, this was his job. But the plant leaders valued the Kaizen event enough to step in themselves.

Yes, we lost a team member here or there for the emergency effort. But by the end of the week, the crisis was under control, and our Kaizen team had cut “find time” by over 70%.

The biggest breakthrough was the clear alignment and support that the team received from their sponsors. They felt like they were working on something important and they were. I have no doubt that their results will live on and more employees will want to engage in similar work. They now know that their leaders have their backs.

Leadership isn’t just about solving problems—it’s about creating space for others to do their best work. When leaders show up for their people, their people show up for the work.

Turning the Factory Upside Down

When a packaging company reached out to me about facilitating a 3P (Production Preparation Process), I was intrigued. It’s the most advanced Kaizen approach I offer. They wanted this to be their very first experience.

Fortunately, I had an ally. Brett, a longtime colleague from my Armstrong days, had joined the company and believed 3P was the only way to address the plant’s design and operational constraints. The plant was bursting at the seams, and their lease made change feel impossible. But Brett believed they could break through.

Our goal: Develop 1–3 bold options to get the plant back on budget and positioned for growth, without relocating, if possible.

As expected, day one brought skepticism. In 3P, we ask people to suspend their constraints and imagine possibilities no one has yet seen. That’s a tall order.

The team followed the process, even when it didn’t fully make sense to them. At one point, I had to give tough love to a company veteran who wanted to skip a step and revert to his usual methods. He didn’t talk to me for a few hours, but by day three, everything changed.

The energy flipped. They saw it. They believed it. They were building something new and it could work.

By week’s end, we had two viable plans. One that reconfigured the current space and one that required a new building. Both met the business goals and sparked new thinking across the team.

At the report-out, the excitement was contagious. Brett strengthened his credibility and standing in the company. The team felt empowered. Some have since moved on, but they still reach out to say how much that 3P experience shaped them.

Breakthroughs don’t come from doing what you’ve always done. When you trust the process and your people new possibilities come into view.

Working Like a Business Owner

During my career at Armstrong World Industries, I had the opportunity to travel across the U.S. and to many places around the world. I met impressive people everywhere, but the team I met in Team Valley, UK still stands out as some of the most invested employees I’ve ever encountered.

I was part of a four-person team visiting several of our European manufacturing plants to benchmark best practices and bring ideas back to our local manufacturing plants. The group included the industrial engineering manager, the capital engineering manager, a project engineer, and me.

As we visited plants across Germany and the Netherlands, we saw great examples of things we could adopt back home. We had some fun adventures, met interesting people, and saw some incredible sights.

Our final stop was the ceiling tile plant in Team Valley UK, which had a reputation for best-in-class performance, strong leadership, and a highly engaged workforce.

As we walked the plant floor in the morning, it was immediately obvious why the plant ran so well. Everyone was actively working to keep things running smoothly, following standard work, and using simple, effective tools to maintain operations. Operators and mechanics weren’t just doing their jobs—they were fully involved in improving them.

In the afternoon, we sat in on a technical review by the company’s leading dryer scientist. The room was full, and the discussion dove deep into the science of curing ceiling tiles. I was completely lost in the technical details—and I would’ve dozed if not for the energy in the room.

What kept it alive was the engagement. The most insightful, animated questions were coming from hourly operators. They weren’t there just to listen—they were trying to understand every detail so they could run their lines better. At one point, the scientist even told them, “You all understand this better than I do.” I don’t know if it was true, but it sure felt like it.

It was clear the leadership had built a culture where people truly cared. Not just about doing their jobs, but about understanding why things worked the way they did. Everyone from hourly operators to engineers was fully invested in the success of the plant.

That experience solidified something for me: the way we lead directly shapes the culture and performance of an organization. It’s not a new concept, but seeing it in action left a lasting impression. It still influences how I approach leadership and team engagement today.

Does Continuous Improvement Work Have to Be Industry-Specific? You Decide.

I often meet people who are interested in the work I do, and sometimes, these conversations turn into future business opportunities. One statement I hear quite frequently goes something like this: “I see you’ve made great strides working with manufacturers in [insert industry here]. But we’re different, so I want to know what experience you have in my industry.”

Most of the time, I have to tell them that I don’t have direct experience in their industry. I know that’s not the answer they’re hoping for, so I explain that many of the principles I use are applicable across industries and situations.

The first principle I rely on is that people want to win. If there’s a problem affecting them, they want to solve it—they don’t want to be adversely impacted by it. I tap into this natural desire to win and facilitate the team toward success by engaging them and building a team-based approach to problem-solving.

All the work I do before, during, and after Kaizen events is designed to set teams up for success. I create plans tailored to tackle the specific challenges they’re facing. I also design activities and experiences that allow team members to participate, share their ideas, and take ownership of the solutions. To me, that’s the essence of winning.

Another principle I follow is that all industries involve processes that require people. As long as the team can map out the processes they’re working with and identify the waste, they have the potential to make meaningful changes. My job is to help them spot that waste and equip them with the tools and techniques to reduce or eliminate it.

My third principle is that people will always rise to the expectations we set for them. Throughout my Kaizen events, I aim to set the bar as high as possible for the team, and they almost always meet or exceed those expectations. When they do, I raise the bar even higher, and, unsurprisingly, they rise to the occasion once again.

There are many other principles I use, but in my experience, these three are enough to allow me to work effectively in any industry—no matter the complexity or my prior experience with it.

I’ll admit that I’ve missed some opportunities to help prospects just because I haven’t worked in their specific industry. But I also believe they’ve missed out on the chance to work with me and see how I could help their teams solve critical business problems in a sustainable way.

My best advice to anyone considering hiring outside help to solve critical business problems is this: rather than focusing solely on past experience, consider the approach. Make sure it fits with—and enhances—your people engagement goals and leadership style.

Hope is a Precious Commodity

In a previous story, I described how a strategy session for a building products company led to several reliability improvement Kaizen events. This story focuses on one of those events in Mississippi.

I’m passionate about helping teams improve the reliability of their processes, using basic yet effective techniques to immediately boost the performance of their manufacturing lines. The best part is that the team can see and feel the results, and the techniques I teach are easy to learn and transferable to other lines and processes within the facility.

I flew into Memphis early on a Sunday morning, with no plant commitments until the afternoon, so I decided to tour Graceland and learn more about Elvis Presley. Although I wasn’t a fan before the visit, I gained a lot of respect for the man, his philanthropic efforts, and his impressive cars and eccentric outfits. It was quite the experience.

Afterwards, I met my contact at the plant, and we set up the meeting room for the upcoming week. He mentioned that many of the team members were hourly operators and mechanics who were skeptical about what could be achieved, and whether their voices would truly be heard. We walked through the plant, and he showed me the line we would be working on. Based on what I saw, I was confident we could make a real difference and engage the team in a way that would be meaningful to them.

On Monday morning, we kicked off the session with safety expectations, introductions, a charter review, and an overview of Lean and reliability principles. I quickly learned that most of the team members had no prior experience with Lean or Kaizen, so I had to start with the basics. This typically takes about 2 to 3 hours, and I present it using PowerPoint and activities. I know that people aren’t always excited about slides, but in my experience, some foundational understanding is necessary before we take our Gemba Walk. It used to take a full day, so I think I’ve gotten more efficient at it.

During the Gemba Walk, the team members were able to connect the reliability concepts I was teaching them to the issues on the line. If they were unsure about something, I could point out specific opportunities for improvement.

Back in the meeting room, we identified and prioritized the areas we would focus on. We broke into three sub-teams, and I worked with two mechanics and an operator to begin with the most basic tasks: centerlining and leveling the equipment.

They were shocked to see how much of the equipment was misaligned and out of level. The good news is that by the second morning, everything had been leveled and centered. The better news was that when we restarted the line, it ran better than anyone could remember.

Excitement began to fill the team, and improvements were happening across the board. By Wednesday, Jake, a mechanic who had been with the plant for over 20 years and was initially skeptical, came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder, and said, “Adam, you messed up (not exactly what he said, but you get the idea)! You gave me hope!”

I told him, “I’d like to say I’m sorry, but I’m not! Now that you know what’s possible, your job is to share it with your coworkers on the other lines!”

The rest of the week flew by, and by Friday, we had achieved something we were all proud of. The difference between this line and the others in the plant was striking. Now, the only thing shutting the line down was planned maintenance.

Jake took on the role of Area Owner, proudly holding himself and others accountable for following all of the reliability and safety requirements on the line. During a recent visit to the plant, he even demonstrated the principles of reliability to my original sponsor, the vice president of manufacturing.

Skepticism had been replaced by optimism, and the plant has already begun transferring what they learned to other lines. Before long, they should have all of their lines operating at higher reliability levels.

Simpler is Safer, Lighter, and Better

I was in Florida, working with a residential building products manufacturer on our second Kaizen event together. This time, we focused on improving materials delivery to the production lines. The tasks were challenging, physically demanding, and slow, leading to high turnover in the material handling position.

Our ultimate goal was to make the job safer and easier, reducing turnover and its associated costs while boosting employee satisfaction across the organization.

We started the week with a Lean Principles workshop, followed by a Gemba Walk to observe the current processes. The good news? There were plenty of opportunities for improvement. The better news? Together, we’d brainstorm and implement solutions to reduce waste and achieve our goals.

The team divided into three sub-teams, each focusing on a specific area:

1. Delivery and loading of granular materials to the line

2. Organization of raw materials

3. Delivery and loading of rolled materials to the line

Granular Materials Team

This team observed workers shoveling materials into buckets, carrying them up a ladder, and pouring them into bins for processing—a labor-intensive and risky process. Could it be automated?

With creativity, quick thinking, and the repurposing of existing equipment, they modified a shop vacuum to draw materials directly from containers into the bins. They added a simple sensor to stop the vacuum when the bin was full and another to alert the operator when it was time to restart.

Organization Team

Using spaghetti diagrams, they mapped operator movements during daily tasks. The diagrams revealed a chaotic system: materials were stored wherever space was available, with no clear organization.

By rearranging the workspace, they created a visual and logical storage system, reducing unnecessary movement by over 75%.

Rolled Materials Team

This group tackled three main issues:

1. Placing rolls on a carrier

2. Placing the carrier on the production line’s framework

3. Moving and removing rolls when empty

To address the first issue, they replaced the heavy, cumbersome threaded rod and collar system with a smooth rod and spring clamps, similar to those used in weightlifting. This eliminated the time-consuming process of centering the roll and screwing collars into place. It also removed the need for heavy end plates, reducing the roll’s weight by over 10 pounds.

For the second and third issues, eliminating the end plates allowed them to redesign the system. They replaced the cradles on the framework with pinned locations, enabling rolls to slide directly into place and be securely pinned. This made centering effortless and eliminated the need to lift rolls over cradle points.

The Results

By the end of the event, every team had developed solutions that made the work safer, simpler, and more efficient. Even better, the changes were cost-effective and could be easily replicated across other lines in the facility.

Early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Employees report higher satisfaction and engagement, and we anticipate this will lead to significantly lower turnover in the material handling role.

Sometimes, the simplest solutions really are the best.

Improving Safety from the Perspective of our Customers

Armstrong World Industries has a strong safety culture and is relentless in driving to zero injuries globally. Early on in the journey to zero, our factories focused on compliance, holding people accountable to wear their safety glasses, safety shoes, and follow various protocols. That took safety to a certain level, but the company performance plateaued. How could we get to the next level of leadership?

The St. Helens Oregon ceiling tile plant decided to be the pilot location for behavioral based safety. In this approach, leaders demonstrated their commitment to safety by directly participating in the safety process on a continual basis. They would always talk about and demonstrate their commitment to safety through their words and actions. The plant’s safety performance improved dramatically, and the rest of the company adopted behavioral-based safety at all of the manufacturing and corporate locations.

Over the next few years, the number of global injuries was reduced by a factor of ten. While this sounds like a great improvement (it was), we still weren’t at zero, so the effort could never be reduced. I was offered the opportunity to become the production manager at St. Helens and jumped at the chance. Not only were they known for their safety approach, but also the team-based atmosphere at the plant. I had participated in many teams and projects at St. Helens prior to taking the position, so I knew firsthand what it would be like to work there. I knew I would learn a lot, while bringing my organizational skills and performance focus to the plant.

I spent many hours on the floor, getting to know the people, the processes, their approach to safety, and how I could affect performance in a positive way. One thing I quickly noticed was how everyone seemed to genuinely care about each other’s safety. I felt like a newbie, awkward in my safety conversations. The whole team was lightyears ahead of my safety understanding.

One day, I was talking to Olivia, the plant manager, about my novice level approach to safety. She told me, “Adam, you need to drop any titles and preconceived notions you have about any of your team. When you are coaching them around safety, you are equals, trying to help each other stay safe.”

That made so much sense and I wondered how she knew this was the essence of my problem. I guess they didn’t make her plant manager for nothing! I thought about it and came up with changes to my safety approach I thought would make a real difference for my team members.

I decided to be more purposeful in my interactions while on the factory floor. I wanted to find something to discuss with each team member about safety to help strengthen both our understanding and commitment to safety. I started using “Show me” questions. Here’s an example: “Show me the most critical safety risk you believe you’ll face today.” When the team member presented their issue(s), we could both engage and learn about it and even come up ways to reduce the risk. Sometimes, we could make physical changes to prevent the risk. Other times, it was just the discussion that strengthened our resolve to protect ourselves and others.

This approach to safety has helped me in all my employee interactions. Always be purposeful when working with someone, even if you just want to know about their day or their family. You can always learn something and reinforce critical information to help their efforts and lives.

Firm in our Convictions

I was promoted to business unit manager in a union facility for Armstrong World Industries. The relationship between management and the hourly employees had been strained for many years. It was so bad that on my first day on the job, there was a sign that said, “the plant will be closing in two months.” I wondered why they had so little faith in me. The shop steward told me, “Adam, even if we could trust you, we didn’t trust the person before you and won’t trust the person after you.” It was like they had given up on any form of leadership and stability.

I spent many hours on the shop floor, getting to know the employees. At least those who were willing to talk with me about something other than how horrible they thought management was. It was a very stressful time in my career. For the first six weeks of my tenure, we didn’t have a plant manager. He was relocating from Mississippi and hadn’t arrived yet.

When Bill arrived, he called his staff into a meeting to get to know each other and share our insights into the current situation. We talked about the strained relationships and non-compliance around safety and work practices. Bill listened to us carefully and asked many probing questions. Then, he told us our first priority must be to protect our employees through a consistent and strong safety program. We would go after this one requirement at a time.

The first safety compliance item we agreed to go after was the wearing of safety glasses. We had many processes that were dusty, dirty, and in some areas there was a risk of chemicals splashing on the people doing the work. So, why weren’t safety glasses already a requirement? The union proudly stated they had ended the requirement ten years ago. How was this even possible? How could management give away their rights to protect the workers, I wondered.

We couldn’t go backwards, but we could move forward. Bill met with union leadership and informed them we would be reimplementing the safety glasses requirement. The union argued vigorously, but Bill stood firm in his convictions that keeping foreign objects out of people’s eyes was more important than the additional burden of wearing the glasses. We held crew meetings to roll out the requirement. There was a two-week grace period, and then anyone who wasn’t wearing the glasses once they arrived at work would be placed in the discipline system.

Our supervisors hadn’t had to enforce this requirement for years and had looked the other way around many other safety violations. The staff agreed to be on the floor for many hours each day to help enforce the requirement and explain the thinking behind it. Early on, I received many comments similar to this one: “I hate wearing safety glasses. We never had an eye injury, and you can’t prove this will help anything.” My answer mirrored others on the staff, “I never want to wish I did something to prevent your eyes from getting injured if the unthinkable were to happen.” This answer wasn’t typically received in a positive manner.

After a few weeks, Bill called another staff meeting. We talked about how things were going. We shared the many complaints we received. Bill said, “Good. At least their talking about safety glasses, even though it’s negative. The more they talk about it, the more it’ll get into their heads.” This was an interesting approach I hadn’t thought of.

After a month and many grievances filed, employees were consistently wearing their safety glasses. Now, we were ready to roll out the next safety compliance requirement, lock-out. This caused a new furor. Lock-out was critical to preventing major injuries. Some of our equipment wasn’t even equipped to be locked out properly, so we invested a lot of money and resources to make the equipment capable of being locked out. The fuss over safety glasses subsided and the new enemy was lock-out.

Bill brought us together again and explained we would continue to roll out critical safety requirements in this manner, until we were truly compliant and protecting our workers properly. He told us the more quickly we brought a new requirement on, the sooner the prior requirement would be accepted (or at least absorbed). He was right. Over the next year, we were able to drive safety compliance while building trust of our true intentions – protecting the safety of our workers.

What do you do when you’re the Industry Leader – you Improve!

Armstrong World Industries is the global leader in suspended ceilings. That might not seem like much to you, but when you sell over a billion square feet of ceiling tile and the grid to suspend it every year, you’re making a big impact in the construction and housing market.

One of the things that sets Armstrong apart is innovation and forward thinking in all of the things they do. Although other competitors are trying to influence building codes, Armstrong has the strongest presence and is leading the way in making sure office and other spaces are the healthiest, most energy efficient, and quietest they can be.

Paul, the head of codes and standards, was a big fan of my support to other areas of the technology department. We had many conversations on how Lean was helping his colleagues improve their processes and we often wondered how I could support his team’s efforts.

One day, we were talking about codes and standards and how Armstrong’s competitors were making inroads influencing the critical changes for building health and safety. Paul said it seemed Armstrong was losing its leadership position. People were participating on committees and submitting white papers, but weren’t moving the needle in the right direction. He felt we needed a breakthrough to retake our leadership position.

We both realized, almost at the same time, a strategy session could help drive the changes that would maintain our leadership presence. We agreed a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) session was the approach to take.

We plotted and planned. We chartered the event. We invited critical team members, including our internal customers, Sales and Marketing, manufacturing plant representatives, selected engineers and scientists, and members of Paul’s staff.

Our CEO kicked off the event and gave his support to the team. He told us what we were doing would be vital to the successful future for the company. No pressure at all! The team was enthusiastic and energized. But many of them wondered how using Value Stream Mapping would help them create a future that was any different than the path they were on.

There are two critical moments in any VSM event. The first is when you take a Gemba Walk (going to see) through your process. During this walk, the team saw many aspects of the current process that were overly complex and had opportunities for improvement. Many ideas were written down and shared.

The second critical moment happened when the team visibly mapped the current state process on a wall. There were so many steps and delays. There was waste and opportunity beyond anything they had imagined. Now that they could see it, they could do something about it. The ideas flowed even faster. There were so many things within the control of the team, and they prioritized the ideas they thought would make the most difference and could be implemented.

We built plans to attack the most impactful opportunities to drive codes and standards leadership. By the end of the week, we had a roadmap to distance ourselves from our competitors. Everybody won, as the changes would strengthen the health and safety of everyone who inhabits the office, school, and other business spaces. And, because of the alignment of the team and their sponsors, their customers would receive those benefits quickly.

Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover

For part of my career, I worked for Dal-Tile in Dallas Texas. I was the environmental, safety, health, and mining liaison for our twelve manufacturing plants. My job was to help each plant stay compliant and safe, providing training and reporting support. We had a number of factories in Texas, and I visited each one and get to the know the employees and leadership. That way, I could develop a support plan that was mutually beneficial.

We had a plant in Coleman Texas. If you look on the map, you probably won’t find it. It was kind of like driving into the middle of nowhere, taking a left, and then going another 90 miles to get there. So, that’s what I did. When I got close, I exited the highway and spent the final few miles driving on gravel roads through the middle of the town. I wasn’t optimistic I would find a factory in good shape. As I drove up to the tin building, I was wondering how this could be where they made ceramic tile.

I parked and walked into what I thought would be a nightmare scenario: broken down equipment, unhappy employees, and a poor management/worker relationship. I was wrong. When I entered the facility, it was bright, clean, and people were working safely and efficiently.

The equipment looked brand new. That is, except for one enormous clay mixer. It looked like it had been installed during the Stagecoach era. Turns out, I wasn’t far off. It was installed in 1896. I had never seen equipment that old in use in any of the hundreds of factories I had visited over the years. I had seen new equipment operate as if it was installed in the 1800’s, however.

After meeting the leadership team and touring the plant, I had to ask a question that was gnawing at me. Why was every other piece of equipment new and shiny, except for the mixer? Matt, the plant manager told me, “Adam, this mixer has been in operation for 100 years. It never breaks down, requires very little maintenance, and is easy to use. Newer mixers aren’t built to last and are prone to breakdowns.”

This made sense to me. Instead of looking for something shiny and new, we should support and nurture the things that are precious to us. This mixer was the heartbeat of the facility and as such, it was treated with extra care and respected for the service it provided to the process, employees, and customers of Dal-Tile.

I doubt there are any spare parts for the mixer, but based on what I saw, it’s probably still running to this day.

A Brilliant Invention

In my early corporate days at Thomasville Furniture, I was given the opportunity to try many things to improve the performance and quality of the operation. This story isn’t about me, but another engineer, who came up with something so creative, he saved the company millions of dollars and improved quality of the product for our customers.

We used many types of wood to create the fancy veneer tops of tables, cabinets, drawer fronts, and other parts of the furniture. The most expensive wood we used was burled walnut. It’s wood that has many swirls in it and multiple knots. Because of this, it’s prone to damage easily, and much of it has defects and cracks.

Some of the cracks could be “filled” using tape. This tape, when applied, would add moisture to the wood, causing it to grow and actually join one cracked side with another. After gluing and pressing onto a wooden core, the tape was sanded off and most of the time, the crack would be invisible to the eye.

Some of the defects couldn’t be repaired using tape. Because of this, full sections of the burled walnut veneer would have to be removed, leaving very little usable material. Our yield numbers were quite low, and even though we were making money on furniture with burled walnut veneer, we knew there was huge opportunity to reduce scrap and improve our profitability.

Jack, a mechanical engineer, thought there might be an answer, based on our ability to bring cracks together with tape and moisture. He wondered what would happen if defects could be cut out and replaced with non-defective material, and taped in place before pressing. Some of the operators were using this technique by hand with mixed results.

Jack realized doing this by hand was challenging, as the cut-out defect had to be the same size as the replacement material. Our most experienced operators could get pretty close, but less-experienced operators weren’t successful.

Jack built a small punch press in our maintenance shop and then tried different shaped punches to see if the defects could be hidden with tape and pressing. He started with a few basic shapes: square, rectangle, and circle. These shapes could cut out the defect cleanly and then  create the replacement of the same size. When the new material was applied, taped, pressed, and sanded, you could “see” the line between the insert and the original hole. We weren’t sure why, but Jack had an idea. What if he created a random shape the naked eye wasn’t used to?

After a number of experiments, he came up with a shape that looked like a bumpy potato. We had all sorts of funny names for it, some I can repeat, others I can’t. My favorite was the “Doody Punch”! We stopped making fun of his idea when he showed us the results and challenged us to find the original defect. We couldn’t!

After showing his invention to the quality control director and other leadership, he got approval to implement his solution in the veneer plant. He created a variety of sizes for the Doody Punch and from then on, we were able to salvage almost every square inch of burled walnut veneer. Jack went on to invent many more devices and solutions for our manufacturing operations. This is the one that inspired me the most in my early problem-solving efforts.

Aligned Area Owners are the glue that holds things together – Part 2

I took a site visit to a new client that runs a paper mill in Oklahoma. After a solid day of meeting the leadership team and touring the site, we agreed on a series of Kaizen events, starting with two 5S events, one on the paper mill side of the plant, and the other one on the converting side. Talk about night and day! In Part I, we saw what happens when the area owner wasn’t aligned. This story is about an aligned area owner.

After the first Kaizen event, I made sure Mike, my team leader, and Steve, our sponsor, were aligned about the approach and how we would need a strong Area Owner. They assured me it wouldn’t be a problem, as two of the participants from the first Kaizen were from their area and they were excited about what happened and what would be possible for their team.

From the moment we kicked off on Monday morning, the atmosphere was positive. Our two team members from the first Kaizen event had shared their stories of success with the new team members. Although there was skepticism, everyone seemed willing to help and try anything. The spaces were huge and the clutter seemed overwhelming. Our challenge was to reduce find and retrieval time by 75% or more. This might be a stretch to achieve.

The team immediately got to work and gave their all. By the middle of the second day, there was a remarkable change in the spaces. You could actually see the floor. Major safety issues had been eliminated and the clutter wasn’t overwhelming anymore. We could see a path to the finish and were inspired to beat the results of the first team.

During the week, we had many challenges, including finding and removing a kitty “graveyard” behind one of the storage racks (it was pretty disgusting), and going beyond our scope to rearrange some personal toolboxes in the area (I typically try to stay away from telling people how to arrange their personal stuff). The team pressed on, with an amazing breakthrough in their sights.

By the end of the fourth day, the transformation was stunning. Now, it was time to test “find and retrieval time,” We took six random items and assigned them to team members to find. The goal was to get below 2 minutes (from our baseline average of 8+ minutes). Each team member found their item and returned it to us in less than a minute. But, just to show we weren’t stacking the deck in our favor, we found two “volunteers.” Our first test subject was Steve, our sponsor. He found his item in less time than the team member who had been assigned the item in the first trial. Good thing he had a sense of humor about it!

Next, we assigned someone who had never been in the area to find a part. He took the information and walked into the wrong room. Team members wanted to help him. I told them to be patient and see how things played out. Our test subject entered the correct room after about 30 seconds of searching and went to the correct cabinet and returned the item to us in just over a minute. The team was ecstatic – they had won!

Afterwards, we went back to the meeting room and two team members volunteered to be the Area Owners, one for each room. They happily built their boards, created their audits, and took pride of ownership. What a difference from the first Kaizen event.

The vibe at the report-out was bursting with energy and excitement. All who attended were astonished at the transformation of the space and the full engagement and ownership of all of our team members. They all understood what we had done would positively benefit all of the maintenance employees, their managers, and the plant customers they served. The area owners were going to see to it things stayed that way.

Macon a productivity improvement

Many of my early projects for Armstrong World Industries were at the Macon Georgia plant. This was and still is the largest ceiling plant in the world, with a capacity of over half a billion square feet of ceiling tiles produced annually.

I was asked to join a team that was going to help the Macon plant return to budget performance by the middle of the year. At the time, I was known and requested for my product flow and team improvement experience. A group of a dozen engineers, scientists, and project managers traveled to the plant for the week to identify the work we could quickly accomplish to improve plant performance and achieve the required budget attainment by the end of the current operating quarter.

The plant is separated into two operating units: board forming and fabrication. My expertise and experience are in fabrication, so that’s where I was assigned.

When we arrived, I told the team I would take a Gemba walk of the total fabrication business unit and share my recommendations by the end of the day. Hunter, an experienced project manager, and Jason, an electrical engineer asked to join me. I was happy to have help.

As we walked the department, we saw and identified many areas of opportunity that would incrementally improve performance, but to get back to budget performance, we needed a bigger win. And then, we found it. There was a line feeding another major line. As it turns out, it was starving the following line, because it couldn’t supply boards fast enough.

We took a deeper look to see what was causing things to run so slowly. I climbed all over the line to get a visual perspective on what was happening. What I saw shocked me. Large rectangular boards were going around at angles and bumping into guides and equipment and causing jams and shutdowns. It shouldn’t be this difficult to run, I thought.

We measured the operating speed of the line and determined 18 boards could get through the line per minute, when the line was actually running, which wasn’t very often, due to jams. The line was capable of running faster, but the technicians had slowed everything down because they couldn’t trust the boards to flow through the line smoothly.

This was our opportunity. We needed to solve the problems on the line to improve the flow and allow the operating speed to be increased to match the line being fed upstream. This was the project we presented to the rest of the team. I believed we could easily gain ten percent productivity on the line, if not more, which would allow the upstream line to produce closer to its budget with the same labor and energy costs. This improvement would be worth a significant percentage of the overall losses we were trying to recoup.

We were assigned some maintenance support for the rest of the week. Using my reliability and board flow approach, we were able to get boards to flow through the line at 22 boards per minute, which was a twenty percent productivity improvement. We locked all settings in, so that we could sustain the performance and not worry about others adjusting things back to the previous conditions.

This project and many others helped the plant beat its budget commitments and continued to build my reputation as a quick problem-solver and board flow expert. Many years later, I still teach board flow and reliability techniques to clients around the world and the results have been extremely positive and satisfying.