Kaizen Success Stories
Real Manufacturing Results. One Kaizen at a Time
Explore real-world Kaizen success stories showing how manufacturing teams solved critical problems, improved performance, and created sustainable results.
Four Teams, One System
How a cross-functional team transformed a complex business process into an integrated system in just three and a half days.
From 46 Minutes to 15: A Huddle Transformation
How a team redesigned its weekly construction huddle in a single day and discovered a better way to manage its work.
What Are You Going to Screw Up Today?
A historic winter storm shut down the plant, stranded team members, and cut a four-and-a-half-day Kaizen nearly in half. Most people would have postponed the event. Instead, the team cut changeover time by nearly 50% and turned one skeptic into one of its biggest supporters.
From Compliance to Confidence
How a paper mill eliminated critical safety risks and created a sustainable confined-space system in one week
When My Design Didn't Win
I believed I had designed a better solution. Leadership chose a different direction. What happened next taught me one of the most valuable leadership lessons of my career: once the decision is made, your job is no longer to be right, it's to help the team succeed.
The Week They Kept Moving the Goalposts
I expected a week of management training. Instead, I spent five days having the rules changed, my plans disrupted, and my assumptions challenged. It became one of the most valuable leadership lessons of my career and one that still shapes every Kaizen event I facilitate today.
Don't Go Down the Rabbit Hole
How a tough day on the plant floor reshaped my understanding of leadership, focus, and trust.
Tearing Down the Monuments of Poor Leadership
How visible discipline and consistency helped reset culture in a struggling manufacturing plant.
How I Accidently Became a Paid Speaker
Why stepping outside your comfort zone can open doors you never expected.
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.
Raising the bar for quality
Amstrong World Industries and Worthington Steel combined forces to create the number one ceiling grid manufacturer in the world. It didn’t start out that way, as employees of both companies were feeling their way through the combination of cultures.
Never tell someone their baby’s ugly
I have been influenced by many pop-culture references over the years. During my Kaizen events, words or phrases come out of my mouth that are my attempt to make the situation relatable to the team and make them feel better about the situation they’re in and the problem they’re facing. I want them to realize it’s not the first time something bad happened in business and their problems aren’t insurmountable. I wasn’t always this way – maybe you can learn from my mistakes!
The Ship that Didn’t Sail
Sometimes, even though you know you could help a prospect, they don’t feel the same way. This is one of those stories about my inability to create alignment with a business leader.
Surviving a Brutal Work Environment
I have experienced two mergers/joint ventures in my corporate career at Armstrong. The first one was a ceiling grid venture between Worthington Industries and Armstrong. It was extremely positive and productive and is still doing well to this day. The second one was a ceramic tile venture between Armstrong’s American Olean Tile and Dal-Tile, based out of Dallas Texas. This one didn’t go nearly as well. I learned many lessons from the Dal-Tile experience, mainly about my ability to survive.
Do Your Due Diligence
Midway through my corporate career, I was a senior industrial engineer at Armstrong World Industries. I spent most of my time providing support to our many manufacturing facilities all over the world. I have always been fascinated by manufacturing and it never ceases to amaze me how good (and bad) decisions can immediately impact performance.
Leadership Commitment in a Most Challenging Situation
Last year, Dave, a network connection, reached out to me to see if I could help him in his continuous improvement journey. His wife had worked with me at Armstrong, and one evening he was talking with her about some of his frustrations at work. She said, “If you want to get the right help, call Adam. He is tenacious and won’t let you or your team fail.”
Carrying a Heavy Weight on My Shoulders
When you are in the heat of battle, you don’t realize the toll it’s taking on your health. I was the business unit manager for a vinyl flooring operation for Armstrong World Industries for two years. During that time, we were in a continual state of downsizing. This didn’t help the relationship with our union. It seemed like everything we tried to do to improve safety, cost, quality, or customer service was met with resistance.
The Littlest Negotiator
There is always a compromise that can be made. You just must know what you want and figure out how it will benefit both parties. I have been negotiating since as far back as I remember. Sometimes it was bedtime, eating my dinner, or putting off homework to go outside and play. Parents don’t typically cherish those negotiations and kids rarely win (at least I didn’t most of the time).
Go to the Source to Get the Correct Information
I was working at the American Olean ceramic tile facility in Olean, New York as the Industrial Engineering manager when we merged with Dal-Tile. I was offered a position as an industrial engineer at the corporate offices in Dallas, Texas. I was very impressed with the manager who I was going to report to, so I took the opportunity and moved my family south.
Perfection Isn’t Always a Good Idea
In the 1980’s, Thomasville Furniture was the market leader in high-end furniture. They were extremely focused on process improvement in all areas of the business. I worked on a staff of industrial engineers. Each of us supported one or more of the many manufacturing facilities. We were tasked with finding ways to improve safety, quality, productivity, and customer service.