Color Coded Badges

How an area owner took it upon himself to ensure people were doing the right thing.

Shine a Light on the Problem

Truly understanding the problem to be solved helped the team come up with a breakthrough solution.

This Stuff Works

Credibility was gained from the user of the system, rather than the "expert".

Macon Progress

The day I learned a hard lesson about Leadership Commitment and almost got fired.

Gemba Walks

The story of how I helped a team from St. Helens improve their gemba walk and directly improve productivity.

Best Event Ever

My catch phrase for Kaizen events caught on throughout the organization and created energy and excitement for process improvement.

Attention to Detail

This is story of how getting people to utilize standard work improved performance immediately and significantly.

Call 911

By creating three questions, we were able to save critical minutes of preparation for the maintenance department.

A Tasty Breakthrough

When our experienced engineer crushed cornflakes over the ceiling tile, we knew we had our answer.

Owning Their Solution in the Weld Shop

I had to create a significant emotional event to drive our team of welders to take ownership of their process.

Where is It?

We were arguing about a problem we were trying to solve when our Sensei walked over and told us to go to gemba to find it. I didn’t even know what it was!

Go See For Yourself

When we saw what was actually happening behind the paint booth during changeover, we were horrified.

Training in the Moment

During a changeover reduction Kaizen at a gummy vitamin factory, the team learned how to use “Tell, Show, and Do” to solidify the training for the crew.

There is One Best Way

Each technician thought their way was the best, until we actually measured their approach and results.

Communication is Critical

The changeover reduction team needed some overnight help from an electrician. I had to set my all-time record for hours spent in Kaizen in order to ensure the work got done properly.

Even the Most Organized Person Can Improve

We had to be strategic when picking the first Pilot Plant area to work on with a 5S event.

Simpler is Better

Removing equipment from the line made things flow more smoothly and productivity rose.

Lead From the Front - The Story of the Pink Tools

The team thought that all of the tools would be lost if we placed them on a board for everyone to use. When I suggested to paint them pink, that got their attention

350 Business Owners

We decided that we must lead the operations in a way that everyone felt like a business owner. When that happened, performance drastically improved.

The Team Has More Power than it Thinks

We were trying to solve a critical problem with our Amazon orders. Once the team realized it had complete authority to make changes, breakthroughs occurred.