The First Area Owner at the Furniture Company

When we started the Kaizen event, one of our team members thought we wouldn't accomplish much. In the middle of the week, he stepped up and took charge of a critical improvement area.

Charting the Course of Critical Information

We thought we had found all of the opportunities in our electronics lab 5S Kaizen. Until we realized that a critical communication was taking so long that the customer was waiting for their results unnecessarily.

All Night Long

This was my first IT Kaizen event. Our Gemba walk was scheduled from 9 pm Sunday to 1:30 am on Monday. Would the team find breakthroughs and would I be able to say awake?

The Journey of 100 Google Business Reviews

When I got my first Google Business Review, I was excited for the feedback I received. Now I wanted more! How was I going to get more, I wondered?

Five Lessons from my First Five Years in Business

Consulting is filled with ups and downs. Here's what I learned during my first five years.

Consulting is filled with ups and downs. Here's what I learned during my first five years.

Guiding Principles

Once we removed conveyer guides, we improved the performance at the world’s largest ceiling plant.

Once we removed conveyer guides, we improved performance at the world’s largest ceiling tile plant.

Scripting Changeovers Leads to Consistent Performance

Once we added another layer of communication, performance improved.

Once we added another layer of communication, performance improved.

Strengthening the Kaizen Culture

The story of how I was able to support CITY Furniture's Lean Journey

The story of how I was able to support CITY Furniture's Lean Journey

Weld it in Place to Sustain it

Before I developed the Wheel of Sustainability, I had to find other ways to sustain our Kaizen solutions. In this case, we used a welder.

Treat People with Respect

Sitting on the porch drinking lemonade with the property owner, I realized how much my manager truly cared for her and wanted to protect her interests.

True Voice of the Customer

We scheduled live furniture deliveries to test our improvements and the reaction of our customers was fantastic.

Preventing Failures Leads to Success

Using Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) to help us manage the project led to breakthrough results.

Plant Reliability Rollout - the Story of Mobile

I knew I had to do a better job protecting the plant managers and driving the cultural transformation.

Moving Mountains ... of Paint

Walking the shop floor (Gemba) showed us why the tiles were rotating in the paint booth. Now we knew what we had to do to solve the problem.

Visibility Equals Accountability

Taking our meetings out of the conference room and onto the shop floor (Gemba) raised our game and drove results immediately

Be Careful What You Ask For

My words came back to haunt me after an extremely challenging week.

Gemba in the Big City

We learned so much from going to our customers' work sites in New York City.

Why Would You Treat People That Way?

The company we were visiting was known for their focus on safety. Why were they allowing people to take undue risk in a particular job?

Pick it Up and Move it

In order to make a significant impact on performance, we had to move critical equipment to a new location and get buy-in from the employees.

Even the Weather Couldn't Beat the Team

With an impending ice storm coming, would we get enough team members to test our new process?