Video Kaizen Success Stories

See Real Manufacturing Results. One Kaizen at a Time.

Watch Adam Lawrence share the stories, strategies, and breakthroughs behind real Kaizen transformations.

Adam Lawrence 8/15/24 Adam Lawrence 8/15/24

Go with your Gut

I bought 200 ninja stress relievers to bring to a conference. My marketing mentor thought it was a bad idea. I decided to make the best of my "bad" investment.

A picture of a Ninja stress reliever that I hand out to all of my team members. It's on a brown desk surface.

Adam Lawrence 8/1/24 Adam Lawrence 8/1/24

Getting More than they Bargained for

We were conducting the first 5S Kaizen at the plant. With so much disorganization and clutter, it was affecting the team's changeover performance. When I introduced the concept of Spaghetti Diagrams, it opened their eyes to the possibilities and reduced the changeover time by more than 50%.

A pen is checking through an oval. Three other ovals are already checked.

Adam Lawrence 7/18/24 Adam Lawrence 7/18/24

Five Tips for Effective Meetings

Do you dread going to meetings? If so, follow these five tips and you'll have more effective meetings and your teammates will thank you.

Four office workers, two male and two female smiling and discussing something around their laptop computers.

Adam Lawrence 7/4/24 Adam Lawrence 7/4/24

Carrying a Heavy Weight on my Shoulders

We had a challenging relationship between our hourly workers and management. I never realized how much it affected me, until I left and my neighbor saw the difference in me.

A man carrying a large boulder on his back, up a sandy hill in the hot sun.

Adam Lawrence 6/20/24 Adam Lawrence 6/20/24

A Picture is Worth More than a Thousand Words - It's Priceless

The leadership team didn't seem too interested in what I had to offer, until we showed them the before and after photos from their sister facility. Then, things got exciting!

A hand pointing to a diagram on a board. Two office workers, one male and one female, clapping.

Adam Lawrence 6/6/24 Adam Lawrence 6/6/24

A Challenging Place to Work

What appeared to be the hardest and hottest job in the company was the one valued most by the technician doing the work.

An outdoor thermometer, on a sunny day, showing that the temperature is 40 degrees Celsius.

Adam Lawrence 5/9/24 Adam Lawrence 5/9/24

Go to the Source

There were twelve different reports from eight different states all due at the same time. The only way to stay compliant was to contact each state agency and ask for their help.

The right hand of an office worker, with a pen in it, looking over a document. The left hand is flipping the pages of another document.

Adam Lawrence 4/25/24 Adam Lawrence 4/25/24

Like a Pro

One of our team members was shy and reserved and didn't want to present during the report out. We were able to convince him and he was so passionate about our improvements, the audience was inspired.

The back of a male office worker, in a blue shirt and tie, speaking to a blurry room of people listening to him talk.

Adam Lawrence 4/11/24 Adam Lawrence 4/11/24

Perfection Isn't Always a Good Idea

We brought robots into our dining room table factory, thinking that they could make a much better looking and consistent product than we could by hand. They succeeded, only to be rejected by our customers.

An orbital sander on a piece of wood, with a lot of dust on the sander and the wood.

Adam Lawrence 3/19/24 Adam Lawrence 3/19/24

The Sexiest Man in Pensacola

At the end of every Kaizen event, we created a report out and practiced it before sharing it with the leadership team. Team members were having so much fun that I didn't know if I would still have a job when it was over!

Five coworkers smiling and laughing around a work station.

Adam Lawrence 3/13/24 Adam Lawrence 3/13/24

My First Process Improvement Project

When I started my career, I quickly learned how important it was to spend time out in the process and create good working relationships with the people doing the work. Go to Gemba!

A blue card, with the words, "I'm new", held in a silver clip, against a blurry backgound.

Adam Lawrence 3/6/24 Adam Lawrence 3/6/24

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.

A person holding on to a flag, with the sun shining behind him and the flag.

Adam Lawrence 2/28/24 Adam Lawrence 2/28/24

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.

A surface of a desk, with a calculator, notepad, computer keyboard, charts, and a pencil on it.

Adam Lawrence 2/21/24 Adam Lawrence 2/21/24

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?

Six coworkers having fun and celebrating something outside.

Adam Lawrence 2/14/24 Adam Lawrence 2/14/24

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?

A yellow word balloon, on a light blue background, with 5 stars in the middle of it.

Adam Lawrence 2/7/24 Adam Lawrence 2/7/24

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.

The Kaizen Ninja, kicking the words "5th Anniversary" into the air in a word burst.

Adam Lawrence 1/24/24 Adam Lawrence 1/24/24

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.

A compass, pointing just slightly to the east of North, where the word "Guide" is located on the compass face.

Adam Lawrence 1/10/24 Adam Lawrence 1/10/24

Scripting Changeovers Leads to Consistent Performance

Once we added another layer of communication, performance improved.

Clean and shiny gears are interacting with rusty gears.

Adam Lawrence 12/27/23 Adam Lawrence 12/27/23

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

A board with information about culture written around the words, "Culture loading...." There's also a computer keyboard, a coffee cup, crackers, and pencils.

Adam Lawrence 11/15/23 Adam Lawrence 11/15/23

Weld it in Place to Sustain it

A man wearing a welding mask, welding two parts together at a wall.

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.

See Real Manufacturing Results. One Kaizen at a Time.

Based in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Helping manufacturers solve critical business problems worldwide.