Wlei - Lean Enterprise Institute's Podcast

Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, join Olivier Larue, President of Ydatum, and discuss the Toyota Production System (TPS), the three elements embedded within TPS that make it more than just a production system, and the ability of TPS to foster problem-solving and creativity. Olivier worked with Mark at the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC) in the late 1990s and has led Ydatum since 2000, assisting companies in implementing its version of TPS. Olivier recently authored the first of three volumes of The Toyota Economic System, which will present the three elements of the “Toyota triangle” — philosophical, technical, and managerial — and their necessity in making TPS an economic system for growth.  TPS has enabled mass production to accommodate customization, which had been minimized in the pursuit of lower costs for large quantities of standardized goods, says Olivier. TPS allows companies to “build a product affordably and very much customized to the desires of the

Josh Howell and Mark Reich, LEI President and Chief Engineer Strategy, respectively, talk with Sal Sanchez, a Toyota veteran and TPS coach with LEI. Sal’s Toyota career began at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), the GM/Toyota joint venture and Toyota’s first automotive footprint in the United States, and continued with roles at Toyota North American headquarters and TSSC (Toyota Supplier Support Center, where he worked with Mark in the late-1990s) as well as Dana Corp. Across his career he’s learned from Toyota leaders and other notable lean mentors, including Gary Convis, which has, in turn, enabled him to help many organizations apply the Toyota Production System (TPS) and TPS fundamentals such as problem-solving and daily management.  Sal describes his pursuit of all things problem-solving while rising up through Toyota, including his role as a team leader supporting others with problem-solving issues that surfaced throughout the day, especially when an andon cord was pulled and solutions needed

Josh Howell, LEI President, talks about the relationship of problem-solving and daily management with Jill Miller, Manager for Global Learning and Development at MillerKnoll, a maker of office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings. Jill supports the development, use, and expansion of the MillerKnoll Performance System (MKPS), which she says is designed to meet customers’ needs by engaging and developing people to daily surface and solve problems. “At its heart, it’s really about building capability across the organization.”   Josh and Jill describe their experiences with how an effective daily management system makes it easy and straightforward for organizations to know what problems they should be solving. “One of the most powerful things about MKPS is that it helps make problems visible every day, right where the work is happening,” says Jill. “So when people ask, ‘What problem do we need to solve?’ the system actually helps answer that by revealing the problems that might otherwise go unnoticed. I thi

Josh Howell, LEI President, Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, and Art Smalley discuss the four basic types of problem-solving. Art is a well-known expert in leadership, management, and the Toyota Way. He worked at Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan; helped to transform Donnelly Corp. in Michigan; was a consultant with McKinsey & Co.; and has authored several award-winning books, including Four Types of Problems.   The trio set out to discuss how the framework of the four types of problems maps onto the lean management system explained in Mark’s recent book about hoshin kanri, Managing on Purpose, as well as daily management in Toyota, leadership, culture, and other related topics. The systematic intersection of these topics is a complex subject beyond just the simpler notion of “tools.” Art and Mark share respective viewpoints from their time at Toyota in Japan and what made the system so unique while trying to connect the dots of four types of problems, hoshin kanri, and other areas.  Josh kicks off

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with Sandrine Olivencia, author of Build to Sell: The Lean Secret to Crafting Irresistible Products, co-founder of Taktique Academy, and partner at Lean Sensei Partners. This is the second time Sandrine has joined us on the WLEI podcast, and in this particular conversation, we discuss why lean product and process development principles are crucial for entrepreneurs in today’s rapidly shifting market demands.  The conversation explores:   How Sandrine found her way to lean and agile and how early work by lean product and process development thinkers Al Ward, Jim Morgan, Durward Sobek, and more have influenced her career trajectory;  How to get started when it comes to building a product-led organization, in part by moving from “feature frenzy” to a focus on value-driven, performance-based product development;  What startups should be thinking about if they want to make it past those very challenging first five years;   Where leaders tend to stumble with lean

Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer of Strategy, and Karen Gaudet, LEI Senior Coach, talk with Michael Duncan, President of Viwinco, about his efforts to establish a robust daily management system in the family-owned window and door company and connect it to the company’s hoshin kanri process. Michael grew up in the company and, after rising into leadership, spearheaded the company’s transformation, implementing lean principles and tools while developing people. This enabled the company to more efficiently manage its challenging business model of customized products, varying demand, short lead times, and no finished-goods inventory. Success via lean recently has been enhanced by developing an improved strategic planning process and supporting it with a daily management system that develops a regular cadence and structure to elevate problems to manage performance, including achievement of KPIs and progress made with strategic projects. Learn more about how LEI can help your organization.

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with product leader and angel investor Phil Green about product-centered entrepreneurship and what it takes to truly create value for customers. Since 2020, Phil has been the senior advisor for B2B and technology at Harvard Innovation Labs. Before the i-lab, Phil spent over 30 years working at various startups as a CEO, COO, CTO, and a product manager. The conversation explores:  Some of the most exciting products and services Phil has seen come out of Harvard’s entrepreneurial community What it takes to create a solid MVP (minimum viable product) Why Phil teaches “minimum valuable process,” not just “MVP” The different types of challenges teams face in large, distributed organizations versus smaller startups when it comes to lean thinking How to focus on lean and agile principles rather than rituals to move fast while staying responsive to customers and market demands Learn more about lean thinking and practice at lean.org

  Josh Howell, LEI president, explores the topic of daily management with Joe Seestadt, Director Lab Outreach for Bronson Healthcare and a faculty member and coach with LEI. Joe trained as an industrial engineer and worked in manufacturing, and has now spent some 18 years in healthcare. He was instrumental in developing the Cleveland Clinic’s daily management system, which has been recognized across the industry. Joe is unique in that he is both a lean guide to others as well as an owner and user of a system and concepts that he’s helping individuals grasp as they try to transform their own organizations. He describes the importance of daily management as having the ability to know every day if you are ahead or behind, having a mechanism to solve problems at a daily beat in any type of operation (healthcare, service, or manufacturing), and as a means to bring strategy/hoshin kanri to fruition. 

Josh Howell, LEI president, talks with Dr. Sarah Womack, an eight-year veteran of Toyota and author of Toyota’s Improvement Thinking from the Inside. Sarah discusses how her transformation and that of other individuals within Toyota collectively contributed to organizational improvements and high performance. Her Toyota experiences exponentially advanced her learning and today enable her to successfully impart lean values and mindsets to organizations that are very unlike Toyota. Learn more about lean thinking and practice at lean.org

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with Steve Spear, a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, senior fellow at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, and associated faculty member at Adriane Labs of the Harvard School of Public Health. Spear is also author of The High-Velocity Edge and Wiring the Winning Organization and principal of SeeToSolve. The conversation explores:  Stellar examples of product development innovation (and the learning cultures that made these achievements possible) What Lean, Six Sigma, Agile, DevOps, and more schools of systems thinking and management all have in common What business and product leaders across hardware and software can learn from each other Key ideas and core principles you should take away from his latest book  What kind of leadership Steve believes is needed now and what good leadership looks like in practice, given all of the organizational challenges companies face today

In this episode of WLEI Podcast, we welcome Amy Smith, Founding Director of MIT’s D-Lab, an innovative university-based program in international development and a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

In this episode of WLEI Podcast, we welcome Cynthia E. Smith, Curator of Socially Responsible Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and author of Design for the Other 90%. Cynthia speaks about design as a catalyst for change and what it means, as she says, to be in “the collective work of building capacity and agency in communities across the world.”

In this edition of The Management Brief, Mark Reich sits down with Isao Yoshino, a 40-year veteran of Toyota and a driving force behind the company’s success with hoshin kanri. Yoshino shares the impact that hoshin kanri and A3 problem-solving has had on him professionally and personally.   Key takeaways include: · Multiple roles over four decades at Toyota shaped Yoshino’s management beliefs and career. · Yoshino discusses working directly with Mikio Sugiura, who was instrumental in developing Toyota’s hoshin kanri process. · Hoshin kanri can positively impact a company as it has Toyota, notes Yoshino, but it’s not without a few challenges. · Delivering bad news first and an earnest desire to learn from failures were commonplace for Yoshino and Toyota executives and fostered the improvement mindset that still thrives in the company today.

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, we sit down with Mark Dolsen, President of TRQSS, a seat belt manufacturer that supplies Toyota and other automakers in North America. Mark shares insights into TRQSS's lean journey and the critical role of frontline supervisors in driving continuous improvement.  Key takeaways include:  TRQSS has evolved its lean practices over decades, starting with the influence of Japanese coordinators and later adopting TWI principles.  The company's "TPS for Team Leaders" program focuses on developing supervisors' capabilities in areas like flow, standardized work, and kaizen.  TRQSS's quality management approach is rooted in the principle of "mizenboushi" — proactively maintaining process conditions to ensure good parts every time. Read more about how TRQSS applies mizenboushi in this paper. Mark's leadership philosophy emphasizes coaching, teaching, and empowering employees to make decisions and contribute to the company's lean culture. 

In this edition of The Management Brief, Mark Reich sits down with Geoff Miller, CEO of Grand Rapids Chair, to discuss his company's lean transformation journey. Geoff shares how the adoption of hoshin kanri and A3 problem-solving has helped the company maintain strategic focus and build organizational capability. Geoff offers a candid reflection on his leadership transformation, underscoring the importance of perseverance and continuous learning, even in the face of significant disruption.  Key takeaways include: Hoshin Kanri enabled Grand Rapids Chair to build stability in critical daily management measures like safety, quality, and reliability. The catchball process for cascading strategic goals fostered alignment and buy-in across the management team. A3 problem-solving empowered employees across departments to tackle large, complex challenges and drive meaningful change. Sustaining a lean transformation requires personal commitment from leadership to model the problem-solving mindset and tools. Developi

In this edition of The Management Brief, LEI President Josh Howell sat down with Charlie Murphy, Senior Vice President at Turner Construction, to discuss the company's remarkable lean transformation journey. Charlie shares how the organization leveraged core lean principles and practices to drive a dramatic improvement in safety performance and build a culture of continuous improvement. Key takeaways include:  Turner's safety performance improvement, from a recordable incident rate of 5 per 200,000-man hours down to under 1, driven by fact-based problem-solving and a rigorous management system. Building problem-solving capability and implementing hoshin kanri connected high-level priorities to daily problem-solving and operational improvements. The shift from "relentless" to "co-learning" safety incident reviews fostered a more collaborative, fact-based approach to addressing safety issues. Standardizing daily management systems and empowering middle managers were critical steps in scaling lean practices acr

In the latest edition of the Design Brief, we sit down with Jay Hill, the Vice President of Advanced Technology at GE Healthcare, to discuss the company's approach to product development in the complex healthcare technology space.   Jay offers insights into:   GE Healthcare's deep engagement with clinicians at all stages of product development, from needs identification to prototype evaluation.   The "lead program integrator" role and its importance in managing the integration of complex, multi-disciplinary healthcare systems.   GE Healthcare's structured approach to monitoring technology trends and matching them with clinical problems to inform their product roadmap.   Exciting applications of AI in healthcare, from automating workflows to supporting clinicians in making better diagnostic and treatment decisions.   Advice for medical students and early-career clinicians on embracing the evolving relationship between their practice and advancing technologies. 

In the latest issue of The Management Brief, host Mark Reich sits down with Marcia Brey, the Vice President of Logistics at GE Appliances. Marcia shares her extensive career journey at GE Appliances, spanning roles in design, customer service, distribution, quality, and eventually leading the company's lean enterprise transformation.  Key points discussed include: Marcia's initial exposure to lean principles like value-stream mapping and kaizen events while leading the warehouse network. Her transition to plant manager of a complex refrigeration factory and the importance of daily management and engaging the team to solve problems. The creation of GE Appliances' lean enterprise team in 2016 to implement new processes and drive strategic alignment using hoshin kanri. How hoshin kanri is used to cascade objectives, enable cross-functional collaboration, and develop leadership skills through reflection. Marcia's advice for leaders struggling to implement strategy and daily management systems, emphasizin

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Carlos Frederico Pinto (aka Dr. Fred), a medical oncologist with over 30 years of experience leading transformative changes in cancer care. Dr. Pinto shares insights on using lean thinking to dramatically improve patient outcomes and access to care. Some highlights from the conversation include: How redesigning patient pathways allowed breast cancer patients to receive all necessary tests and treatments in a single visit.  Dr. Fred's current work with public healthcare institutions in Brazil reducing wait times for prostate cancer patients from over 1,000 days to less than two weeks. The importance of daily management and developing leaders with the right behaviors and values to drive lasting change. Dr. Fred's upcoming book, "The Systems Architect Manifesto," which shares his insights on organizational transformation.

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we sit down with Jose Ferro, the founder of the Lean Institute Brasil and co-author of LEI's new book Daily Management to Execute Strategy: Solving problems and developing people every day. José shares his insights on how companies can effectively connect their high-level strategy to frontline operations and the importance of developing a problem-solving culture.  Some key takeaways from the conversation include: Daily management is a structured process to align an organization's strategy with its day-to-day work. Solving problems at the operational level is fundamental to an effective daily management system and developing people. Leader behavior can enable effective problem-solving and destroy effective problem-solving. A clearly defined help chain connects frontline daily management to managerial-level daily management and provides systematic support to frontline operations. The approach to implementing daily management should be tailored to each organization's