Industry Week

I am pleased to announce a new collaboration between JFlinch and IndustryWeek titled Factory Talk : Secrets of Effective Plant Leaders. Many of you have been readers of my long-time column, Lessons from the Road, which we retired last year. In this new project, we will be interviewing factory leaders,

This article originally appeared on IndustryWeek.  I’ve been rereading, in greater depth, Art Smalley’s book Four Types of Problems. Art and I first worked together about 25 years ago on the transformation of Chrysler.  It went from near bankruptcy to the most profitable company in the industry, until it was

While I intend to continue contributing online occasionally, this is my final Lessons from the Road column for IndustryWeek’s print edition. I have written this column for eight years. I have enjoyed interacting with readers, and I hope the column has provided value for you. Writing this column has helped

As my ties to Lee Iacocca include Chrysler and Lehigh University, when he passed away this week at the age of 94, I was honored when IndustryWeek asked me to write a tribute to him. Many tributes will focus on facts and events, but I wanted to focus more on

Trust is an important precondition for lean success, but it’s not as easy as asking people to trust you. You must take deliberate actions to build trust. In my latest column for Industry Week, I share the systems I use to build trust-based cultures. I have developed and tested these

How do you know when you’ve shaped your lean culture effectively?  You create a mechanism to measure the results. In my most recent “Lessons from the Road” article written for Industry Week, I share the five essential mechanisms that will help you establish a management system to measure and improve

Would you believe that transforming a 1,000 person organization and a 50,000 person organization uses the same strategy? It’s true, and it’s surprisingly underutilized. In my most recent “Lessons from the Road” article written for Industry Week, I share the approach to building a lean learning culture of every person;

In my most the recent column I wrote for IndustryWeek I explore the importance of your own personal lean journey. Your organization may not be started on its lean journey but that doesn’t mean you can’t be. When signing copies of my book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean, I would

There are connections in every organization.  Some are easily seen while others are not. But, look closely and you will find them.  In the recent column I wrote for IndustryWeek I examined the waste that often occurs in these connections.  It is in these connections, in the margins, that there

Have you ever been on the end of a batched process?  Chances are you have, either in your workplace or in your everyday life.  If you have ever been discharged from a hospital or experienced a yearly performance review, you were likely “batched”.  In the Lessons from Road the Column