Lean is less about eliminating waste and more about living True North values while problem solving with a coach.

My Lean Story Origin

This story is about focusing on all aspects of Lean; the tools, the philosophy, and oneself. My story started in 1994 at one of my first employers, Motor Coach Industries. It started with the right leader, having the right vision, at the right time. Bob Munro was that leader. He also hired a consulting firm, Oliver Wight Consultants, to work with the leadership team to implement Lean. Now Lean was not known as Lean in those days, we knew it by other terms such as Just-in-Time (JIT) or Total Quality Management (TQM).

I remember thinking about how much training I was receiving, and how I would communicate this value to others. To get a value, I simply asked one of the consultants how much they were charging, then I multiplied their rate with the number of hours dedicated to coaching me. The number was $80,000 (no, I was not slow). To this day, I still say I received $80,000 of training as the start of my lean journey. This was money well spent. Not just for the company which ended up increasing its revenues from $350 Million to $500 Million in one short year, but also for Bob Munro who later used my consulting firm to help him implement change at another organization that he was in charge of.

My journey in Lean for the first 8 years was about the tools. I was working as a full-time employee, implementing standard work, kanban systems, andon, customer pull, heijunka, and variations of all of these for the purposes of reducing inventory, improving flow, and satisfying the stakeholders of the organization. As my job moved from the shop floor to the offices, I had found very little had changed as far as the techniques went. However, the opportunity for a value-stream (cross-departmental) focus was much greater, and with it came much larger benefits and rewards.

The Real Learning Begins

I remember the days leading up to the big decision to start my own consulting business. This was in 2002, I was the Plant Manager of a fire truck manufacturing company, responsible for all departments except for sales. I decided before I pull the pin, that I would get some advice, so I talked to my old bosses. I am not a paranoid person, but when 3 of my old bosses told me to start your own consulting business, I thought it might be a trick to get me feeling as much pain as I had caused them in the past. As it turns out, I was darn good at consulting. My measuring stick was revenue and profit. In 2006 my consulting firm received a Profit Hot 50 award, given to Canada’s emerging growth companies. My company was one of two consulting firms on this list that year.

Then the interesting work happened, I had to learn to market myself to get clients that trusted me to either help them solve their problems, or solve their problems. For those additional 10 years it was about making my client’s happy. The main driver for this was that I gave each of my clients a guarantee, “Don’t pay me if you’re not happy with the results.” Looking back, although I satisfied each of my customers, I think it was a crazy statement. Regardless, whether a canned solution already existed or whether I needed to do the extra work to understand the problem deeply and engineer a specific approach and experiment my way towards a solution, I did it.

90 Percent is Not Good Enough

Applying the right tool to the right problem got me 90% of the way there. In those days all you needed to know was that Lean was about eliminating waste, and Six Sigma was about eliminating variation in a process.

AHA #1 – Lean is not sustainable without incrementally solving small problems towards a challenge or vision, with a coach.

In June 2012, I had the pleasure of listening to Jeff Liker at his Keynote Speech in Winnipeg, Canada. He spoke to a room full of people and made the argument that Lean is less about eliminating waste and more about problem solving. See below.

Jeff Liker on the topic of Lean Leadership

I was so impressed with the people side, coaching part, of Lean as explained by Jeff that I immediately engaged him for the purpose of creating an online course (www.ToyotaWaytoLeanLeadership.com). This course was completed, tested with clients, proven to be successful, and finally translated and edited into a book, Developing Lean Leaders at All Levels (Click Here), making it accessible to all sorts of consultants, and companies wishing to learn from the masters, Toyota.

AHA #2 – Self-reliance is at the origins of Lean, and Excellence is the goal.

I originally met Norman Bodek back in 2007 when he was speaking at a Lean conference. He spoke about how he read the financial pages of the New York Times. One headline strangely, almost mystically, appealed to him. It said, "Productivity had declined in America." The article he was referring to was back in 1979.

Productivity quickly went from a cursory interest to an obsession for Norman. He even started a company named Productivity. This goes back before Lean was Lean. The key in those days as discovered by Norman and others was Quality Control Circles (QCC) which delivered superiority in quality of parts coming from Japan.

It was around September 2000, when Norman attended a conference sponsored by Industry Week Magazine in New York City and met Joji Arai, manager of the Japan Productivity Center. He asked Joji if he would help him set up a study mission to visit Japanese manufacturers, who graciously said yes. This was the first of over 40 study missions to Japan.

It’s amazing that Norman Bodek is still hosting Study Missions to Japan each year. I went last year, and I am going again this year. Norman has, after 40 years, developed an excellence in doing these missions that cannot be matched. With this excellence comes many bi-products. For example, he brought to North America over 200 books on Lean and led the way for Dr. Shigeo Shingo and others teachers of the Toyota Production System to make their mark on this side of the globe. He exemplifies what it truly means to be self-reliant. I joined Norman Bodek last year as he highlighted Mr. Takashi Harada, who co-authored a book with him, The Harada Method (buy the book at https://www.pcspress.com/store/).

Again, I was so impressed with Norman’s Harada Method. I got certified by Norman in 2013 and am in the process of putting an online course together for Norman on the topic. One thing Norman asks in the course is, “What is your goal, what do you want to be the best in the world at?”

An interesting question for sure!

Takashi Harada has trained over 60,000 in his method

AHA #3 – Lean should start from within and work it’s way out.

This is a little crazy to admit, but here goes… I was doing Lean they way most others’ have, WRONG! It’s debatable of course whether you should start with the tools and work your way to the philosophy, but I would argue that we missed something completely subtle in the entire journey. We really should start with ourselves, our value system, and our complete devotion to satisfying our customer. And there is no faster way to do that, then with a coach pushing you each day.

If you watched the previous video, you would have seen some really Fat guy with the bald head and goatee, I am now here to say that at the end of 2015, I feel like I know Lean at a much deeper level. You see, I celebrating the loss of 50 lbs in 5 short months, I can also say that the main reasons were my coaches, and techniques; Norman Bodek and The Harada Method, and Paul Akers and 2 Second Lean Health.

Paul Akers makes the point in his new book that the most important customer is your body. Your body has needs and if you listen to it, it will tell you those needs. He has had everything to do with the latest “lean” journey for me, and my transformation. It’s amazing that even when we hear something we may not understand it with it’s real meaning. I can also say that this latest leg of my journey is less about losing weight, and more about gaining life (the extra 20 years or more that I will enjoy).

I won’t forget the story that Jeff Liker communicated during the making of the online course regarding Lean. It had to do with a sensei pushing his student to try something each day. Daily improvement with a coach was about making a little progress each day, “Everyday a little up!” and now it makes more sense than it did in the past. This is because I am living it rather than reading or listening to it.

In my defence, if I can keep three coaches like Jeff Liker, Norman Bodek, and Paul Akers, over the past three years, I know I are making progress. These individuals “do not suffer fools.” The have no time for people who aren’t going to make it happen.

My story with Paul Akers goes back two years ago. As I was coaching a green-belt student in Belgium, my student encouraged me to look at what Paul Akers was doing over the internet. I did not know of “Paul Akers.” Who is he? I thought to myself. Just so I would not disappoint my student I would do the homework that he gave me. Well, as I looked over some of Paul’s videos I noticed one in particular that caught my interest.

I confess that if I heard this today, I would not even look up the name Paul Akers. Who has time for doing searches over the internet when we are so focused on trying to achieve the future state we have spent so much time designing. But in those days, I must have had more time. As I glanced at the plethora of videos that Paul created to communicate his 2-Second Lean concept (https://www.fastcap.com/), the second video caught my eye. He was explaining how he needed Windex at his company’s lunch table, just because he was Greek. Well, that was it! Considering my origins are in Greece, born in Athens, and owning a home in my mom’s home town of Pyrgos, on Santorini Island, I gladly called him up to see if he would do a webinar for me.

Paul Akers does a webinar for LLI

Lean dies without great coaching

My progress as an individual practicing Lean would have dwindled as many company Lean initiatives have dwindled because they were left to their own devices. The one key factor that I attribute to my continued growth is finding the right coach and taking advantage of them. Paul Akers is the right coach for me at this point in my journey.

Norman Bodek spoke many times about Dr. Shingo coming to America, and how he had the golden cow with him. He did not hesitate to milk this golden cow as frequently as he could. The great thing about having the right coaches is that they will be as appreciative of you as you are of them. But the benefits can only be measured with a personal measuring stick, and it’s hard for me to believe that any one of them could have received anywhere near the benefits that I have enjoyed to date, and will continue to enjoy for my many years to come.

As I reflect over my activities this past year, I can say that with clarity, Lean is about making daily improvements in your own life first. Then becoming a great student and follower of Lean Principles, and finally becoming a great coach to other Lean zealots. Don’t waste any time with those that do not have their heart in it, and give those that do, all the time they need.

Happy New Year! My wish for you is to find the purpose that I have in my life. As a gift, here is a copy of Paul Akers’ latest book, Lean Health (audio version too) https://leanhealthjourney.com

Click to receive BOOK and AUDIO

In summary;

Jeff Liker gave me a great tool (his online course) to allow me to reach my vision!

My vision: To travel the world consulting over the internet (https://leanleadership.guru)
I placed my vision up on YouTube in December, 2012 https://youtu.be/0I6C8A6JgXM

Norman Bodek taught me to do it now, with a coach!
Using the Harada Method, create a goal, and achieve it incrementally each day! (https://theharadamethod.com/)

AND

Paul Akers has taught me to start improving myself first! (https://leanhealthjourney.com)
Take care of the most important machine in your life, your body, because it will take care of you in the future.

Thanks to my coaches for helping me over the past 3 years, to become a better me!