The Machine That Changed the World – And What It Missed Entirely

When The Machine That Changed the World hit bookshelves in 1990, it reframed how we thought about manufacturing. It introduced “Lean,” praised the brilliance of the Toyota Production System (TPS), and sparked a wave of continuous improvement initiatives across North America.

But the book also included a fatal assumption—one that’s done more damage than good in the decades since:

“Lean does not depend on culture.”

That line was wrong in 1990, and it’s still wrong today. Because people don’t transcend culture. They work within it.

And when you ignore culture, you design failure into your system before it even starts.

Lean’s Cultural Blind Spot

Toyota made Lean work in North America—but only under very specific conditions. The Georgetown, Kentucky plant was built from the ground up. It avoided the entrenched labor-management conflicts of the UAW. It had a stable process and a carefully selected workforce. There were study trips to Japan. Leaders were mentored. Systems matured.

It worked—because the environment was designed to support it.

Compare that to most manufacturing environments today. Do we have that kind of clean slate? That time? That trust? That stability?

The truth: we don’t. And yet we continue to force Lean as though none of that matters.

Enter TIP – A Better Way to Begin

That’s where the Throughput Improvement Process (TIP) shines. TIP doesn’t require perfection or transformation. It just needs a team, a constraint, and the will to make progress now.

? No need for full org alignment

? No need to transform the culture overnight

? No need to sell people on abstract philosophies

You find the bottleneck. You fix it. You measure the increase in Net Profit. That’s it.

The beauty? It works within the North American business culture—where speed, results, and ROI aren’t just desired… they’re expected.

And when people see real results, they pull the process in. That’s how viral adoption works.

?? Coming Soon: The Throughput Improvement System

I’m putting the finishing touches on my new book, The Throughput Improvement System, which details how TIP works, why it succeeds where Lean often struggles, and how it has already created billions of dollars in value—quietly, effectively, and often in places where Lean was failing.

This book is for the doers. The change agents. The ones who are tired of hearing “we’ve tried that before.” The ones who lie awake at 3 a.m. replaying chaos from the day before and wondering if it can ever get better.

It can. You just have to start in the right place—with the constraint—and build from there.

?? Call to Action

If you’ve tried Lean and stalled... If your team is overwhelmed, not aligned... If leadership support is weak or scattered...

Don’t wait for a cultural transformation. Create results instead.

Let’s start a new conversation—one rooted in reality, proven in performance, and measured in Net Profit.

Drop a comment, share your experience, or message me directly. The change you’ve been waiting for might be a lot closer than you think