2024 Northeast Lean Conference Recap Summary

This year’s Northeast Lean Conference marks a number of milestones in Lean as the conference celebrates its 20th Anniversary. It also marks the 25^th Anniversary of Toast Kaizen Video and the 35^th Anniversary of the book the Machine the Changed the World. LEAN in conference name is an acronym for Lead Enable and Nurture. The theme this year was about “Leveraging Lean to Thrive in Uncertain Times” which we can all certainly relate to in some way.

“So, You’ve Read 10 Books About Lean and Now You’re Really Confused? Been There.”

The conference got started with a key note from Brad Cairns, Lean pioneer and entrepreneur, talked about his life long journey. He started like many did consuming many books on the subject. He read the Lean Turn Around by Art Byrne and started down Lean Journey. Learned he couldn’t transform people so he hired lean consultant named Jim Lewis, Quantum Lean. Read The Toyota Way and many other books. . Learned from Paul Akers at FastCap, Kaas Tailor, Michael Althoff at YelloTools, and other great practitioners. He created Kaizenify.app to bring shopfloor tools to you. He pays it forward through sharing lesson podcasts, youtube, etc.

He shared 4 lessons not learned in books that you should take note of:

1) Preparation – You need to know where are you going and where you are starting from. You need to know when you’ve made improvements. The P&L is a poor measuring tool because it last month, last quarter, last year. Measure forward looking tools (over the line chart, throughput $/labor hrs, pieces/day)

2) Internal people – You can’t transform donkeys into racehorses.

3) You - Good speech from Jocko Willink. You can improve from suffering.

4) External People – If you make the change everything will change. Are your advisors helping you? Lean is for 2% of the world. Go Hard of Go Home. You pick your hard. Are the people you spend the most time with boat ankers or propellers? Sometimes you need a kick in the butt or shove in the right direction.

How Do You Create A Lean Culture? Art Knows

Art Byrne, Wiremold CEO, (where I worked) shares how to Create a Lean Culture from his newest book “Lean Turnaround Answer Book”. Most significant steps are below:

1. If given the option no one will choose to do Lean. Communicate about the change to Lean (what, why, when, how) and what’s in it for them. Let them know they will not lose their jobs due to improvement. Everything must change. You can’t have a lean culture without a Lean enterprise involving every part of the business. Sales & Marketing – level load orders, Accounting/Finance – standard cost accounting incentives all things we try to get rid of in lean, IT/Human Resources – hire for lean. Lean is not a cost reduction program.

2. Lean can not be managed; it must be led. The leader must be an expert. You can not delegate a Lean conversion. The leader must be hands on in the Gemba. Leaders should do 12 1-week Kaizens per year to learn about Lean.

2. Requires a new mindset focused on your processes not results. A company is nothing but these 3 things: A group of people, a bunch of processes, delivering value to a set of customers.

Set Operational Excellence Goals – What are we Trying to Do Here?

Wiremold examples:

100% On Time Customer Service

50% reduction in Defects (every year)

20% productivity gain (every year)

20X inventory Turns

5S and visual Control Everywhere

3. Change Structure – Most companies are organized functionally. Align your structure with value streams and move the equipment.

4. Kaizen, Kaizen, Kaizen

Create Kaizen Promotion Office. Kaizen includes everyone. Culture changes through kaizen.

5. State your Core Values: People, Customers, Kaizen

Live by the lean fundamentals

Work to takt time

One piece flow

Standard work

Pull system

Learn by doing = culture change

5. State the Behavior you expect

            Respect others

            Tell the truth

Be fair

Try new ideas

Ask why

Keep your promises

Do your share

6. Eliminate the Bad Actors

7. Share the Wealth

               Profit sharing

               401k match

               Suggestion program

8. Run the company on Operational Excellence Goals. Most run on make the month. It takes 2 weeks to close the books then you look back at things you can’t do anything about. Look forward not backwards.

Deploy the Op Ex Goals to the team leaders, review progress weekly, ask what kaizen are you planning next week, and look forward not backward.

“If you don’t try something, no knowledge can visit you.”

 

The Five Factors of Managing Change

Lara Laskowski and Arturo Sanchez from IDEXX understand that 50-70% of change initiatives result in failure but they people they have something in common. Their organization has a cure for false starts, limited change, frustration, and very likely another failure. They created a model for Productive Change involving Vision, Skills, Incentive, Resources, and Action Plans.

Vision – You need a clearly defined vision, problem statement with who, what, when, where, and why.

Skills – Need SME of the process, create robust training plan with standards

Incentive – What motivates people to take action, WIFM

Resources – Data needed, software used, people in process, and budget

Action Plans – Need robust action plan to implement improvements with ownership.

When elements of the formula are missing you can end up with confusion, anxiety, limited change, frustration, and false starts.

 

The Magic of Change Mindset with Magician Zane Black

Brad Morrow, The Wizard of Lean, had a wonderfully engaging presentation to view ourselves as powerful change agents, embrace risks, and adopt a new view on failure.

There’re three mindsets:

Empowered Mind: Sense of empowerment means you need to take risk. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Risk-Taking Mind: The only way to expand your comfort zone is through discomfort. Embrace fear.

Fear acronym = False, Evidence, Appearing, Real

 

Failure Embracing Mind: Why do we fall? So, we can learn to pick ourselves up.

Fail acronym = First Attempt in Learning

Failure is not your last chapter.

If I am Empowered “What Will You Do Next?”

 

Wiring the Winning Organization

The final keynote of the day was from Steve Spear who has written Creating High Velocity Organizations and Wiring the Winning Organization. 25 years ago, he wrote “Decoding the DNA the Toyota Production System” which noted Toyota had created a community of scientists within their organization.

If everything’s the same (resources between car companies) but the outcomes the only thing different then it’s the management system. They create conditions to solve really hard problems. As leaders we are responsible for people solving problems. Shape the problem-solving space to move from danger zone to winning zone.

There are 3 ways:

1) Slowification – Make problem solving easier to do.

2) Simplification – Make problems easier to solve.

3) Amplification – Make problems more obvious that need solving

How do we create processes and procedures that allow for problem solving. 5S, 1 piece flow, Jidoka, and Andon are examples of tools that move problems from the danger zone to the winning zone.

 

I’ll share some additional highlights from my 2^nd day at the conference in my next post.

The 21st Annual Northeast Lean Conference will be October 27 & 28, 2025 at the Double Tree Hotel & Conference Center in Manchester, NH.

The 2025 Northeast Lean Conference

Book Review: Lean Travel

Paul Akers is the founder and president of FastCap, a product development company specializing in woodworking tools and hardware for the professional builder. Paul is an energetic speaker whose core passion is helping people discover their full potential and showing others how to implement Lean in their business and personal life.

Paul learned to embrace adventure and pursue excellence from his father when he earned the rank of Eagle Scout at the young age of 14. About 10 years ago, Paul decided that he wanted to become a world-class giver. From experience in order to have a great travel experience, you must approach it from the standpoint that you are going to treat all the people you encounter with dignity and respect, understanding that they are working hard to help you have a great trip. If you regularly give them your respect, your smile, your encouragement, and your gratitude, your travel will be a blessing!

In addition to being grateful, another way to make your travel experience more fulfilling is to live by the adage that "less is more". In a Lean Travel context, this means travel light. simple two-second improvement can make travel more effective and enjoyable.

Paul is now an avid traveler and shares his advice and tips for making travel easy and efficient in his book “Lean Travel”. He ties everything back to lean concepts and the 8 forms of waste.

To make it easier for readers, Paul includes a section that explicitly summarizes it into just one simple concept. For example, in his first book, 2 Second Lean, the goal was to teach the reader to “learn to see waste.” In his second book, Lean Health, he said he wanted you to “treat your body like you would treat a Ferrari.” With Lean Travel, he wanted to show you how to “travel light and with a grateful heart.”

As you start this book, there are two main parts of his philosophy understand. First, what you give in the travel experience will have a profound impact on how much you enjoy it. Second, the less you bring and the lighter you travel, the more you will be able to feel and adapt to the fantastic trade winds of the travel experience. So travel with a full heart and a light suitcase!

This book teaches you how he applied Lean principals in an edgy way to improve every aspect of the way he travels. If you love travel and adventure you’ll enjoy the stories and tips to make your next trip better. If you are Lean enthusiast like Paul and myself they’ll enjoy the application of lean thinking in a personal way.

Paul offers the book for free online with many resources and videos to support his teachings. If you have a chance to listen to the audio you’ll enjoy the many off script additions that show his personality and make it an adventure.

Book Review: Lean Life

Paul Akers has written several books on how he has applied Lean thinking in business and at home. In his 4th book Lean Life, he applies the key "Lean" business elements he discussed in 2 Second Lean to our personal lives and relationships. It's the simple and practical shop floor wisdom of stopping our personal assembly line of defects and mistakes to come up with new and improved solutions.

Paul believes we think we know what we want in life and the relationships that are important to us, but in fact, most of us are simply clueless. The question is why? Because we don't know our most important customer...ourselves.

My Favorite Words of Wisdom (Quotes):

• You must slow down to go fast.
• Be happy when problems are in front of you. They are the opportunity for you to grow.
• The small act of being totally present when you are with the one you love is the gateway to a life of love and success.
• Simplicity attracts people; complexity repels them.
• The real sign of wealth are individuals with deeply engaged minds and physically fit bodies.
• Things own you and the more things you have, the bigger slave you become.
• If we have abundance, we will choose to buy something rather than use our creativity. We become lazy and miss the very essence of life: hard work, discovery, and resourcefulness.
• Life is all about what you give, but you can’t give what you don’t have. A strong self, with a clarity of purpose and a clear process to achieve it, will allow you to give more abundantly to everyone around you.
• Have the courage to surround yourself with high-quality people who love to improve and take full responsibility for their position in life.
• The daily pursuit of discovering solutions and learning from people will enrich your life beyond anything you ever imagined.

Here are the absolute non-negotiables and most important concepts of this book wrapped into six pithy bullet points.

1. Life is short.

Life is short and the meaning of this book will elude anyone who does not approach it from this critical vantage point. Life is not a rehearsal, it is for living right now. It is a gift that has been given to each of us. Life must be cherished and lived in a deliberate and thoughtful manner.

2. Life should be amazing.

Life should be remarkable, exciting, and forever improving in three critical areas: your work, your health, and your relationships. Remember, every element of life should be remarkable, settle for nothing but excellence and build a remarkable life!

3. Use your brain.

Every life experience gives you the opportunity to gain wisdom. Wisdom is essentially a crystal ball that gives you the ability to look into the future and be a better predictor of outcomes. If nothing is changing or getting better, it’s because you are not gaining wisdom from experiences.

4. Brutal truth equals courage.

Everything of significances starts with a single action…courage. Most people will not muster the courage to step definitively outside their comfort zone.

5. High-quality people.

Have the courage to surround yourself with high-quality people, who love to improve and take full responsibility for their position in life. What I do hope to achieve is to make a lasting and substantive effect on others. What I have learned is when people respect you, they will love you, and that’s a much higher and significant pursuit and infinitely more satisfying.

6. Fall in love with lean.

Falling in love with Lean will enrich your life. The daily pursuit of discovering solutions and learning from people will enrich your life beyond anything you ever imagined. Banish Sloppiness and Fall in Love with Precision. Love the idea of being precise and getting it right. Live your life in a deliberate fashion so every process serves you. This intense desire to refine all of life’s processes will energize you and deliver joy.

Lean thinkers who like to learn about the application of lean in non-traditional settings will enjoy this book. If you have a modicum of curiosity and you want to see how to do life better, then Lean Life is the right book for you.

Paul Akers has all of his books available for free in several formats here. Visit the Lean Life page for a free copy of the book and resources by chapter.

Book Review: Practicing Lean

I finally read Practicing Lean, edited by Mark Graban. Rather, I should say I listened to the audible book which was recently released. The idea behind this book came from Mark who espouses continuous improvement is never something one masters, but rather is a lifelong practice. As Mark points out, people talk about lean thinking, doing lean, implementing lean etc., but all of these phrases miss the point. Lean thinking does not contain any action; doing lean does not contain any thinking, implementing lean could mean that there is end in sight. Practicing lean means that it is something that is done to improve oneself. There is no end and there is both action and thinking.

This is a collection of informal memoirs about lean leadership and transformation in a wide variety of organizations and industries. The stories vary from 5S gone wrong to how people have become better leaders using lean methodologies. A common theme throughout most of the stories is respecting people over simply implementing tools. The individual authors highlight their deep reflection, learning and growth through the years.

The sixteen authors are:

Mark Graban, Author of the books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, blogger at LeanBlog.org
Nick Ruhmann, Director of Operational Excellence for Aon National Flood Services, Inc.
Michael Lombard, Chief Executive Officer of Cornerstone Critical Care Specialty Hospital of Southwest Louisiana
Paul Akers, President of FastCap, author of 2-Second Lean and Lean Health
Jamie Parker, 15 years’ experience in operations management / leadership in retail, service, and manufacturing
Harry Kenworthy, Expert in Lean government after a long career in manufacturing
Bob Rush, Lean Manufacturing Group Leader for Tesla Motors
Samuel Selay, Continuous Improvement Manager for the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton
David Haigh, David works at Johnson & Johnson Canada, the largest consumer healthcare company in Canada
Joe Swartz, Administrative Director, Business Transformation, Franciscan Alliance, co-author of Healthcare Kaizen
Cameron Stark, Physician and Lean improvement leader in Scotland
Harvey Leach, Principal Consultant with The Consultancy Company based near Oxford, England
Andy Sheppard, Author, The Incredible Transformation of Gregory Todd: a Novel about Leadership and Managing Change
Mike Leigh, President and Founder of OpX Solutions, LLC and former Lean leader at General Electric
Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean advisor, speaker, and author, who has advised over 300 companies on their Lean journey
Lesa Nichols, Founder, Lesa Nichols Consulting and former Toyota leader

You won’t connect to every story but there are plenty of personal experiences that you’ll relate to from your own journey. Part of the appeal of this book is that there is something for everyone within these 16 contributors. As the author pulls you in it feels very conversational.

Practicing Lean isn’t a technical book focused on tools or how to implement lean but rather a reflection of lessons learned in implementation. Common themes include: learn by doing, respect for people, experimentation and pdca, trusted mentor, and continuous learning to name a few. This book shows there isn’t an ideal lean journey but the path can be more clear learning for others’ experiences and applying the knowledge to your own journey. 

I personally found this book inspirational. It made me reflect on some of my mis-steps and learning over my more than 20 years of practicing lean. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is, well, practicing lean in their organizations.

All the proceeds from this book go to the non-profit Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation. Be sure to check out the website and read the heart-wrenching story of Louise Batz and the family who is trying to help others to never have to deal with preventable medical errors.

2 Second Lean 3rd Edition Book Review

Paul Akers, founder and president of FastCap, has published his first book 2 Second Lean: How to Grow People and Build a Fun Lean Culture at Work and at Home. I have been following Paul for several years as he has built FastCap into one of the model Lean Companies in this modern age. So now that Paul has published his story I was delighted to take the opportunity to learn more.

2 Second Lean is different than most books on the marketing written about Lean manufacturing/thinking. This book isn’t really about Lean or continuous improvement but rather the transformation of a leader. The story chronicles one man’s personal journey with the discovery of Lean and how he implemented it in his business and personal life. This personal touch makes the lessons Paul presents more relevant and lasting.

Paul describes his personal journey beginning with a total ignorance of Lean thinking, all the way to being one of Lean's greatest success stories. Paul illustrates the struggle many organizations face when their understanding of Lean is centered only around tools. To quote Paul, “Using Lean as only a tool will leave you disappointed. It is much more than that.” He learns from Domo Arigoto, Vice President of Lexus, “The most important thing for Toyota is people – teaching and training people in a culture of continuous improvement.” This is the turning point for Paul and FastCap.

In 2 Second Lean Paul outlines the steps that he personally used to transform the culture of FastCap. His approach may be a bit unorthodox as he advocates starting in the bathroom but it is simplicity that he is after. Throughout the book Paul breaks down the concepts and thinking into simple easy to understand lessons. 

This book is a very quick read but offers a number of great resources buried within its covers. There are lots of colorful photos and examples throughout the book. If that wasn’t enough Paul even uses QR Codes to link to information and videos on his websites for more detailed learning. The end of each chapter concludes with “The One Thing” which is a synopsis of what you just learned which is followed up by questions to make you act on your own situation. This reinforces the lessons and substantiates the learning for readers. 

There is an audio version of the book that recorded. This is a real treat to listen to since Paul is such a passionate personality. Anyone who knows Paul knows the energy he brings to this topic. Paul goes off script from the book but adds great value. Since the stories are so personal he ad libs throughout the recording adding some new tibits to ponder.

Paul says’, “At the end of the day everyone is a process engineer.” If you want something to stick as a leader you must expect it, inspect it, and reinforce it. Paul has simplified a rather complex process down into a simple phrase: "Identify what bugs you and fix it." Paul shows us that Lean can and should be fun.

In the 3rd edition Paul added 5 new chapters which basically answer common questions he gets. There a is a chapter on Lean Leadership why you want a Lean All-Star. Paul talks about the use of videos to put Lean on afterburners. He also shares his new building and how Lean thinking was incorporated in the design. There is also a chapter on touring his company FastCap.

I highly recommend reading this book and even further endorse the audio portion. You will find 2 Second Lean a fun, memorable, and valuable account into Lean. This story and its lessons is something everyone can benefit from personally and professionally.

Northeast Lean Conference 2017 - Integration of Tools & Culture - Recap

GBMP hosted another wonderful Lean Conference in the Northeast. A great time to network with many passionate Lean practitioners.  This year's conference was about integration of tools and culture in Lean transformation. Successful Lean transformation requires a deep understanding of the technical side of Lean supported by a culture that favors human development and broad employee engagement.

But which comes first: culture or tools...?

Here are some take-aways from the conference:

Brian Wellinghoff, Director of the L3 Journey at Barry-Wehmiller, kicked off the conference by igniting trust through improvement. Barry-Wehmiller, discovered that the purely numerical approach used by many companies implementing Lean principles was not sufficient and recognized that people are the experts. It is leadership's responsibility to encourage, empower and equip them to make the changes that positively impact their work.

Everyone wants to do better. Trust them. Leaders are everywhere. Find them. People achieve good things, big and small, every day. Celebrate them. Some people wish things were different. Listen to them. Everybody matters. Show them.

Paul Akers, President & Founder of Fastcap, shared his personal Lean Journey. Paul credits the astounding business growth to a fun, dynamic culture in which each employee puts into practice at least one two-second improvement per day.  He developed the culture by hiring the right people, relentlessly teaching and reinforcing the eight wastes in a daily morning meeting and empowering people to experiment and fail. And he has only one ground rule—keep Lean simple. 

Kim Hollon, President & CEO of Signature Healthcare, described the challenges that Signature has faced to create a culture of safety, and reflect on the leader’s role in the transformation. Highly reliable systems are a necessary but not nearly sufficient requirement for perfect patient safety.   Without an embedded culture of safety, systems can quickly become mere edifices, hiding traditional practices and behaviors.   The siloed, hierarchical structure of traditional hospitals place providers in stressful positions where it’s hard to confirm safety -- particularly in the critical handoffs between functions. A culture of transparency and open communication encourages behaviors that support the new systems. 

Karl Wadensten, President of Vibco, ended the conference with a discussion on what he call "re-entry to work." You've been inspired and re-energized and you heard lots of great ideas to make the Lean initiative where you work more successful. But how do you make sure the conference experience doesn’t end once you return home and put away the suitcase. Karl shared his ideas to share your new knowledge and outline a plan of action.

The conference was a wonderful experience.  Great opportunity to network and learn from other Lean practitioners. I highly recommend this conference because the value is unsurmounted.