Lean manufacturing is often seen as a set of principles that, once implemented, run themselves. But in my experience, the truth is far more sobering: lean systems are fragile. They require continuous reinforcement, cultural alignment, and leadership understanding to endure. Without those anchors, lean erodes, quietly, then completely. What’s left is a faded memory of…
Recently, I wrote about the four leadership types—Visionary, Realist, Critic, and Cynic—and how each one showed up during the Apollo 13 mission. It’s a powerful example of what happens when different leadership styles align around a shared purpose. Read the article here. Here, I want to shift focus. It’s one thing to have the right…
You want to scale. You want performance to be consistent, predictable, and repeatable. You want to build a team that doesn’t rely on heroics or tribal knowledge. You want accountability without micromanagement. That’s the promise of lean manufacturing; streamlined processes, empowered teams, and consistent performance. But those outcomes depend on one thing more than most…
The phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast” is well known in business — and in manufacturing, it’s never more true than with continuous improvement. Because the truth is this: you can’t improve what you don’t culturally support. At CBS, we’ve seen too many companies launch lean programs, train their teams on kaizen events, and hang…
Most organizations don’t realize how much value they’re losing through their supply chains, missing key opportunities in supply chain optimization and digital transformation to drive operational excellence. I’ve seen it time and again: inventory that looks healthy on paper, but in practice, it’s either stuck, stale, or scattered. Metrics that are being tracked religiously, but…
“Collaboration” makes for a nice slide. Clean. Polished. Easy to nod along to in a boardroom. But the real thing? It’s raw. It’s messy. It’s uncomfortable as hell. Real collaboration happens in the hard moments — when someone on the floor speaks up, even if it’s not what the boss wants to hear. When a…
Change doesn’t fail because of bad ideas. It fails because the team can’t carry it. Great leaders understand that transformation isn’t just about strategy—it’s about people. To create real, lasting change, you have to recognize the roles your team members are playing in the process and help them evolve. Let’s look at how. The Hidden…
Industry 4.0 isn’t just a catchy term—it’s a fundamental shift in how businesses operate, innovate, and compete. But what exactly does it mean? Over my career, I’ve seen businesses wrestle with technological change, but this moment feels different. The combination of AI, automation, and hyper-connectivity is reshaping industries at a pace we’ve never seen before….
When crisis hits, great leadership isn’t about one bold voice—it’s about the right voices working in sync. Take the 1995 film Apollo 13. There’s a moment that captures the power of aligned leadership. Gene Kranz, NASA’s flight director, doesn’t save the mission alone. He brings together a team that embodies three essential leadership types: the…
Continuous improvement efforts can feel like a constant push forward, but how do you know if they’re actually delivering results? Too often, organizations focus only on short-term gains—cost reductions, efficiency boosts, or problem-solving wins. But true success comes from measuring the long-term impact and ensuring that improvement efforts don’t just work for a while—they stick….
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