Leadership decisions shape the system, even if lean leaders don’t see it. In this article, Ed Hoffman shares why surface-level alignment isn’t enough, and what happens when leadership disconnects from how work actually flows.
When Layout Is the Real Problem If your plant feels like organized chaos – constant firefighting, late deliveries, excess WIP, increased operating costs despite process improvements – odds are the layout is part of the issue. Many manufacturers try to solve missing delivery dates, fighting WIP pileups, or spending too much time (and money) moving…
Manufacturers are obsessed with waste. Scrap. Downtime. Defects. All of it matters. But in my experience, the biggest waste is the one almost no one talks about: not using the knowledge and capability of your people. The Manufacturing Waste You Don’t See You walk into a plant and see the usual problems: quality issues, long…
In the post-close phase of private equity, speed is everything. The pressure is on: drive EBITDA, reduce costs, scale operations, and show results. Fast. But here’s the hard truth: you can’t scale chaos.
Lean manufacturing is one of the most misused terms in industry. It’s often pitched as a checklist of tools or a methodology you can buy off the shelf and plug into your production floor. But that belief is not just flawed — it’s dangerous. Thinking of lean as a toolbox leads to inconsistent results, frustration,…
Why So Many Metrics Miss the Mark Ever sat through a weekly update meeting wondering, “What does this number actually mean?” I’ve seen it too often: thousands of metrics tracked across a company, yet no clear understanding of what success looks like. At a major aerospace and defense manufacturer, we discovered over 9,000 different metrics…
In the post-close phase of private equity, speed is everything. The pressure is on: drive EBITDA, reduce costs, scale operations, and show results. Fast. But here’s the hard truth: you can’t scale chaos. Many portfolio companies try. They sprint with urgency, hire aggressively, double the sales target, and squeeze the production schedule. But underneath the…
Most operations leaders have felt it: that sinking moment when a production line grinds to a halt because one small component didn’t make it into the build plan. Suddenly, everything waits. Teams scramble. Deadlines slip. And you’re left asking, “How did we not catch this sooner?” This isn’t just about a missing fan blade or…
In private equity consulting, value creation has a clock on it. You don’t have ten years to build operational maturity. You’ve got maybe three. And in that window, you need to scale, stabilize, and often restructure, without losing control. That’s why operational excellence isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a requirement. And it has to start…
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…
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