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…
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…
When I reflect on my earlier career, I realize there were gaps in how we approached continuous improvement. At the time, I didn’t have the experience to see what was missing — but now, having worked with dozens of organizations across industries, the picture is much clearer. What makes continuous improvement actually work? The answer…
A few months ago, I worked with a client that had done everything right — on paper. The leadership team rolled out a new continuous improvement system with clear goals, strong messaging, and full commitment. But something wasn’t clicking. When we visited the floor, it was clear: leaders weren’t present. The system wasn’t visible in…
Most organizations launch continuous improvement (CI) with energy. There are kickoff events, training programs, and leadership speeches about the importance of change. But six months later? Silence. The boards stop getting updated. The problem-solving cadence slips. The energy fades. And frontline employees go back to the way things were before. So what happened? The Hardest…
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…
There’s a lesson I learned in the late ’90s I won’t forget. I was running the supply chain for a telecom company during a boom cycle. Business was exploding, and like a lot of companies at the time, we were pushing hard—ramping capacity, driving suppliers to increase output, and betting big on our forecasts. We…
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…
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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