WLEI - Lean Enterprise Institute's Podcast

Achieving Unprecedented Safety at Turner Construction: a Conversation with Charlie Murphy

In this edition of The Management Brief, LEI President Josh Howell sat down with Charlie Murphy, Senior Vice President at Turner Construction, to discuss the company's remarkable lean transformation journey. Charlie shares how the organization leveraged core lean principles and practices to drive a dramatic improvement in safety performance and build a culture of continuous improvement.

Key takeaways include: 

• Turner's safety performance improvement, from a recordable incident rate of 5 per 200,000-man hours down to under 1, driven by fact-based problem-solving and a rigorous management system.
• Building problem-solving capability and implementing hoshin kanri connected high-level priorities to daily problem-solving and operational improvements.
• The shift from "relentless" to "co-learning" safety incident reviews fostered a more collaborative, fact-based approach to addressing safety issues.
• Standardizing daily management systems and empowering middle managers were critical steps in scaling lean practices across Turner's 1,500 active projects.

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Driving Healthcare Innovation: a Conversation with Jay Hill

In the latest edition of the Design Brief, we sit down with Jay Hill, the Vice President of Advanced Technology at GE Healthcare, to discuss the company's approach to product development in the complex healthcare technology space.  

Jay offers insights into:  

• GE Healthcare's deep engagement with clinicians at all stages of product development, from needs identification to prototype evaluation.  

• The "lead program integrator" role and its importance in managing the integration of complex, multi-disciplinary healthcare systems.  

• GE Healthcare's structured approach to monitoring technology trends and matching them with clinical problems to inform their product roadmap.  

• Exciting applications of AI in healthcare, from automating workflows to supporting clinicians in making better diagnostic and treatment decisions.  

• Advice for medical students and early-career clinicians on embracing the evolving relationship between their practice and advancing technologies. 

Driving Strategic Alignment and Daily Improvement: a Conversation with GE Appliances Executive Marcia Brey

In the latest issue of The Management Brief, host Mark Reich sits down with Marcia Brey, the Vice President of Logistics at GE Appliances.

Marcia shares her extensive career journey at GE Appliances, spanning roles in design, customer service, distribution, quality, and eventually leading the company's lean enterprise transformation. 

Key points discussed include:

• Marcia's initial exposure to lean principles like value-stream mapping and kaizen events while leading the warehouse network.

• Her transition to plant manager of a complex refrigeration factory and the importance of daily management and engaging the team to solve problems.

• The creation of GE Appliances' lean enterprise team in 2016 to implement new processes and drive strategic alignment using hoshin kanri.

• How hoshin kanri is used to cascade objectives, enable cross-functional collaboration, and develop leadership skills through reflection.

• Marcia's advice for leaders struggling to implement strategy and daily management systems, emphasizing the need to start somewhere and continuously improve.

• Her current role in logistics and the opportunities to further explore customer problems and strengthen the value stream by breaking down traditional organizational boundaries.

Redesigning Patient Pathways: a Conversation with Dr. Carlos Frederico Pinto

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Carlos Frederico Pinto (aka Dr. Fred), a medical oncologist with over 30 years of experience leading transformative changes in cancer care. Dr. Pinto shares insights on using lean thinking to dramatically improve patient outcomes and access to care.

Some highlights from the conversation include:

• How redesigning patient pathways allowed breast cancer patients to receive all necessary tests and treatments in a single visit. 
• Dr. Fred's current work with public healthcare institutions in Brazil reducing wait times for prostate cancer patients from over 1,000 days to less than two weeks.
• The importance of daily management and developing leaders with the right behaviors and values to drive lasting change.
• Dr. Fred's upcoming book, "The Systems Architect Manifesto," which shares his insights on organizational transformation.

Daily Management to Execute Strategy: a Conversation with José Ferro

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we sit down with Jose Ferro, the founder of the Lean Institute Brasil and co-author of LEI's new book Daily Management to Execute Strategy: Solving problems and developing people every day. José shares his insights on how companies can effectively connect their high-level strategy to frontline operations and the importance of developing a problem-solving culture. 

Some key takeaways from the conversation include:

• Daily management is a structured process to align an organization's strategy with its day-to-day work.

• Solving problems at the operational level is fundamental to an effective daily management system and developing people.

• Leader behavior can enable effective problem-solving and destroy effective problem-solving.

• A clearly defined help chain connects frontline daily management to managerial-level daily management and provides systematic support to frontline operations.

• The approach to implementing daily management should be tailored to each organization's specific needs and context.

Order your copy of Daily Management to Execute Strategy: https://www.lean.org/store/book/daily-management-to-execute-strategy-solving-problems-and-developing-people-every-day/

Discounts up to 20% off are available for large orders.

Solving Loneliness in Hospitals with AI and Robotics: a Conversation with Karen Khachikyan and Mineh Badmagharian

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, we speak with Karen Khachikyan, CEO of Expper Technologies, and Mineh Badmagharian, the clinical and product development leader. They shared the remarkable story behind Robin, a robot designed to provide emotional support and comfort to pediatric and geriatric patients in hospitals and care facilities.  

What stood out most was the team's relentless focus on truly understanding their end users - the children, seniors, and medical staff who interact with Robin. Insights from the discussion include: 

• The importance of understanding your customer. The team spent years carefully observing how children reacted to different iterations of Robin, refining details like the robot's age and favorite animal to create a personality kids would love. 

• Integrating the technical and clinical needs. The two teams weren’t always aligned, but they found creative solutions by keeping the user experience as the north star.  

• Understanding the human element of robotics. - Perhaps most inspiring was the team's deep personal connection to Robin, treating it as a beloved member of the family, a sentiment shared by nurses and patients with access to a Robin. 

Before listening, check out videos of Robin in action.

• https://youtu.be/FwZuUkjoj4M
• https://youtube.com/shorts/fkBHxs2aUA4?si=mK2eKW_5lL8vyBw1 

 

Understand Before You Execute: a Conversation by AI

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, we explore the LPPD principle: Understand Before You Execute. Too often, companies commit to a product design before assessing their customers’ needs, leading to development churn and failed products. The conversation examines how to avoid that trap by precisely identifying customer needs before development and features a case study of a company that did just that.

However, people did not engage in this conversation. Artificial intelligence, specifically Google’s NotebookLM, generated the entire discussion based only on this six-minute video clip. The result is astonishing.

Tune in and share in the comments what you thought of the conversation.

Moving from Agile to Lean: a Conversation with Sandrine Olivencia

In this episode of WLEI Podcast, we welcome Sandrine Olivencia, author of Build to Sell and expert in applying Lean principles to software development. Sandrine shares her journey from waterfall to Agile and eventually to Lean Product and Process Development (LPPD), which she sees as a more holistic and sustainable system for building great products and lasting businesses. The conversation explores: 

 

• The importance of Gemba and why leaders at all levels need to stay closely connected to customers and the problems they face. 

• How Lean thinking can help companies avoid “feature frenzy mode” and maintain a clear focus on delivering customer value. 

• Why even mature tech companies often struggle to develop people and the steps leaders can take to build a culture of problem-solving and continuous improvement.  

• Practical advice on where to start implementing Lean principles, including Sandrine’s three key strategies for building a more product-led company.  

• The limitations of so-called “founder mode” and “manager mode” and how an alternative “Lean management mode” addresses the shortcomings of both. 

 

Spreading Lean Thinking to Software and Startups: a Conversation with Regis Medina

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, we speak with Regis Megina, a software industry veteran who has undergone a journey from Agile to Lean. Regis shares insights on:  

• How he transitioned from early frustrations with waterfall development to embracing Agile and Extreme Programming 

• The challenges he faced in spreading these new ideas, and why he ultimately sought a deeper understanding of Lean principles 

• Regis' current work applying Lean Thinking to startups and scale-ups, including creating educational materials and training programs 

• The importance of continuous learning, technical mastery, and developing team capabilities - rather than just focusing on process improvement tools. 

For more insights into Lean Thinking applied to product development, subscribe to the Design Brief newsletter. 

40 Years of Lean Observation: a Conversation with Art Byrne

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, LEI speaks with prolific author and business leader Art Byrne. 

During the discussion, Art shares his decades-long journey leading lean transformation, from running kaizen events with the first wave of ex-Toyota consultants in the US to leading manufacturer Wiremold to record profitability.

For a decade, Art wrote 100 "Ask Art" columns, answering the lean community's most pressing questions. He has compiled the best of those into a new book, The Lean Turnaround Answer Book: 40 Years of Lean Observation. 

Our conversation covered: 

• The transformative impact of implementing the Toyota Production System to improve efficiency, quality, and customer service.
• The critical role of leadership and involving top executives in driving successful lean transformations through setting stretch goals and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• The challenges of traditional accounting methods in a lean environment and the need to transition to lean accounting practices.
• The strategic advantages of reducing setup times and lead times in manufacturing, allowing companies to gain a competitive advantage.
• Practical insights from the author's experience writing a book to provide answers to common questions about implementing lean principles across various industries.