Making Lean Work Ltd

💥Breaking News... today I can finally share that My book 'A Leaders Guide to Making Lean & Continuous Improvement Work' has received the Shingo Publication Award from the Shingo Institute. I’m absolutely thrilled and genuinely honoured. The reason the book was written is simple. After more than 30 years working with organisations across manufacturing, healthcare, aerospace and technology, I kept seeing the same pattern: Improvement wasn't failing because people lacked tools. It was failing because the leadership system wasn’t designed to support improvement. Teams trying hard. Leaders firefighting. Lots of activity. Very little sustained change. The book was my attempt to explain what actually makes improvement work in practice. Thank you to the Shingo Institute and everyone who supported the book along the way. #ShingoInstitute #ShingoPrize #Leadership #Makingleanwork #Kaizen

🟢Only in Ireland… 🇮🇪 No, no, no… Not on your Nelly 🙂 A workman walking down the road… wheelbarrow full of oversized parts. Looks ridiculous, right? Except… this is exactly what’s happening inside most organisations. Not fixing problems. Just moving them around. Carrying the bumper. Clearing the mess. Getting the line running again. Ops director stuck in micro-managing & firefighting mode While the real issue? Untouched. Ignored. Designed in. Processes that are: ❌ Not capable ❌ Not repeatable ❌ Not available And leaders wonder why: Margins are tight Delivery is unreliable Teams are firefighting This isn’t a people problem. It’s a leadership system problem. Workarounds are not clever solutions. They’re a signal your system is broken. # leadership #lean #continuousimprovement #makingleanwork

⁉️ Can I say this… I used to love that new book feeling… Like a new car. The smell. Opening it up. Now? Couldn’t care less. I’d rather see a book that’s been used… Dog-eared. Marked up. Corners folded. Stuff people keep coming back to. Not sitting on a shelf for show. Because here’s the bit people won’t like: Kaizen is overrated. Most organisations don’t have a tools problem. They’ve got a system that can’t improve. So they add more: Workshops layers of management Initiatives “Programmes” Same problems. If delivery’s still slipping costs still creeping capacity still tight… It’s not because you need more Kaizen. It’s because the way you run the business hasn’t changed. #makingleanwork, #leadership, #kaizen, #leanmanufacturing

😁 This could be a tough crowd… which is exactly why I’m looking forward to it. In a few hours i'll be presenting to the MSc Lean Operations Alumni group from Cardiff (LERC) and Buckingham (BLUE). The Alumni is a group of 150 members that represents some of the very best improvement experts around. People who’ve been there and done the work. So the honest question is: What can you teach a group like that? Probably nothing. But maybe… something that resonates. Over the last few years, I’ve been digging into a question that refuses to go away: With all the training, tools and investment… Why do so many organisations and their teams still struggle to make Lean and Continuous Improvement actually work Everyone there will have: ✔ Enormous amounts of experience ✔ Delivered real results ✔ Led major initiatives ✔ Held serious roles And yet, when you zoom out across industries… 👉 Sustained, high-performing improvement cultures are still rare 👉 Job boards are full of “Head of Transformation” roles 👉 Organisations keep restarting improvement programmes That gap between effort and sustained results is what I’ll be sharing. Not teaching. Just comparing notes. Let’s see what lands. #MakingLeanWork #LeanLeadership #ContinuousImprovement #LERC #CardiffUniversity #BuckinghamUniversity #LeanMasters #LeanMastersAlumni

💥 Most organisations aren’t short of improvement knowledge. And yet they are far from an effective CI culture. I still see the same pattern: Kaizen events happening KPIs being tracked Management speak improvement lingo …but delivery still slips, problems keep coming back and costs increase Recently, I had a great conversation with @Patrick Adams and @Shayne Daughenbaugh on the Lean Solutions Podcast about why that keeps happening. A few things that came up: Leaders focus on efficiency, not flow Improvement gets handed off instead of led Daily management either doesn’t exist… or isn’t taken seriously Teams put a lot of effort into problems that don’t actually move performance Nothing new or revolutionary. Just the stuff that actually makes the difference and is usually missing. If you’re trying to get improvement to stick (not just start), you might find it useful: https://lnkd.in/e3JQimtn #makingleanwork, #kaizen, #Leanmanufacturing. #Leadership, #leansolutionsglobalsummit

🟢Most organisations make business improvement far harder than it needs to be Not because people lack effort. Or they lack the tools or training for improvement. Because they don’t have a Lean Management System. Without a system: - Problems bounce around. - Teams work on the wrong issues. - Leaders spend their time firefighting and explaining updates. Last week I was on-site again with some fab teams, helping: Create time for improvement Defining help chains to get responses to problems that they cannot fix themselves Fix stubborn performance problems Develop management routines to align priorities and support teams. Once the leadership system is in place, improvement stops being an event. It simply becomes how the organisation runs. #Lean #Leadership #ContinuousImprovement #Kaizen #Gemba #MakingLeanWork #OperationalExcellence #ManagementRoutines

🟢Most organisations don’t struggle with Lean because of the improvement tools They struggle because of how improvement is led. Last week, I had the real pleasure of catching up with Patrick Adams and Shayne Daughenbaugh from the Lean Solutions Podcast. We talked about some of the things that often get misunderstood when organisations try to Make Lean and Continuous Improvement work 😖 Things like: • What organisations misunderstand about Lean and CI • Leadership behaviours that nearly always slow progress down • What actually makes a value stream lean • What a practical 90-day improvement action plan can look like In most organisations there’s no shortage of effort. But teams nearly always work on the wrong problems and try to improve without the effective leadership routines needed to support it. Great speaking with you again. Looking forward to the episode going live. #Lean #ContinuousImprovement #OperationalExcellence #Leadership #makingleanwork #leansolutions

🔴Happy St David’s Day everyone 🏴 One of Saint David’s most famous teachings was simple: “Do the little things in life.” Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd' In business, it’s rarely the big transformation programme that changes everything. It’s the small, consistent leadership behaviours. The daily conversations. The discipline to avoid solution mode. The routines that create focus and drive value. This week at the Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition at ICC Cymru, I shared a few of those “small things” that eliminate firefighting and help leaders actually start leading. And yes… Kaizen is overrated – especially when it’s treated as the entire strategy. Real continuous improvement requires leaders to know: • When to improve a process • When to solve a problem • When the issue is poor knowledge transfer • When standards aren’t clearly defined • When to focus on automation • And who should be solving what type of problem and improving what And most importantly… How to build the leadership routines that supports the key strategic stages of Continuous Improvement, creating: • Clear daily management rhythms • Tiered reviews that connect performance to problems • Standard work for leaders • Structured help chain that develops accountability to the value adders • Time built in to Maintain and Improve - not just firefighting and cherry picking actions. Small improvements. Led daily. Aligned properly. That’s what creates big results. Great to catch up with old friends and make new ones. #StDavidsDay #MakingLeanWork #LeanLeadership #StopFirefighting #ContinuousImprovement #WMSC2026

💥I’m looking forward to delivering my second session at the Welsh Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition on Thursday 26th February at ICC Cymru. 🎤 Kaizen is Overrated How Leaders Can Drive Continuous Improvement That Lasts – Delivering Exceptional Results & Engagement Yes… I said it. 😁 Most Kaizen-focused teams do not deliver lasting results. Training doesn’t fill capability gaps And improvement tools are largely useless when your management system is broken. If you’ve invested in helping your team be successful, Lean, CI or Operational Excellence but performance still feels inconsistent - this session will challenge the conventional approach. In this session, I’ll challenge: • Kaizen as an improvement strategy • Why improvement teams often fail to shift performance • The leadership habits required to drive and embed continuous improvement • How to develop knowledge & engagement without adding more initiatives If you're serious about building improvement that lasts and not just activity that looks good – come along and join the session. Stage 5 @3pm - Skills, Training and Workforce Development And if you're attending, come and find me at Stand D10. Let’s build improvement cultures, not slogans. #WMSC2026 #Manufacturing #ContinuousImprovement #LeanLeadership #OperationalExcellence #makingleanwork