ILC Radio Network: Recent Episodes
Steve Wilson
ILC Radio Network - Iowa's Lean transformation station.
A platform for communicating the best and brightest strategies, methods, and tools for all those on the journey of lean and operational excellence. Join Steven as he interviews some of the world's most well known and influential Lean and Continuous Improvement Leaders, Practitioners, Authors Educators and Advisors.
Join me for part two of my interview with Becky Halstead, retired Brigadier General, United States Army, and founder of leader consultancy company, STEADFAST Leadership. We will cover truths 3-5 from her book "The First Person You Must Lead Is You". Becky specializes in inspirational speaking (nationally and internationally; corporate and academic), developing leader training programs, leader coaching, consulting and advising.Becky has over 15 years of executive‐level leadership experience, developing and training high-performing, complex and diverse teams capable of strategic planning and execution. She has a proven record of leading change, building successful teams in demanding environments (Afghanistan and Iraq, Germany, South America), and creating innovative solutions, systems and programs to complex problems. She is an experienced leader and logistician.
Join me as I interview Becky Halstead, retired Brigadier General, United States Army, and founder of leader consultancy company, STEADFAST Leadership. In her recent book, "The First Person You Must Lead Is You", Becky presents her five fundamental leadership truths- part one of this interview will cover the first 2 truths. Becky specializes in inspirational speaking (nationally and internationally; corporate and academic), developing leader training programs, leader coaching, consulting and advising.Becky has over 15 years of executive‐level leadership experience, developing and training high-performing, complex and diverse teams capable of strategic planning and execution. She has a proven record of leading change, building successful teams in demanding environments (Afghanistan and Iraq, Germany, South America), and creating innovative solutions, systems and programs to complex problems. She is an experienced leader and logistician.
Join me for this fast paced, interactive, and value packed interview with Drew Dudley, Founder & Chief Catalyst of Day One Leadership, Internationally-Acclaimed Leadership Speaker and The Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Author. Drew will be a keynote speaker at this years ILC Fall Conference.
Over the course of 30 minutes we talk about his book, This is Day One: A Practical Guide to Leadership That Matters, dive into such statements as "leadership isn't in the big things, it's in the consistent things" and "live your leadership - not someone else's", and shed a little light on what attendees at this years conference can expect.
Over the course of our discussion, Jim and I discuss such things as his role at LEI, what a Matched Pair Strategy is, practical steps to design quality into the development process and if you stick around long enough, you'll learn the "trick" to check the quality of your A3. Jim, a PhD, senior adviser for Product and Process Development at the Lean Leadership Institute, and author/co-author of two books - Designing the Future and The Toyota Product Development Systems will also be one of the keynote speakers at this years ILC Conference.
Unfortunately, we had some technical issues in the booth on the day of our recording so some of my discussion with Jim was lost. However, what we were able to capture is nothing short of fascinating.
Our guest on this episode of the ILC Radio Network Podcast is Joseph Paris, a recognized thought leader on operational excellence; an international entrepreneur; a prolific writer; and a sought-after strategist, consultant, and speaker with engagements around the world. His published book, “State of Readiness” (May 2017) has been well received and endorsed by industry leaders from some of the most respected organizations in the world and promises to be a definitive work on the field of Operational Excellence. Joe took time to expound on what Operational Excellence is and we discussed the September 12 -13 State of Readiness Workshop that he and ILC Radio Network Host Steven Wilson, will be conducting in Omaha.
Tommy Chance currently serves as a Continuous Improvement Expert with Danfoss Power Solutions where he has worked for over 21 years in various roles. Tommy shares from his many years of experience allowing us to join him on his journey - what worked, what didn't and what he learned along the way. Tommy is a deep well of knowledge on "all things continuous improvement" and so you'll want to be sure and check out this episode of the ILC Radio Network. Tommy is a strong advocate for collaboration and the ILC and welcomes members to reach out to him with questions.
After a career of almost over 18 years at Rockwell Collins, with much of that time in the role of a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Brion Hurley founded Business Performance Improvement – an organization committed to helping for-profit and non-profit organizations alike become sustainable. And that by that, he means that they achieve “Triple Bottom Line” result. This Triple Line = People, Planet, and Profit. On today’s episode, Brion and host Steven Wilson discuss Brion’s book, Lean Six Sigma for Good, his passion for helping non-profit organizations through the use of Lean and Six Sigma, as well as how individuals can begin to insure that their companies improvement efforts see the value of adding the environment and planet to the list of stakeholders. Be sure to download a digital or audio copy for free or order the paperback.
Pella Corporation recently celebrated a milestone - 25 years of leveraging the Continuous Improvement Mindset to deliver results and develop people. Join me for an insightful discussion with Pella’s very own Sr. Corporate Continuous Improvement Manager, Cory Kerndt, as he shares lessons learned, what is needed to develop and sustain a strong CI culture, the importance of the leadership support, as well as Pella’s sense of responsibility to spread Lean thinking outside of their company.
Listen in as Tracey and Ernie Richardson, co-founders of Teaching Lean Inc and co-authors of The Toyota Engagement Equation, give us a glimpse into their own “lean journey”, speak with us about the role of culture in lean, and share their insights into what lies ahead for those traveling on this path we call Lean.
Join me as I interview Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria from ModusCooperandi. We will talk about their book "Personal Kanban" and all things Lean.
Join me as I speak with TRIZ expert Ellen Domb (www.trizpqrgroup) as she provides practical advice on using your resources (i.e. materials, information, energy, people) to optimize your problem solving efforts.
Jim Bowie, dynamic Thought Leader, Speaker, and Author of "Lean Acres", joins me for what I know will be a great discussion on our shared belief that CPI (Continuous Performance Improvement) is intended to be accessible to EVERYONE.
We'll also be discussing his book, "Lean Acres", which he says was written to facilitate the translation and the transfer of ownership of each of the core methodologies (including strategic planning) to EVERYONE.
Jim believes that "consultants and subject matter experts will always be in demand to serve as mentors/advisor, but the spirit of CPI cannot be contained within individual Master Black Belts. It is intended to spread amongst the populace, as demonstrated on Lean Acres Farm."
Everyone can set a life goal to be successful at work. Known to some as "Mr. Productivity",
"Mr. Lean" and the "Godfather of Lean" teacher, author, consultant, speaker and founder of Productivity Plus. Norman Bodek joins me on this episode as we discuss the people side of Lean, respect for people and the Harada Method.
To say that Joe is a practitioner of Lean is an understatement. With an extensive manufacturing background and now specializing in Service Design and Sales and Marketing, most of his recent work has been working with organizations in the Business Development area to acquire, onboard new customers and retain, create advocates of the existing. He believes, the simplification of these external practices holds the key to future growth for most companies.
Join me for a fast-paced, down-to-earth information, packed podcast with one of Lean's strongest advocates and leaders in how to pay it forward.
The title of this episode came from a story that Matt shared about how he "got started" in the world of Lean and how the concept of respecting people was at the heart of it. ILC Board Member and Western Home Communities' Chief Business Development & Process Improvement Officer, Matt talks about his own personal lean journey, lessons learned along the way and also gives hiring advise for those looking to hire with Lean in mind.
Jeff's passion for the ILC and it's future shine through as he gives us additional insight into the vision of the Iowa Lean Consortium and the progress that has been made since its creation in 2009. He issues a challenge to the ILC members by responding to the question, "what do we need from the members of the ILC?".
Episode # 8 features Jeff Dahm, current ILC Board President and Deere and Company Factory Advisor. Jeff has 23 years of manufacturing and business improvement experience in various leadership roles and in his current position at Deere & Company as Factory Advisor, he provides guidance and coaching for the Turf & Utility and Hay & Forage product factories. He is also responsible for the development of a company-wide lean manufacturing strategy to be deployed across all of its global factories and integrated into the John Deere Quality and Production System.
Please note, our auto-record malfunctioned and we are missing the first 12 minutes of the interview
Jamie Flinchbaugh (www.jamieflinchbaugh.com) was my guest for Episode #7 of the ILC Radio Network Podcast. Jamie is an accomplished author, executive coach, consultant, and entrepreneur and has been practicing lean for over 27 years. He has been a frequent speaker at ILC events and so many of our audience will be familiar with his work. For this episode, I asked Jamie to share with us lessons he has learned on his lean journey (see Hitchhikers Guide to Lean) and to give us an overview of how to Build a Lean Leadership Operating System. As you listen, make sure that you have pen and paper at the ready as there is a lot of practical and sensible advise shared in these 30 minutes.
State of Readiness & Operational Excellence - Taking CI to the Next Level: An interview with Joseph Paris and Rick Hulse
Are the current Lean and Six Sigma efforts sufficient to give companies a sustainable advantage in today's volatile, competitive, and ever changing marketplace? Author, international entrepreneur, strategist, consultant and speaker Joseph Paris joins me and Rick Hulse, his longtime wingman and Executive Managing Director of Xointek, the company JP founded in 1985, as we discuss the pros and cons of today's current continuous improvement processes and programs and the necessary next steps companies must take to prepare for the harsh realities of the twenty-first century.
Jonathon Taurman, director of global Lean/Operational Excellence @ GE Healthcare said it this way in his comments about JP's book, State of Readiness, "This is next -level thinking, moving from isolated standards and abnormalities, to creating a proactive organization that is developing predictive-outcome systems".
To learn more about Operational Excellence and how your company can be in a constant State of Readiness, grab a copy of JP's book, State of Readiness at https://state-of-readiness.com/ and register for his 4 part Online Master Class: State of Readiness scheduled to kickoff on September 11th. Zoned Strategies will be attending and the investment is only $250.
If you are interested in discussing how your business can achieve this state of readiness and would like some assistance in getting there, contact Steve at steven@zstrat.com or 319-310-3019 and he'd be happy to talk with you.
On this episode of the ILC Radio Network Podcast, my guest Tom Lawless, president of LeanTAC and partner at the Lean Enterprise Institute, shares his experiences with lean transformations and talks about what lean is what it is not. Don't forget that he is offering all ILC Members a special discounted rate for the upcoming Leadership, Performance, Results 2017 Summit being held in Hoffman Estates, ILL September 18 - 22, 2017.
Mark Graban, Author, Speaker and Consultant joined me for a very frank discussion on the current
"state of lean" during which we discussed his recent Practicing Lean project, cultural constraints to deploying CI, and Lean in Healthcare. Mark also shares some of the mistakes and lessons he learned over his 20+ years of practicing Lean. Mark will be the keynote speaker at the Iowa Lean Consortium's Lean Healthcare Exchange on August 8th in Ankeny, Iowa.
Though many Lean practitioners prefer to avoid the entanglements of information systems during a Lean transformation, it’s hard to conceive of how an enterprise could successfully and sustainably transform themselves without addressing the lifeblood of business processes, information. According to Rother and Shook in Learning to See, “Material and information flow are two sides of the same coin. You must map both of them.” While primary focus of Lean should be on improvement of the processes themselves, the quality of the underlying data is a physical and logical manifestation of the condition of the process. Just like Toyota says that the shop floor is a reflection of management, in information-intensive industries (health care, banking, and so on) the flow of work is often represented by transactions stored in one or several databases – plus a myriad of disconnected spreadsheets and other data sources. What can we learn from this, and how can it guide our improvement efforts? Listen to Steve Bell, co-author of the recently released new book “Lean IT – Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation” explore the implications of data quality to the overall Lean Transformation.
Join me as I interview Jeff Cox, the company’s Lean Six Sigma Facilitator, regarding Eflex’s non-traditional transformation. Their focus on achieving results will be at the center of our discussion as well as a frank conversation about the trials and struggles they faced leading up to the company’s decision to embrace Lean Six Sigma.
**This interview was pulled from the archives and originally aired in 2010. Jeff currently works with Nationwide Insurance, specializing in modeling and simulating current state and future state processes, driving out cost.