Lean Frontline

Alex Cano is the Founder and CEO of Alex Cano Consulting and Coaching. He has led, coached, and mentored over 200 successful improvement projects across all business areas, working with professionals in more than 15 countries. In this episode, Alex shares his thoughts on how being genuine can drive operational excellence.

With 20+ years of experience in manufacturing, Jason Haines is the owner and principal consultant at Industrial Solutions. In this episode, Jason shares his thoughts on how to connect the gap between the leadership and frontline teams.

Herb Thompson is the owner of Lean Business Transformation LLC and offers dynamic and strategic management leadership with 25+ years of experience increasing team performance. In this episode, Herb shares his thoughts on how to mobilize your lean culture by considering three crucial components: leadership, people, and the culture.

Cynthia Kalina-Kaminsky is the President of Process & Strategy Solutions where she works with companies to increase revenue, transform operations, innovate supply chains, and integrate advanced technology. In this episode, she shares her thoughts on aligning tactical execution with the strategic planning to build long term success.

With over 20 years of experience leading business and process transformation, Christian is an entrepreneurial leader who loves unlocking people’s curiosity to solve challenging problems. He is the founder of Impact Consulting, a leadership development & consulting firm focused on process transformation and growth-mindset for organizations ready to scale. In this episode, Christian shares his thoughts on how the business, process, systems, and most important, the people, contribute to a successful business transformation.

Michael Jebber brings over 25 years of experience both in the trenches and in senior management in organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies to Cardinal 6 Consulting. In this episode, Michael shares his thoughts on how, where, and what to start with when deploying new methodologies, programs, or tactics.

Pierre Servan is the principal consultant at Factor Quality. He is an expert in quality, environmental and/or safety matters and has achieved hundreds of successful implementations, hands-on training sessions, regional & national speaking engagements as well as internal audits, gap analysis & supplier audits. In this episode, Pierre will share the three specific keys to driving a certification program: formalizing data management, updating standards regularly, and doing it for the right reasons.

Gary Kerslake is a Supply Chain Consultant with Kerslake & Associates, L.L.C. located in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. As a consultant, he has worked with several of our nation’s leading corporations and government agencies. In this episode, Gary shares how he stays optimistic about the future of manufacturing through strategic risk planning and leadership.

Scott Whitbred started Elite Manufacturing in 2020 to help small and medium-sized manufacturers and distributors to improve productivity and profits by working hands-on with executive teams and their associates to devise and deliver profit improvement plans from start to finish. In this episode, Scott will share his thoughts on the critical role data and metrics play in managing operations within any company.

Ray McKenzie is the founder of Red Beach Advisors, a technology management consulting group headquartered in Los Angeles, CA providing businesses and organizations with successful growth strategies to build, grow, and scale. In this episode, Ray McKenzie will share his thoughts on creating an environment of inclusion and trust to develop a sustainable culture of continuous improvement.

Audie Penn is an executive consultant in Lean Product and Process Development at Faro Partners with over 30 years of experience in manufacturing industries including Heavy Equipment (20 years), Food (8 years), and Building Materials (8 years). In this episode, Audie shares his thoughts on patterns of successful Six Sigma Black Belts and the secrets to creating and maintaining a stable company.

Josh is the CEO of Rockwell Process Consulting. His goal is to maximize the bottom line to make that business sustainable and profitable to secure a long and healthy future for all employees in a safe environment. In this episode, Josh shares his thoughts on why being part of the process, being in the Gemba, and building relationships with people drive a resilient company.

Ryan Weiss is a global executive with decades of experiences spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He has successfully founded 3 companies, and worked as a global executive leading hundreds of people, managing a $500 million product portfolio, and developing a passion for organizational change. In this episode, Ryan shares this thoughts on successfully driving change management and how servant leadership is a great concept to teach trust, build leadership skills, and create team unity.

Zachary is a representative for manufacturers and an advocate for Customers. He currently works with the American Machining Efficiency Consultants (AMEC) to provide added value to manufacturers by helping them complete their Industry 4.0 transformations. In this episode, Zach shares this thoughts on what an ideal collaborative culture looks like and why simple standard work always wins.

Rob Fisher is currently the President and Director of Operations for Fisher Improvement Technologies (FIT), a Native-American (Cherokee) owned business that was recently awarded a Top-100 Native-American Owned Business in the US and a Top-50 Emerging Business in North Carolina by DiversityBusiness.com. In this episode, Rob will share this thoughts on how changing the paradigm of leadership and the organizational learning ability of a company determines the difference between success and failure.

DJ Duarte’s 34 years as a Global Optimization Expert & Lean Leadership Coach has enabled him to influence the practical application, facilitation and implementation of business processes and systems that delivers real operational cost outcomes. In this episode, DJ Duarte will share his thoughts on the importance of a mentor, what the mentor relationship means, and engaging and aligning the frontline with the value to the customer.

Santiago is the President of the Chamber of Young People of Jalisco Consulting Companies, Engineer of the 2019, Vice President of the CCJEJ, and internationally endorsed by the IASSC. In this episode, Santiago will focus on the critical role of leveraging the power, and tapping into the potential of an organization’s human capital.

Scott has been in operations management, quality management, and Lean Six Sigma for 30+ years. As the President of Lean Tactics Global, he helps businesses improve their processes and increase efficiency. Scott will share his thoughts on how anyone can become a Lean master, the importance of a Gemba Walk, and the impact on individuals as companies implement organizational change.

As the Owner and Principal Consultant for LEAN Enterprise Solution with 37+ years of executive experience, Russ supports his clientele with management, communications, and implementation practices and processes providing a roadmap for their success, while retaining their focus on the day-to-day issues. In this episode, he will share how investing 15 minutes every morning can lead to personal investment from every team member on the work floor.

As a ICF Certified Coach, Rich helps organizations measure and optimize the talent, behaviors and motivators of their workforce as strategy to produce the best results and performance. In this episode, he will discuss how bridging emotional intelligence with data, frontline connectivity, and user experience for new tools are critical in building a resilient company.

Carlos is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with a track record of transforming organizations and improving operational performance. He discusses the critical role of benchmarking, why to administer a behavioral assessment, and how to use new technologies to tap into subject matter experts who are closest to your customers.

Dan is a continuous improvement expert with cross functional experience in operations, engineering, asset care, operational excellence, project management, and health and safety. He shares his thoughts about ways to build trust and truly understand the problems people face, how to make a problem as visual as possible to help everyone solve it together, and how to apply proven continuous improvement tools to solve business problems.

Known as “The Guy in the Blue Shirt,” Bruce helps high-potential team members, team leaders and business owners save or eliminate massive amounts of wasted process steps-time and money. A proponent of the #SimplerFasterBetter methodology, Bruce helps clients apply process improvement and Lean six-sigma methodologies to all initiatives.

Lean consultant Nate Barber brings 18+ years of experience to talk about how lean and culture is more important than ever during an unprecedented pandemic. Learn why now is the perfect time to find new ways to improve systems and practices.

Professor Brad Miller uses his real life business experiences and applications to demonstrate how lean concepts can not only be applied to business practices, but his grad student’s everyday lives. Rather than simply teach the concept of lean, Brad brings the principles and experience to them.

Shingo Award winning author Michael Bremer has created a playbook on how to become a better leader and what are they doing to elevate average performers inside their organization. He discloses the four attributes of a successful leader in a truly excellent organization.

Steven Kane reveals how the learnings of a thirty minute factory walk changed the trajectory of his lean culture and initiatives. Learn how application of Customer Success can put out fires before they even appear.

Marcia Daszco explains her own paradigm shift inspired by Dr. Edwards Deming and Dr. Perry Gluckman which led to her actively challenging beliefs and assumptions about everything, from standard work methods and beliefs to the existence of grades in the education system.

Godfather of Lean Norman Bodek reveals his first dip into the world of continuous improvement and industry insights he's accumulated from legends such as Taiichi Ohno and Dr. Shigeo Shingo. He discusses the Harada Method's origins from a Japanese high school's track and field coach and its journey into becoming a lean business application. Talk to a kaizen expert today at leanfrontline.com

Andrei Anca understands that each and every frontline worker is absolutely key in driving successful kaizen initiatives. He explains how your own frontline workers may be your most powerful and untapped resource, and how they can bring more value than any consultant or new technology.

Self Proclaimed Lean Maniac Paul Akers shares how his lean ideology stems from the humbling experience where two Japanese lean consultants reduced one of his manufacturing processes by 900%. Paul now applies lean to nearly every aspect of his life.

Dan Markovitz tackles an issue that hasn't yet been resolved despite the dozens of books out there: alienation of those unfamiliar with lean. He use his unique background as a running coach to make the concept of lean more relatable by combining fitness concepts with lean.