Lessons in Continuous Improvement in 2024: Failures, Fixes and Did You Consider This?
The tricky thing about operational excellence is that it’s not a one-and-done deal. Absent continuing, relentless efforts to get better, backsliding is guaranteed. Even with continuous, relentless efforts to get better, achieving and maintaining excellence is tough. Focus on the wrong things or put the right people in the wrong places, and even the best of intentions can take a wrong turn.
Luckily, wrong turns can be righted, and every effort is a learning experience. IndustryWeek has always supported the idea that you can learn valuable lessons from others’ experiences. The lessons may be about what to do or what not to do. The shared experiences may help you avoid a misstep or they may simply make you think as you plot your own course to improvement.
Throughout 2024, IW and its contributors shared a wealth of thinking about continuous improvement, be it about lean manufacturing, change management, employee engagement or homegrown improvement strategies. We’ve combed through the year in continuous improvement and share with you here standout performances from each quarter.
First Quarter: Let’s Talk Sports
Is the “ability to successfully implement a successful lean initiative is something like being able to dunk a basketball or bench press 300 pounds”? Meaning, “one can either do it, or one can’t.” Not necessarily, suggest the authors of our Initial quarterly selection. We stuck to the sports analogies for our second choice, which draws parallels between the basketball court and production floor.
Some Managers Just Can’t Get Lean: Leaders who “get” lean have five things in common.
Revved for March Madness? Look for These Lessons in Operational Excellence: Seven parallels between action on the court and activity on the shop floor.
Second Quarter: Learning from Failure and Forget the Finish Line
The continuous improvement spotlight landed on Boeing in the second quarter as major, ongoing quality issues at the aircraft manufacturer grounded planes and surfaced instance after instance of the company’s failure to follow lean principles. We followed up with words of wisdom from manufacturing executives who have tackled among the toughest lean issues: sustaining your lean gains and making JIT manufacturing work.
Boeing Executives Failed to Lead, Waved Off Lean: Don’t blame rank-and-file workers for systematic problems.
5 Steps for Sustaining a Lean Culture: Operational efficiency is a lifestyle, not a journey with a destination or finish line.
Fix Your Just-in-Time Engine: Our JIT efforts failed because we didn’t know how our MRP system really worked to provide production and inventories based on the batch world.
Third Quarter: IW Best Plants Winners Loom Large, and Talking TPS
The third quarter was a big one in the continuous improvement world as we named our 2024 IndustryWeek Best Plants Award winners and rolled out their stories in September and October. First came the celebration of 2024 Best Plant Hoffer Plastics, whose leaders spoke of internal transparency, standout on-time delivery and embracing technology. Our second selection shares the secret to TPS, directly from Toyota.
2024 IndustryWeek Best Plants: Two-Way Accountability Drives Excellence at Hoffer Plastics: Family-owned Illinois company focuses on relationships—with employees, with suppliers, with the community, among its three CEOs—to drive operational excellence.
The 3 E's of TPS and How the Basics Never Go Out of Style: Brett Wood, president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America, shares insights into the Toyota Production System.
October to December: It’s All About People and Culture
In the final quarter of 2024, we shared the story of our second 2024 IW Best Plants Award winner: HindlePower. Its message is: Take care of your people and they will take care of your business. Moreover, the manufacturer describes itself as an “agile” organization, which makes it able to rapidly meet new challenges. Our second selection for the fourth quarter focuses on lean culture, which is (at least in this editor’s opinion), the toughest part of lean for organizations to grasp. Tools are easy, people, not so much.
2024 IndustryWeek’s Best Plants: At HindlePower, Taking Care of Business Means Taking Care of Your People: This family-led manufacturer emphasizes employee education and personal growth as cornerstones of company success.
Psychological Safety Is a Must-Have for a Lean Culture: Leaders can take multiple steps to provide a safe environment where continuous improvement can thrive.
