Matt Elson

The philosophical underpinnings of an organizational culture often are either glossed over (“I know we say people are the most valuable resource, but orders are down, so we have to do layoffs.”) or ignored outright (“What’s the lowest level of quality that will be accepted by our...

“People are our most important resource.”  “Our team is the source of our success.”  “Our people enable our success.” These and similar sayings are found in entrances and lobbies and posted on walls everywhere around the world. The problem is that for most traditional-thinking...

Organizational improvements very rarely take the form of massive, sweeping change.  Competent managers seem to have their fingers on all of the smallest details, and effective leaders are often described as “doing all of the little things” that make people feel appreciated,...

Let’s get it out of the way right now:  5S is not the foundation of continuous improvement, nor is the Toyota Production System (TPS). Value stream mapping (VSM) is not the starting point, and kaizen is not a verb, noun, or event. Many people mistake the individual tools of continuous...