Lean 911

Hosted by Mark DeLuzio

Business Management Careers Education

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Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

The Lean 911 Podcast is where you'll have a voice directly from the gemba. Host, Mark DeLuzio, President and CEO of Lean Horizons Consulting and the principal architect of the Danaher Business System, relies on his three decades of lean successes as well as his failures to answer your most challenging questions regarding your lean transformation.

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60 recent

June 15, 202654 min

How Hansei Builds Better Leaders

A CNC machine crashed on the shop floor. Nathan Corliss walked out as a young supervisor, angry and ready to blame the operator. What happened next became one of the most important leadership lessons of his career. Mark DeLuzio and Nathan talk about the moment that forced Nathan to confront his own behavior as a leader, and how the scars on his knuckles became a permanent reminder to pause, reflect, and lead differently. The conversation centers on hansei, the Lean practice of honest self-reflection, and why it matters when pressure is high, mistakes are visible, and people are watching how leaders respond. You'll hear how one shop floor incident connects to emotional intelligence, respect for people, Kaizen report-outs, after-action reviews, standard work, compliance, and the danger of fear-based leadership. For Lean leaders, CI managers, plant managers, and executives, this episode is a practical reminder that culture is shaped in the moments when things go wrong. The real test is not whether leaders know the right Lean language. It is whether they can own their mistakes, protect trust, and help people improve without shutting them down.

June 1, 202626 min

Replay: Standard Work

This is an unedited replay of a previous Lean 911 episode, originally published on January 13, 2023. We're bringing it back because the issue still causes Lean transformations to stall, drift, or flatline. One of the most misunderstood parts of Lean, Standard Work, is often dismissed as unnecessary. So many companies contend that they are "doing" Lean, but leave Standard Work by the wayside. In this episode, you'll learn the answers to the most perplexing questions, notions, and beliefs regarding Standard Work, which is a key component of the Toyota Production System.

May 15, 202648 min

The Six Sigma Hysteria

In this episode, we dive into the rise, dominance, and controversy surrounding Six Sigma — the corporate improvement system that promised near-perfect quality and became a management obsession across America. From Motorola's statistical revolution to Jack Welch's aggressive rollout at General Electric, Six Sigma evolved from a useful quality tool into what some critics call a full-blown corporate ideology. Drawing from Mark DeLuzio's provocative essay "The Six Sigma Hysteria," we explore why many Lean practitioners believed Six Sigma created more bureaucracy than breakthrough innovation. We unpack the clash between Lean thinking and Six Sigma methodology, the explosion of belt certifications and consulting culture, and the argument that companies became obsessed with measuring defects while ignoring waste, flow, and human creativity. Along the way, we examine real-world stories from Toyota, Danaher, and GE, and from factory floors where frontline employees solved problems that data alone could not. We also ask a bigger question: Are modern businesses repeating the same mistake today with AI, Agile, and productivity frameworks? This episode is about more than Six Sigma. It's about the danger of turning tools into religion — and what happens when companies mistake methodology for culture.

May 1, 202647 min

Your Machines Are Lying to You, and So Are Your Equipment Vendors – The Hidden Waste Most Manufacturing Engineers Ignore

Manufacturing Engineers pride themselves on precision, but what if the biggest waste is hiding in plain sight—inside the equipment itself? In this episode, we challenge the status quo: excess feeds, slow speeds, and bloated cycle times that no one questions. Even worse, capital equipment is often purchased without alignment to Lean principles—locking in inefficiency for years. Learn how to look at Capital Equipment from a Lean lens…you will find out that equipment vendors are not your friend! We’ll break down how this happens, why it persists, and what engineers should be doing instead. If your machines are running, but not improving, this episode is for you.

April 15, 20261 hr 10 min

What a Fighter Pilot Can Teach You About Selling Lean Value – with Randy Fitzhugh

In this powerful episode of Lean 911, Mark DeLuzio sits down with former Air Force fighter pilot and Danaher sales leader Randy Fitzhugh to unpack the real science behind value selling and why most organizations get it wrong. Drawing from his elite military background and executive experience, Randy reveals how sales is a disciplined, repeatable process. Together, they break down the four pillars of value selling: qualifying opportunities, monetizing value, pre-call planning, and time & territory management. You'll hear eye-opening stories, from cockpit checklists to multimillion-dollar deals, that show why process, preparation, and deep customer understanding outperform charisma every time. This episode dives into: Why most sales teams think they sell value but actually don't How to monetize quality, delivery, and lead-time improvements The hidden cost of treating products like commodities Why checklists (yes, like pilots use) can transform your sales performance How small improvements in sales activity can drive massive revenue gains The critical role of lean thinking in commercial excellence "You don't get what you expect. You get what you inspect." Stop selling features. Start selling value, systematically.

April 1, 202633 min

Standards Written in Blood – There May Be No Second Chance

Lean management teaches that standards are the foundation of safety, quality, and improvement. In aviation, those standards take the form of checklists, redundancies, procedures, and strict cockpit protocols designed to prevent human error. In this episode, we examine the tragic aircraft accident that claimed the life of Greg Biffle and his family, and what it reveals about the danger of ignoring established standards. Reports indicate that critical procedures were bypassed—checklists weren't followed, and an unqualified individual was allowed into the cockpit. In aviation, such deviations can quickly turn routine operations into a catastrophe. Lean organizations understand this principle deeply. Standard work exists not to restrict people, but to protect them. It ensures that critical steps are followed every time, preventing variation that can lead to defects, injuries, or worse. This episode explores how aviation and Lean thinking share the same core truth: Standards are written from experience, and ignoring them removes the safeguards that keep systems safe. Whether in manufacturing, healthcare, aviation, or leadership, the lesson is clear—discipline in following standard work is what makes improvement possible and prevents tragedy.

March 15, 202638 min

The CFO vs. Lean: The Fight That Gets Lean Leaders Fired

Mark DeLuzio, the Father of Lean Accounting, tells his experience and observations on how traditional cost accounting will derail a Lean Transformation. In many organizations, Lean transformations don't fail on the shop floor—they fail in the finance office. In this episode, "The CFO vs. Lean: The Fight That Gets Lean Leaders Fired," we examine a pattern that plays out in companies across industries: Lean improvements begin to transform operations, but traditional cost accounting systems tell leadership the exact opposite story. As inventory falls, batch sizes shrink, and flow improves, the accounting system often reports declining "efficiency," higher unit costs, or unfavorable absorption variances. The numbers appear to signal failure—even when operational performance is clearly improving. When executives rely on these metrics, the Lean initiative becomes the scapegoat. Too often, the Lean leader is blamed for results that are actually caused by outdated financial measurement systems. In this episode, we unpack the structural conflict between Lean principles and traditional cost accounting, explore why CFOs frequently defend these legacy systems, and explain how perfectly "correct" financial reports can lead companies to make deeply wrong decisions. Most importantly, we discuss how organizations can realign finance with Lean thinking so the transformation—and the people leading it—don't become casualties of the numbers.

March 1, 202629 min

The Illusion of Business “Logic” – Brilliant at Home, Illogical at Work

In this episode, you'll be able to take away why many "logical" workplace measures and incentives can drive behavior that conflicts with Lean principles, and why comparing work decisions to everyday home-life decisions can make Lean concepts easier to understand and teach. You will hear about various examples, including grocery shopping and volume discounts, which highlight purchase price variance and excess inventory. You will explore the concepts of push versus pull using the supermarket and kanban approach. You'll gain insights into utilization and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and understand how "banking" uptime can lead to overproduction and unmet demand. Additionally, you will investigate changeover strategies using a multi-part thermoforming case, illustrated through a barbecue analogy comparing hot dogs and hamburgers. Finally, you will discover why oil leaks and poor visual management are perceived differently in the workplace compared to a car context, including the use of dashboards, warning lights, signs, and scoreboards. Timestamps: 01:31 Lean Accounting Origins 04:20 Buying in Bulk Trap 06:31 Pull Systems Grocery Lesson 08:05 Utilization Incentives Myth 11:27 Absorption Accounting Reality 12:44 Changeover Barbecue Analogy 17:52 SMED Rethink Changeovers 18:40 Fix Leaks Like Cars 21:38 Visual Management Everywhere 25:16 Bring Lean Home and Work

February 15, 202644 min

Book Review – Accidentally Aligned with Jason Neal

A shop floor comment stops everyone in their tracks: the work finally matches what the customer actually needs. That is the spark behind Accidentally Aligned, and it opens a bigger issue most leaders dodge: alignment does not come from posters, audits, or a new playbook. It comes from how leaders behave when the process is broken, and the numbers are ugly. Mark and today's guest, Jason Neal, get into the messy middle of transformation: earning trust at the Gemba, protecting dignity when tempers flare, and dealing with the damage caused by "Lean policing." They also tackle a practical trap that shows up everywhere: leaders say they want engagement, then they take away overtime without replacing it with a better system. The result is predictable. So is the fix. If you are trying to keep momentum after the first wave of kaizen, this episode gives you language and moves you can use on Monday morning. Timestamps: 00:06:48 - Accidentally aligned with the customer voice 00:10:24 - Respect for people when the process fails 00:22:38 - Trust as the foundation for Lean sustainment 00:22:51 - When the Lean office becomes an audit function 00:23:37 - Losing credibility by switching to policing behavior 00:25:33 - Stopping disrespect before it becomes normal 00:34:54 - Turning overtime into kaizen time without breaking trust 00:35:12 - Why cutting overtime first backfires

February 1, 202646 min

Are You Set Up to Win? – Find Out Here!

Most Lean efforts do not stall because people hate improvement. They stall because the system was never built to support it. This episode gives you a fast, practical lens for evaluating whether your organization is built to sustain improvement. You will learn how to recognize common traps that keep Lean efforts stuck, why certain measurement habits create the wrong behavior, and how to distinguish capability building from project theater. By the end, you will have a sharper way to assess your structure, roles, support functions, and operating rhythm, so you can stop guessing and start fixing what is really holding you back. Timestamp highlights 00:02:03 - Calling Lean a "program" is a red flag 00:05:09 - Under-resourced Lean office becomes admin, not a capability builder 00:08:43 - Lean leaders too low in the org cannot move mountains 00:09:55 - Combining Lean with a line role guarantees Lean loses 00:12:03 - Lean office should develop problem solvers, not rack up project points 00:18:36 - Lean audits signal inexperience and tool worship 00:22:54 - One standard problem-solving method beats a mix of A3 8D and random playbooks 00:28:32 - Hino Motors got nine implemented suggestions per person per month by building in time and support 00:32:14 - Value streams in name only when functions still control decisions and measures