Replay of the First Episode and Why You should listen!

It's August 28th. It's the day I was born. So I thought I would do a throwback episode and a take a day off from new content.Think back to 1986, if you can. What were you doing? Were you in College like I was at the University of Cincinnati? Were you riding a Huffy bicycle as a young woman or man? From 1986 to 1989 I was lucky enough to be an Industrial Engineering student and I had a co-op job at Huffy bicycles.Huffy had brought in a consulting firm whose initials at the time we AA. After spending many months on-site collecting data, they made a final presentation to our management team using acetate slides on an overhead projector- powerpoint was many years away.They suggested that we embrace something called “Lean” manufacturing to make improvements within the factory and to help us combat the many Asian competitors that were bringing bikes to America. Here is a picture of the best selling bike at the time, a 1987 BMX Sigma.[caption id="attachment_482" align="aligncenter" width="501"]bmxmuseum.com[/caption]I can remember the Industrial Engineering manager being livid in the fact that they used a “canned” presentation. “We spent $100,000 dollars on them, and they gave us a canned presentation that they probably give to everyone!”Regardless, the information in the presentation was heard and we decided that we were going to deploy Lean concepts on our own. This was a few years before James Womack would publish the Machine that Changed the World. At the time there wasn’t much information readily available.We learned and implemented some key concepts like pull systems and welding cells. We partnered with the Steel Workers Union to collapse job classifications (we didn’t realize at the time that lean is mostly about engaging employees and culture change).We tried things, looked at the results, and often tried things again following the Plan, Do, Check, Act- Deming wheel. At the end of the day, it was an unbelievable place to learn as a college student and generate excitement to complete your Industrial Engineering degree.After college, I spent six years in the paper industry and implemented as many Lean principles as were practical. We used pull systems for raw materials like dyes and chemicals. We used FIFO lanes for rolls of paper in front of some of the downstream processes. But I always wanted to be a consultant.After working in the paper industry for five years, I began a consulting career with a Manufacturing Extension Center (MEC) in Cincinnati. The purpose of the MEC was to consult with local companies of all sizes and help them increase their competitiveness through the adoption of Lean principles. Clients ranged from Morton Salt and Ford to family-owned businesses.In 1998 our family relocated to Denver Colorado. I can remember hoping that I could get a job with JCIT- John Costanza Institute of Technology. John had packaged many lean methodologies into something called Demand Flow Technology or DFT. Working there for several years, I implemented DFT within all sorts of Fortune 100 companies.I can remember working with Carrier corporation a high-volume producer of HVAC equipment. We also consulted with Trinity Industries who made railcars and barges. Rail cars and barges are large, low-volume items. Demand Flow Technology was applicable across all of these industries.Since leaving JCIT in 2000 and working on my own, I have had the opportunity and pleasure to work with many companies across the US and in Mexico. Curtiss Wright, Proctor & Gamble, Lockheed Martin, United Technology Corporation, Stryker medical, to name a few of the larger ones.I have also been fortunate enough to work with many private, family-owned companies as well as covering every industry from the medical device industry