Manufacturers vigorously seek out best practices because they can improve metrics, such as stock price, sales and profitability. There’s only one problem: Best practices are the actions that solved yesterday’s problems.

The schedule-at-all-cost message has been made too strongly.

The ratio of goodness to cost is value.

There’s nothing worse than solving the wrong problem. It’s bad on many fronts—consumption of valuable resources, mislaid expectations of company leadership, and frustration of the solvers.

Too many projects, too many tasks, too many deliverables. At every meeting, work is piled onto our full plates with the implication that none will fall to the floor, like an all-you-can buffet but with expandable plates.

Too many projects, too many tasks, too many deliverables. At every meeting, work is piled onto our full plates with the implication that none will fall to the floor, like an all-you-can buffet but with expandable plates.

If lean has taught us anything, it’s smaller is better. Smaller machines, smaller factories, smaller teams, smaller everything.

Lean has rolled through our factories and generated profits at every turn.

At every turn, lean has increased profits in the factory. Its best trick is to look at the work through a time lens, see wasted time, and get rid of it.

The No. 1 reason initiatives are successful is support from top management. Unfortunately, there’s never enough to go around, but that’s the way it should be.