Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership Art Byrne, Former CEO of Wiremold on The Lean Turnaround
Sep 27, 2012
Art Byrne, former CEO of Wiremold and author of 'The Lean Turnaround', shares his expertise in transforming businesses through lean principles. He emphasizes that CEO involvement is crucial for successful lean transformations and that stretch goals can be motivating with the right culture. Art also discusses the importance of fostering innovation through fearless experimentation in the workplace and contrasts the leadership challenges in healthcare with those in manufacturing. His insights provide a comprehensive roadmap for implementing effective lean strategies.
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From GE Kanban To Wiremold Turnaround
- Art Byrne first learned just-in-time and Kanban at GE and cut inventory from ~40 days to 3 days.
- He later led Wiremold through a lean transformation that increased enterprise value from ~$30M to $770M.
Lean Is Not Just For Manufacturing
- Lean principles apply beyond manufacturing and can unlock greater gains in nonmanufacturing sectors.
- Many service organizations merely automate waste instead of rethinking processes.
Improve Value-Adding As Strategy
- CEOs often ignore improving value-added work because they treat current processes as immutable.
- Cutting lead time (e.g., eight weeks to two days) reconfigures strategy and opens new competitive options.
