Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership

Embracing the Lean Mindset in GE Aerospace: A Conversation With Two Leaders

Wed Oct 11 2023

Lean MindsetContinuous ImprovementLeadershipCollaboration

Description

This episode explores key insights from a Lean Mindset event featuring conversations with lean leaders from GE Aerospace. The core themes of the event include respect for people, continuous improvement, and customer focus. Transitioning to lean leadership, principles of continuous improvement, developing a lean mindset, and reflections on the event are discussed.

Insights

Customer satisfaction is crucial for business success and should be prioritized.

Having all three pillars - respect for people, continuous improvement, and customer focus - is crucial for organizational success in Lean practices.

Transitioning from being a problem solver to focusing on collaboration is crucial in leadership roles.

Learning Lean early in one's career is seen as a 'secret weapon' at GE, leading to groundbreaking improvements and increased efficiency.

Appreciating the little details and small improvements is crucial in the Lean mindset, rather than just seeking monumental changes.

Creating an environment where people can learn from mistakes without fear of punishment is essential for unleashing the power of continuous improvement.

Operational leader emphasized leading with love and celebrating achievements in the workplace.

Importance of continuous learning and mentoring within a large organization like GE to foster personal growth and leadership development.

Summary

Transcript

Key Insights from Lean Mindset Event

00:02 - 17:20

The podcast features conversations with two lean leaders from GE Aerospace, Sam Ruhle and Greg Potoff.
Sam Ruhle is a Lean Operations Leader at GE working on value stream mapping and Kaizen events.
Kaizen events at GE involve bringing together experts to focus on process improvement for five days, leading to significant changes.
The core themes of the Lean Mindset event include respect for people, continuous improvement, and customer focus.
Having all three pillars - respect for people, continuous improvement, and customer focus - is crucial for organizational success in Lean practices.
Respect for people is essential to prevent organizational frustration and ensure everyone is committed to continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement involves problem-solving and learning from mistakes to avoid firefighting mode in manufacturing processes.
Customer focus is emphasized to prioritize value-add activities over necessary waste, with customer satisfaction being paramount.
Customer satisfaction is crucial for business success and should be prioritized.
Having a plan is an underappreciated aspect of lean mindset, as emphasized by Peyton Manning's approach to calling audibles.
Planning ahead and identifying major failures are important in lean practices at GE.
Peyton Manning's leadership journey and emphasis on gaining respect through hard work and silent leadership were insightful.
The Lean Mindset event showcased how industries can come together to share learnings and apply lean principles across different sectors.
Developing a Lean Mindset involves having a growth mindset, being curious, learning from others, and starting small with continuous improvement.

Transitioning to Lean Leadership

16:51 - 24:57

Transitioning from being a problem solver to focusing on collaboration is crucial in leadership roles.
Participating in collaborative events like Kaizen highlights the power and value of teamwork.
Learning Lean early in one's career is seen as a 'secret weapon' at GE, leading to groundbreaking improvements and increased efficiency.
Lean mindset applies to everyone in an organization and involves continuous improvement and target conditions for progress.

Principles of Continuous Improvement

24:27 - 32:56

Frontline leaders empowered to make decisions can achieve great results by focusing on true North and eliminating waste.
Appreciating the little details and small improvements is crucial in the Lean mindset, rather than just seeking monumental changes.
Recognizing and promoting humble players who contribute to continuous improvement can inspire others to follow suit.
Simplicity and basic principles like visual management, standard work, problem-solving, and learning from mistakes are emphasized by various speakers across different industries for continuous improvement.
Creating an environment where people can learn from mistakes without fear of punishment is essential for unleashing the power of continuous improvement.

Developing a Lean Mindset

32:27 - 41:00

Operational leader emphasized leading with love and celebrating achievements in the workplace.
Advice for developing a lean mindset includes being in an environment that supports it, finding a coach or mentor, and giving back once you've learned.
Importance of continuous learning and mentoring within a large organization like GE to foster personal growth and leadership development.
Transitioning between industries can be intimidating but rewarding, especially when embracing a lean culture for improvement and growth.

Reflections on Lean Mindset Event

40:33 - 41:16

The podcast discusses reflections on the Lean mindset event.
Sam and Greg shared their insights during the event.
Viewers can find videos from the GE Lean mindset event in the show notes at leanblog.org/487.
Listeners are encouraged to visit www.leanblog.org for daily updates on lean news and commentary.
For any questions or comments about the podcast, contact mark@leanpodcast@gmail.com.