kaizen

The £50,000 Question Kevin Didn’t Ask: Why Your Lean Program is Failing in Silence

Posted on by Adam Payne

The CNC machine whirs, spitting out another finished component. Kevin, the operator, picks it up and runs the callipers over it, just like he has a hundred times today. He frowns. It’s close. It’s probably fine. But it’s not right. It’s at the very edge of tolerance, and he knows that by the time this batch gets to assembly, a few of them are going to cause a headache.

He looks over at his supervisor, Dave, who’s hunched over a spreadsheet, looking stressed. The board on the wall shows they’re slightly behind schedule. Stopping the line now would mean a difficult conversation, a lot of paperwork, and a definite earful about hitting their numbers. Everyone saw this coming. The tooling has felt off for a week, but the last time someone mentioned it, they were told to just keep an eye on it. So, Kevin puts the component in the ‘pass’ bin, takes a deep breath, and lets the machine run. He keeps his mouth shut.

This tiny, silent moment is where Lean methodologies go to die. It’s where safety risks are born, where quality defects multiply, and where your continuous improvement culture grinds to a halt. The missing ingredient isn’t a better tool or a more colourful board. It’s something a lot more human. It’s called psychological safety.

In the simplest terms, psychological safety is the shared belief that it’s safe to speak up. It means people feel they can flag a problem, question a process, admit a mistake, or even float a half-baked idea without fear of humiliation, embarrassment, or being labeled a troublemaker. It’s not about being soft. It’s about being smart. It’s about creating an environment where people feel empowered to contribute their full potential without fear of negative consequences.

What Psychological Safety Is (and Isn’t)

Psychological safety isn’t about lowering standards or creating a fluffy, everyone-gets-a-trophy environment. It’s the opposite. It’s the foundation of high performance. It’s the team climate that allows people to meet high standards. How can you expect perfect quality if people are afraid to point out defects? How can you improve processes if workers don’t feel safe suggesting better ways? You can’t. You just get silence. And silence, in manufacturing, is expensive and dangerous.

This isn’t just opinion. Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School has studied this for decades, proving its link to learning and performance. Google’s ‘Project Aristotle’ famously found that the number one predictor of a high-performing team wasn’t who was on it, but how they interacted. The most important factor? Psychological safety. More than free lunches or fancy perks, it was the shared feeling that “I can take a risk and speak my mind without being humiliated.”

Psychological safety isn’t about being nice. It’s about fostering respectful, candid, and fearless interaction. It’s the difference between a team that just follows instructions and one that actively solves problems. One is compliance. The other is commitment. As a manufacturer, you know which one you’d rather have.

Psychological safety also doesn’t mean avoiding accountability. In fact, it’s the opposite. It creates an environment where accountability thrives because people feel safe enough to take ownership of their work, admit mistakes, and learn from them. It’s about creating a culture where people are encouraged to bring their best ideas forward, even if those ideas challenge the status quo. It’s about fostering a sense of shared responsibility for outcomes, where everyone feels invested in the success of the team.

When psychological safety is present, teams are more likely to innovate, adapt, and perform at their best. It’s not just about avoiding mistakes; it’s about creating an environment where people feel empowered to take risks, try new approaches, and learn from failures. This is especially critical in manufacturing, where the ability to adapt to changing conditions and continuously improve processes can mean the difference between success and stagnation.

Why Your Lean Programme is Stalling Without It

You’ve invested in Lean. You’ve done the 5S audits, put up visual management boards, and trained people on A3 problem solving. But is it really working? Or has it become a performance? A kind of compliance theatre?

The boards are updated just before the manager’s Gemba walk. Team huddles are one-word updates with everyone staring at their shoes. The suggestion box is full of cobwebs. Performance improved for a while, but now it’s plateaued.

This happens when you implement the tools of Lean without building the underlying culture. Lean isn’t a set of tools; it’s a set of behaviours.

  • Surfacing problems: Visual systems like Andon cords or SQDCP boards make problems impossible to ignore. But someone has to pull the cord or put a red magnet on the board. That’s an act of vulnerability, saying, “Something is wrong, and I need help.”
  • Running experiments: Continuous improvement involves trying new things, many of which will fail. If failure is met with blame, no one will volunteer to try something new. People will stick to the old, inefficient ways because they’re predictable.
  • Suggesting improvements (Kaizen): The best ideas for improving processes come from the people doing the work. But suggesting an improvement is implicitly a critique of the current process, which might be one their manager designed. It takes courage to say, “I think there’s a better way.”
  • Learning from failure: A Lean culture asks, “Why did the process allow this to happen?” A blame culture asks, “Who did this?” One leads to learning and improvement. The other leads to hiding mistakes.

Without psychological safety, your Lean tools are just wallpaper. People will go through the motions, fill out forms, and update boards, but they won’t engage their brains. They’ll do the bare minimum to stay out of trouble. Your Lean initiative, meant to unlock potential, becomes another box-ticking exercise.

Lean is fundamentally about people. It’s about empowering the people closest to the work to identify problems, suggest improvements, and take ownership of solutions. But without psychological safety, this empowerment is impossible. People won’t speak up if they fear being blamed, ridiculed, or ignored. They won’t take risks if they believe failure will be punished. And they won’t engage in continuous improvement if they feel their ideas won’t be valued.

The Warning Signs and Costs of Silence

How do you know if you have a psychological safety problem? It’s rarely dramatic. It’s a collection of small, subtle signals. It’s the silence where there should be a question. It’s the workaround where there should be a root cause analysis.

Common warning signs include:

  • Quiet Meetings: You ask, “Any problems?” and are met with silence. You know there are issues, but no one voices them.
  • Blame Finds a Person, Not a Process: A defect gets through, and the first question is, “Who signed this off?” instead of, “What part of the system failed?”
  • Shooting the Messenger: Someone raises a concern and is met with defensiveness or told, “We don’t have time for this.” They learn not to bother next time.
  • The Hero and the Workaround: An operator is celebrated for keeping an unreliable machine running with workarounds. No one asks, “Why don’t we fix the machine?”

These aren’t just ‘people problems.’ They directly impact Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost and People (SQDCP):

  • Safety: Near misses go unreported. That wobbly pallet rack or small oil leak everyone steps over? People see them but don’t report them until they cause an accident.
  • Quality: Kevin’s silence about the CNC machine translates into rework, customer complaints, and damage to your reputation.
  • Delivery: Small issues grow into big ones that stop the line, causing unplanned downtime and missed deadlines.
  • Cost: Rework, accidents, and downtime add up. So does employee stress, burnout, and turnover.
  • People: People who don’t feel heard will leave, taking their skills with them.

The costs of silence are not just financial. They’re also cultural. A culture of silence breeds disengagement, mistrust, and apathy. It erodes morale and undermines teamwork. It creates an environment where people feel like cogs in a machine, rather than valued contributors to a shared mission. And over time, it drives away your best people—the ones who care enough to want to make things better.

How to Build Psychological Safety: Practical Steps for Leaders

This isn’t something you can fix with a memo or a poster. It’s built, conversation by conversation, by leaders on the shop floor. It’s about behaviours.

  1. Frame the Work as a Learning Problem: Acknowledge complexity. Say, “We’ve never done this exact run before, so we’ll need everyone’s eyes on it,” or “This is tricky; we’ll likely run into issues, and that’s okay.” This gives people permission to speak up.
  2. Respond to Bad News with Curiosity, Not Anger: If an operator says, “I think I’ve scrapped a pallet of parts,” fight the urge to react with frustration. Instead, say, “Thank you for telling me. Let’s look at it together.” This signals that bad news is valued.
  3. Model Fallibility: Admit when you don’t know something or make a mistake. Saying, “I messed that up, my apologies,” shows it’s okay to be vulnerable.

Embed these behaviours into existing Lean routines:

  • On Gemba Walks: Use them to listen and learn. Ask, “What’s getting in your way?” instead of, “Why is this a mess?”
  • In Daily Huddles: Ask, “What did we learn yesterday?” or “What’s one small thing we could fix today?”
  • During Problem Solving: Focus on the process, not the person. Use the 5 Whys to find systemic causes.

Simple Starting Moves for Your Factory

This can feel like a big cultural shift, but you can start small:

  1. Weekly ‘No Blame’ Improvement Huddle: Pick one team. Spend 15 minutes discussing what went wrong that week, with a strict no-blame policy. The leader’s job is to listen, say thank you, and ask, “What’s one small thing we could try next week?”
  2. Visible ‘Bugs & Ideas’ Board: Create a board with two columns: “Things That Bug Us” and “Ideas to Try.” Leadership must review it daily and act on what’s there.
  3. Instil the ‘Thank You’ Habit: Train supervisors to say, “Thank you for speaking up,” whenever someone raises a problem or idea.

Start in one area. Measure the number of issues raised and improvements implemented. As safety increases, so will contributions. Use this data to spread these practices across the facility.

The Foundation You Can’t Ignore

Psychological safety isn’t a ‘soft skill.’ It’s the hidden infrastructure of operational excellence. You can have the best tools and processes, but if people are afraid to speak up, you’re operating with one hand tied behind your back.

Your people see problems and opportunities before you do. Unlocking that intelligence is your biggest competitive advantage. It starts with making it safe for them to speak.

Take a walk around your factory floor tomorrow. Look at the conversations happening—and the ones that aren’t. Ask yourself:

Where are people staying silent, and what is that silence costing us?

If you’re not sure of the answer, or don’t like the one that comes to mind, we can help. Our Lean Coaching and Mentoring Programme helps leaders foster a culture where problems are surfaced early, ideas are shared freely, and continuous improvement becomes a reality—not just a slogan.

Seven Tips For Being An Effective Lean Leader

Posted on by Adam Payne

Lean Leadership

Lean is about creating a culture of continuous improvement, where everyone—from the CEO to the cleaner—is working together to eliminate waste, cut costs, and improve quality.

Lean is based on a number principles that can be applied at every level. These principles include:

  • Eliminate waste through value stream mapping, one-piece flow and standardised work
  • Reduce cycle time by visualising how things are currently done
  • Standardize everything possible, from processes to parts and equipment used
  • Create pull systems to avoid overproduction (Make-to-Stock vs Make-to-Order)
  • Build Quality In by eliminating defects through prevention instead of inspection (Poka Yoke)
  • Sustain Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)

Focusing on value is your first priority.

The Kaizen Mindset

A kaizen mindset is the basis for lean leadership and practice, which doesn’t always mean continuous improvement.

The idea of continuous improvement is a common misconception. Continuous improvement means that you are constantly trying to improve your processes and products, but it doesn’t mean that you are always making an improvement.

Some people think that they need to be perfect before they can consider themselves “lean” or “continuous improvement leaders.” In reality, lean leadership is about being better than yesterday—and that requires a kaizen mindset.

When you have a kaizen mindset, you’re constantly scanning what’s going on around you, looking for ways to improve: “What can I do right now? What can I do better tomorrow?” It’s not just about coming up with new ideas or projects; it’s also about recognising when something isn’t working as well as it could be and taking steps to get to the root cause and fix it, not just putting a plaster over it!

Leading From The Front, Not The Rear

The traditional command-and-control method of management does not fit within the lean philosophy, but some leaders still struggle to let go of traditional power structures and control mechanisms that don’t serve their people or the organisation very well in today’s working environment.

Some leaders are so accustomed to being the only ones who have access to all the information, they find it difficult to accept that there are times when they need to consult others.

Other leaders are not used to being challenged, so when someone does challenge them, they feel threatened and react poorly, which creates conflict instead of innovation.

Lean leaders know that the only way to truly achieve what they want is by empowering their employees—and by extension, their customers. This also means that you have to empower yourself so that you can lead others effectively.

Identifying Customer Needs For Improved Lean Leadership

Identifying who your customers are and what they value is necessary when you engage in lean and continuous improvement activities.

A good place to start is with a customer-value analysis or voice-of-the-customer. This will help you identify the features and functions that customers truly value, as well as the characteristics that differentiate your product from competitors. In addition to evaluating the needs of current customers, identify potential new customer segments by identifying needs not currently being met by competitors.

Once you have identified certain key features of your product or service, list them in priority order for each of these segments. Then prioritize these features across all segments and compare results—this will allow you to identify potential opportunities for improvement and make sure nothing is left out of your plan.

If possible, involve others from different departments in this process so they can also provide input on how they would rank these factors.

Critical Thinking: Learn To Eliminate Your Problems Forever

It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day grind, and it’s tempting to just focus on what’s right in front of you—especially when there are so many other pressing matters that need attention.

The biggest difference between lean leadership and traditional management is that lean leadership is focused on long-term solutions, while traditional management is focused on short-term results. This means that lean leaders don’t just focus on solving a problem temporarily, but rather they seek out ways to prevent the problem from ever coming up again. This is done by finding the root causes of problems and eliminating them permanently.

It may sound simple, but truly engaging in kaizen requires critical thinking and effort to see past the obvious problems, and focus on the root causes to find long-term solutions that eliminate waste forever.

Kaizen is about eliminating waste wherever it exists, not only in physical processes but also in organisational culture and structure. This means that leaders need to create an environment where employees feel safe expressing themselves freely without fear of reprisal or judgment from management (even if those judgments are well-intentioned).

How The Kaizen Mindset Helps With Business Collaboration

The kaizen mindset is centred on solving problems collaboratively as needed, so no single individual or team plays a more prominent role than others do in generating ideas for improvements.

The Lean Leadership approach is based on the principle that everyone has the ability to improve their own work processes and contribute to business success. This means that leaders at all levels need to be ready to take responsibility for their roles in improving business performance while also encouraging employees to take ownership of their own areas of focus.

Leaders need to realise that by creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable contributing ideas, everyone shares in the responsibility of being able to improve business performance. A key component of this process is creating a culture where employees feel safe sharing their thoughts and ideas without fear of reprisal or negative consequences.

The kaizen mindset is centred on solving problems collaboratively as needed, so no single individual or team plays a more prominent role than others do in generating ideas for improvements that are then implemented for better performance.

How Self-Aware Lean Leaders Succeed

The most effective lean leaders are those who understand themselves exceptionally well. They know their strengths, weaknesses and passions, and they use that knowledge to their advantage.

When you’re a leader, it’s important to be able to balance your own personal needs with the needs of your team. The best lean leaders do this by taking time to reflect on how they personally feel about a particular issue before acting on it.

In addition, they work hard to understand each individual member of their team so they can provide them with an environment that is conducive to success.

Additionally, check out our sister company New Way Growth and their ‘Helping Managers to Lead and Succeed‘ programme.

Continuous Improvement: The Simple Philosophy That Can Help Your Business Thrive

Posted on by Adam Payne

Continuous Improvement, The 1% rule, or Marginal Gains, whatever terminology you want to call it, they are all similar in philosophy and application. It is the idea of focusing on small incremental improvements to grow your business easily. The most successful businesses are always striving to improve to stay ahead of their competition.

In this blog I’ll explain how the philosophy of small incremental improvements can improve your business. This is a technique that many successful companies use in addition to Lean Thinking – a company’s philosophy of eliminating waste. It has been used for decades and can be found in micro businesses right through to corporate business models across industry and service sectors.

I’ve been a lean Sensei for 25+ years and implemented these small incremental changes in Hairdressers to Big Corporate Manufacturers. By implementing these marginal gains, it’s possible to make a huge impact on the performance of your company in a relatively short period of time. It’s Simple! and the data has proven time and time again that this method works!

You CAN NOT ignore the role of Continuous Improvement in business – and here’s why.

What is Continuous Improvement?

“Be Better Today Than You Were Yesterday, Plan To Be Better Tomorrow Than You Are Today” is a quote I have lived by for 25+ years of my working career.

The 1% Rule is a relatively new contender but has now become a business management philosophy that states that you should focus on improving your product or service by at least 1% every day. It was developed by Sir Dave Brailsford, former performance director of British Cycling, and used as a means to achieve micro improvement in the British Cycling Team. The concept behind the 1% rule is simple: if you focus on small improvements, you can achieve significant results over time.

The concept of the 1% rule in my opinion is based on Kaizen, which is Japanese for “continuous improvement.” Kaizen was first introduced to the Western World in the 1970s by Toyota, who taught that companies should embrace a culture of continuous improvement rather than trying to maximise efficiency one big hit at a time. Kaizen aims to reduce inefficiency in its 3 major forms. These are muda (waste), muri (overburdening work), and mura (inconsistency of work).

When we look at these strategies, we can see how the power of tiny gains really makes a difference.

1% Improvement Every Day 1.01365 = 37.78%

1% Decline Every Day 0.99365 = 0.03%

How does the Continuous Improvement work in business?

The PDCA Cycle, also known as the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle, is a model for continuous improvement that uses four phases to drive process changes through the organisation. This linked to the 3 forms of in-efficiency, muda (waste), muri (overburdening work), and mura (inconsistency of work) gives a superb structure and focus for all employees.

The PDCA Cycle Explained:

Plan: In this phase, you identify a problem or opportunity for improvement. You also create a plan for how to solve the problem or capitalise on the opportunity.

Do: In this phase, you carry out your plan and implement your solution.

Check: In this phase, you review your work to see if it was successful in achieving its objectives and if there are any unintended consequences of your actions.

Act: In this phase, you make adjustments based on what you learned in the check phase and continue with another iteration of the cycle to drive continuous improvement.

By continuously improving your processes, your organisation can achieve higher levels of performance at lower cost. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also helps an organisation achieve its goals faster.

The key to this and building on the marginal gains is to empower everyone to make these short, sharp improvement cycles small enough to be managed at a local level. This will enable them to use their creativity and judgment to find the most effective solution for their teams and customers.

The second aspect of this is that the improvements have to be visible and celebrated. This is not just about being proud of what you have achieved, but also about helping others see what you have done. This creates an environment where people are constantly looking for new ways to improve, which in turn leads to innovation.

The third aspect is that it has to be built into every process in a business. You cannot expect people just to do it because you asked them to – they need processes that encourage continuous improvement across everything they do from how they order stock through the distribution system all the way through customer support.

Why use the Continuous Improvement?

Continuous improvement is a process that can be used in every business setting of all sizes and all sectors, from small businesses to large corporations.

It’s Good for Business

The benefits of continuous improvement can be seen throughout the business world. By using this approach, companies are able to stay competitive while providing better quality products and services at lower prices. This helps them grow their customer base while increasing their profit margin through increased sales volume.

It’s Good for Employees

Continuous improvement is also good for employees because it provides them with job security. If you have implemented a continuous improvement program in your company, then you have created an environment where everyone is constantly making improvements which makes your company more competitive in the marketplace and less likely to be outsourced in favour of cheaper labour costs elsewhere.

  • People feel empowered because they have more opportunities for growth and development.
  • Employees feel more engaged because they feel like their work matters and makes a difference.
  • The company attracts better talent because employees want to work for companies that are doing great things for their customers.

Does Continuous Improvement really work?

Yes! Continuous Improvement absolutely works!

I’ve implemented and completed Lean Thinking and Continuous Improvement Projects in 100+ businesses over my career and have no doubt on the impact it can make.

On my very first project back in the 1990’s we took a machine change over from 480 mins to sub 20 mins, saving a £250K capital expenditure. As Senior Exec I’ve saved £10m+ year on year through the implementation of Continuous Improvement. I’ve seen every employee within a business take pride in completing numerous small incremental changes that compound in delivering a huge result.

In order to achieve these results, you need to be prepared to put in the work. It’s not an overnight process—it takes patience as well as an unwavering commitment to creating positive change at every level of your organisation. But once you’ve seen the first results, you’ll find it’s worth every minute invested!

You’ve only got to read some of our Case Studies to realise the potential.

Takeaway: Challenging yourself and your employees to make small improvements every day can have a dramatic effect on your overall business growth.

The Lean Bug: Embracing The Lean Revolution in Manufacturing

Posted on by Adam Payne

Igniting Transformation with Lean Philosophy

Lean Manufacturing, a philosophy embedding a culture of efficiency and continuous improvement, has revolutionised industries worldwide. Its inception within the automotive industry to today’s widespread application showcases its universal benefit across various sectors. When considering Lean Thinking, one can’t help but admire its holistic approach to streamlining operations, enhancing product quality, and boosting customer satisfaction.

Throughout my career, from my initial days as an engineer at a small SME to my role as a corporate executive, I have witnessed firsthand Lean Manufacturing’s transformative potential. My journey into the world of Lean began with a simple yet profound introduction to the concept of Kaizen while working at Linread Northbridge, a precision fasteners manufacturer for the aerospace sector. This pivotal moment sparked a lasting passion for Lean principles that I’ve carried through to every organisation I’ve served (including my own businesses, New Way Growth, FactoryIQ and obviously TCMUK Limited), assisting Manufacturing SMEs in realising their full potential through strategic Lean interventions and comprehensive programs.

The First Step to Lean Success: A Kaizen Event

Reflecting on my first engagement with Lean, a SMED event aimed at reducing a Header Machine’s changeover time from an entire shift to a mere 30 minutes stands out. This experience, under the guidance of a seasoned Japanese Sensei, was not merely about time reduction. It was a lesson in unlocking hidden potential, leveraging precise KPIs, and fostering a mindset geared towards continuous improvement. From relocating machining centers to implementing strategies that yielded savings of over £15 million in the first year, the principles of Lean Thinking have proven time and again that with the right mindset, ‘impossible’ is merely an opinion.

Overcoming the “It Won’t Work Here” Mentality

Resistance to change is a common theme in any organisational transformation. Yet, the principle of marginal gains teaches us the power of incremental improvements. By nurturing a culture that embraces every opportunity for growth, however small, organisations can witness significant advancements over time. The essence of Lean is not in the complexity of tools or techniques but in harnessing the collective knowledge and creativity of its people to drive enduring improvement.

More Than Techniques: A Cultural Shift

Lean Manufacturing transcends mere operational tactics; it represents a fundamental shift in organisational culture and mindset. Its success is contingent not on the size of the company but on the depth of commitment to these principles by its leaders and teams. Engaging closely with the ground-level processes, understanding the real challenges, and courageously tackling the root causes, paves the way for sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

Conclusion: Lean Leadership and Organisational Excellence

The journey towards Lean excellence is ongoing and evolving. It demands a leadership style that is hands-on, empathetic, and visionary. As organisations venture into this transformative path, they unlock efficiencies, eliminate waste, and set new benchmarks of performance. The legacy of Lean is not just in its methods but in the cultural rejuvenation it brings about, fostering an environment where continuous improvement becomes the norm, not the exception.

Lean Manufacturing is more than a methodology; it’s a catalyst for redefining excellence in the manufacturing sector. So, as you delve into the world of Lean, remember, the journey is as rewarding as the destination. Embrace each challenge, celebrate every small win, and continuously strive for a better, leaner, and more efficient tomorrow.

For personalised advice, practical insights, and to explore how Lean can revitalise your manufacturing processes, please feel free to reach out.

0330 311 2820