In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with executive coach and engineering leader Sarah Milstein about how to keep teams focused on value creation by putting people at the center of work design. My conversation with Sarah explores: How to create cultures of respect as a leader How companies can simplify job roles, salaries, and raises to focus employees on high-value work Sarah’s advice for how engineering and product leaders can successfully navigate this moment in tech, including the t...
Dec 04, 2025•25 min•Ep. 126
In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with Julia Austin about what the lean product and process development principle “Put People First” looks like in practice. An executive fellow at Harvard Business School, Julia is an executive coach with experience leading successful product teams in tech at companies like Akamai Technologies, VMware, Inc., and DigitalOcean. She is also author of the book, After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup . My conversation with Julia...
Nov 20, 2025•22 min•Ep. 125
In this week’s edition of The Management Brief , Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, speak with Nelson Repenning, School of Management Distinguished Professor of System Dynamics and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Nelson also is the co-author of There’s Got to Be a Better Way i and the Co-Founder and Chief Social Scientist of ShiftGear Work Design, a consultancy that focuses on understanding the factors that contribute to the succe...
Nov 11, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 124
This month The Management Brief will explore prominent lean theories that have been guiding organizations in their lean transformations. This week, Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, are joined by Dr. Steven Spear, renown lean expert and senior lecturer at MIT. Steven is co-author of Wiring the Winning Organization: Liberating our Collective Greatness through Slowification, Simplification, and Amplification ,1 which examines how some companies over the last ...
Nov 04, 2025•57 min•Ep. 123
Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, are joined by Jon Armstrong, Co-Founder and CEO of Do It American MFG Company, which produces goods for public utilities. Jon started the company in 2008 and is an advocate for U.S.-based manufacturing. Earlier in his career as a manager at Walker Corporation he learned about the Toyota Production System (TPS) directly from the eminent Hajime Oba while being assisted by the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC). Th...
Oct 14, 2025•46 min•Ep. 122
Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, talk with Carl Klemm, former General Motors and Toyota executive (including six years as President and CEO of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland). After retiring from Toyota in 2015, Carl founded Carl Klemm Management Solutions so he could continue to work with companies and share what he has learned about lean through the years. This month The Management Brief explores how leaders transform and rethink traditional managemen...
Oct 07, 2025•44 min•Ep. 121
In this special dual-release edition of The Design Brief and The Management Brief, Josh Howell, LEI President, is joined by LEI veterans Jim Morgan, Senior Advisor, and Mark Reich, Senior Coach and Chief Engineer Strategy. These two lean heavyweights discuss two fundamental lean processes that are absolutely critical to transform and grow an enterprise: lean product and process development (LPPD) and hoshin kanri. Jim is a former Ford Global Engineering Director and Rivian Chief Operating Office...
Sep 29, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 120
In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with Eric Ethington and Matt Zayko about how to build strong teams and robust product and process development systems, and why doing so takes a skilled chief engineer. Eric Ethington is a senior coach and Chief Engineer, Lean Product and Process Development (LPPD) at The Lean Enterprise Institute. Matt Zayko is global head of the Lean Office at GE HealthCare. Eric and Matt are also coauthors of the book, The Power of Process : A Story of Innovative L...
Sep 25, 2025•27 min•Ep. 119
Two leaders of the Cleveland Clinic’s lean improvement function — Dr. Lisa Yerian, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical & Operational Improvement Officer, and Chad Cummings, Vice President of Lean Transformation & Continuous Improvement — speak with Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy. The podcast continues our focus this month on the role of continuous improvement (CI) groups in lean management. The Cleveland Clinic consists of 23 hospitals, 28...
Sep 23, 2025•48 min•Ep. 118
Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, talk with Rich Calvaruso, Senior Director of the Lean Management Office for GE Appliances. Rich — with GE for 36 years and the leader of GE Appliances’ continuous improvement (CI) group for 15 of those years — has been instrumental in driving lean thinking and practice for the company. He says the purpose of his group is to “develop people and improve process at the same time.” GE Appliances started its first lean activitie...
Sep 16, 2025•50 min•Ep. 117
Simon Rowley and Julian Ball join Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, and continue this month’s discussion about the role of continuous improvement (CI) groups in lean management. Simon is Senior Manager at the Toyota Lean Management Centre (TLMC) in the UK, and Julian is Section Manager. TLMC was started by Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK in 2009 to support companies in the UK interested in implementing the Toyota Production System (TPS). The two TLMC executiv...
Sep 09, 2025•49 min•Ep. 116
Josh Howell and Mark Reich, LEI President and Chief Engineer Strategy, respectively, speak with Jamie Bonini, President of the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), a not-for-profit corporation affiliated with Toyota Motor North America. Since 1992, TSSC has shared Toyota know-how with more than 500 small- to mid-sized companies, government entities, and non-profits. This week’s discussion kicks off a month of The Management Brief content around the role of continuous improvement (CI) ...
Sep 02, 2025•47 min•Ep. 115
In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with Sebastian Fixson, PhD, of Babson College, on mentoring the next generation of leaders in lean product and process development (LPPD). Sebastian is the founding faculty director of the doctor of business administration) program and professor of innovation and design, at Babson, where he focuses on helping people and organizations build innovation capabilities. Jim Morgan, senior advisor on LPPDat LEI, joins Sebastian and me for this wide-ranging ...
Aug 21, 2025•25 min•Ep. 114
Jim Lancaster, Owner and CEO of Lantech, talks with Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, about his lean journey and the decades-long transformation at his packaging-solutions company. Lantech, a lean pioneer, was highlighted in Jim Womack’s and Daniel Jones’ 1996 book Lean Thinking , and has steadily improved, growing the business 75% since 2020 despite economic and market factors that have derailed other companies. Jim, author of The Work of Management , star...
Jul 22, 2025•45 min•Ep. 113
In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we continue our series on AI in product development with an interview with Mari Zumbro, Co-Founder and COO of the tech startup Filament. An active participant in the open-source community, Filament describes itself as a new communication platform with the goal of accelerating global innovation with leaders who are thinking deeply about “how different communities and organizations can mutually benefit and look for arrangements that benefit the public good.” In...
Jul 17, 2025•30 min•Ep. 112
Josh Howell and Mark Reich, LEI President and Chief Engineer Strategy, respectively, speak with Scott Heydon, former VP of Global Strategy at Starbucks, McKinsey & Co. consultant, and a Senior Lean Coach with LEI since 2014. They discuss Scott’s efforts to transform Starbucks with lean thinking, learning lean methods and new ways of problem-solving along the way, and how he’s taken that knowledge to other organizations. Scott says at Starbucks he evolved his own problem-solving from that of ...
Jul 15, 2025•55 min•Ep. 111
In this episode of The Design Brief , we speak with Fabrice Bernhard. Fabrice is cofounder and chief technology officer of Theodo, a leading tech consultancy in Europe, and coauthor of The Lean Tech Manifesto . Fabrice discusses what it takes to create great digital products, how high-performing teams can use AI with care, and how LPPD ( lean product and process development ) thinking works with generative AI to strengthen businesses and teams. The conversation explores: What intentional use of ...
Jul 10, 2025•19 min•Ep. 110
Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, join Olivier Larue, President of Ydatum, and discuss the Toyota Production System (TPS), the three elements embedded within TPS that make it more than just a production system, and the ability of TPS to foster problem-solving and creativity. Olivier worked with Mark at the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC) in the late 1990s and has led Ydatum since 2000, assisting companies in implementing its version of TPS. Olivier re...
Jul 01, 2025•42 min•Ep. 109
Josh Howell and Mark Reich, LEI President and Chief Engineer Strategy, respectively, talk with Sal Sanchez, a Toyota veteran and TPS coach with LEI. Sal’s Toyota career began at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), the GM/Toyota joint venture and Toyota’s first automotive footprint in the United States, and continued with roles at Toyota North American headquarters and TSSC (Toyota Supplier Support Center, where he worked with Mark in the late-1990s) as well as Dana Corp. Across his care...
Jun 17, 2025•40 min•Ep. 108
Josh Howell, LEI President, talks about the relationship of problem-solving and daily management with Jill Miller, Manager for Global Learning and Development at MillerKnoll, a maker of office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings. Jill supports the development, use, and expansion of the MillerKnoll Performance System (MKPS), which she says is designed to meet customers’ needs by engaging and developing people to daily surface and solve problems. “At its heart, it’s really about building ca...
Jun 10, 2025•43 min•Ep. 107
Josh Howell, LEI President, Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, and Art Smalley discuss the four basic types of problem-solving. Art is a well-known expert in leadership, management, and the Toyota Way. He worked at Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan; helped to transform Donnelly Corp. in Michigan; was a consultant with McKinsey & Co.; and has authored several award-winning books, including Four Types of Problems . The trio set out to discuss how the framework of the four types of problems map...
Jun 03, 2025•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 106
In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with Sandrine Olivencia, author of Build to Sell: The Lean Secret to Crafting Irresistible Product s , co-founder of Taktique Academy, and partner at Lean Sensei Partners. This is the second time Sandrine has joined us on the WLEI podcast, and in this particular conversation, we discuss why lean product and process development principles are crucial for entrepreneurs in today’s rapidly shifting market demands. The conversation explores: How Sandrine ...
May 29, 2025•31 min•Ep. 105
Mark Reich , LEI Chief Engineer of Strategy, and Karen Gaudet , LEI Senior Coach, talk with Michael Duncan, President of Viwinco, about his efforts to establish a robust daily management system in the family-owned window and door company and connect it to the company’s hoshin kanri process. Michael grew up in the company and, after rising into leadership, spearheaded the company’s transformation, implementing lean principles and tools while developing people. This enabled the company to more eff...
May 20, 2025•43 min•Ep. 104
In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with product leader and angel investor Phil Green about product-centered entrepreneurship and what it takes to truly create value for customers. Since 2020, Phil has been the senior advisor for B2B and technology at Harvard Innovation Labs. Before the i-lab, Phil spent over 30 years working at various startups as a CEO, COO, CTO, and a product manager. The conversation explores: Some of the most exciting products and services Phil has seen come out o...
May 08, 2025•26 min•Ep. 103
Josh Howell, LEI president, explores the topic of daily management with Joe Seestadt, Director Lab Outreach for Bronson Healthcare and a faculty member and coach with LEI. Joe trained as an industrial engineer and worked in manufacturing, and has now spent some 18 years in healthcare. He was instrumental in developing the Cleveland Clinic’s daily management system, which has been recognized across the industry. Joe is unique in that he is both a lean guide to others as well as an owner and user ...
May 06, 2025•41 min•Ep. 102
Josh Howell, LEI president, talks with Dr. Sarah Womack, an eight-year veteran of Toyota and author of Toyota’s Improvement Thinking from the Inside . Sarah discusses how her transformation and that of other individuals within Toyota collectively contributed to organizational improvements and high performance. Her Toyota experiences exponentially advanced her learning and today enable her to successfully impart lean values and mindsets to organizations that are very unlike Toyota. Learn more abo...
Apr 14, 2025•40 min•Ep. 101
In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with Steve Spear, a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, senior fellow at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, and associated faculty member at Adriane Labs of the Harvard School of Public Health. Spear is also author of The High-Velocity Edge and Wiring the Winning Organization and principal of SeeToSolve . The conversation explores: Stellar examples of product development innovation (and the learning cultures that made these ach...
Apr 09, 2025•31 min•Ep. 100
In this episode of WLEI Podcast, we welcome Amy Smith, Founding Director of MIT’s D-Lab, an innovative university-based program in international development and a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
Mar 19, 2025•28 min•Ep. 99
In this episode of WLEI Podcast, we welcome Cynthia E. Smith, Curator of Socially Responsible Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and author of Design for the Other 90% . Cynthia speaks about design as a catalyst for change and what it means, as she says, to be in “the collective work of building capacity and agency in communities across the world.”
Mar 12, 2025•28 min•Ep. 98
This week The Management Brief presents a podcast with Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer, Strategy. They discuss Mark’s 30-plus years working with hoshin kanri — two decades at Toyota and then coaching executives while with LEI — and the impact that the strategic planning and execution process has had on Toyota and the many companies with which Mark has supported. You’ll hear how hoshin kanri helped Toyota establish self-reliant North American operations, which requi...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 97
