GembaTalk

Ryan Tierney of Lean Made Simple, Seating Matters, and Sperrin Metal, Tom Hughes of GembaDocs, and Brian Meyers of Fat American Manufacturing gathered for an extended Q&A session at Gemba Summit 2025. The panel shared their key takeaways from the two-day event - Tom emphasized the value of informal conversations between sessions, Ryan highlighted the bold visions people are taking home (making...

Russell Watkins of Sempai delivered an entertaining and wisdom-filled keynote at Gemba Summit 2025, sharing ten light bulb moments from decades working with Japanese manufacturers including Toyota and Denso. Starting his journey in 1999 at age 29 with sensei Toshiyuki Muraoka (who joined Toyota's Kamigo plant in 1964 and learned directly from Ohno's era of pull systems development), Russell candid...

Paul Vallely of Kukoon delivered one of the most practical and honest presentations at Gemba Summit 2025 about integrating AI with lean thinking. Seven years into their lean journey after visiting Seating Matters in 2018, Paul openly shared what Kukoon still needs to improve - including bringing back a second morning meeting in January because reducing to one weekly meeting had failed to transfer...

Oliver Conger of British Rototherm delivered a powerful transformation story at Gemba Summit 2025, sharing his journey from near-failure to lean excellence. After buying a 150-year-old manufacturing business and making things worse for five years through bad acquisitions and disastrous systems, Oliver discovered two second lean and created a culture of improvement. But they hit a plateau - culture...

Alan Weir, recently retired from Toyota UK after nearly 34 years, delivered a moving keynote at Gemba Summit 2025 about what truly drives excellence in lean manufacturing. Speaking in Belfast where he grew up, Alan shared insights from his time as Deputy Managing Director at one of Toyota's most efficient plants globally. His message was clear: it's not about automation or technology - it's about...

Brian Meyers, owner of Fat American Manufacturing, delivered an unforgettable keynote at Gemba Summit 2025 about the reality of leading lean transformation. Meyers shared three powerful rules from his 14-month transformation journey: never go backwards when you make an improvement, show total and unwavering commitment (even if it means burning the old binders), and focus on burden and flow rather...

Tom Hughes, CEO of GembaDocs and author of "Improvement Starts with I," delivered a thought-provoking keynote at Gemba Summit 2025 that challenged widely accepted lean beliefs. Hughes systematically "exploded" lean dogmas that hold organizations back: the overemphasis on culture without technical knowledge, unrealistic expectations that everyone becomes a "lean maniac," the narrow internal focus t...

In this bonus episode, Tom Hughes visits FAT American Manufacturing in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to talk with Brian Meyers, one of the most prolific GembaDocs users in the world. In just over a year, Brian’s team have created more than 2,000 SOPs - and actually uses them every day. This episode dives into how FAT American turned standard work from a chore into a cornerstone of culture. Expect real talk...

In this episode, Tom Hughes talks with Pankaj Malik, founder of IOTAFLOW, about how finding Lean principles 20years into business revolutionized his company. From quality issues to a world-class system with 1,000 SOPs, Pankaj shares how small changes created a massive culture shift in his organization. This shift has not only improved efficiency but has also enhanced employee well-being, with incr...

Tom talks with Brian Meyers, founder of Fat American Manufacturing (FAM) and multiple off-road manufacturing brands to find out how traveling to Japan and Europe gave Brian a new perspective on Lean - and how his company has rapidly implemented standardized work to improve efficiency. By embracing standard work, giving employees ownership, and integrating SOPs into daily operations, Fat American M...

Pablo Scarpatti, co-owner of Scarpati Amoblamientos, chats with Tom about how Lean principles have helped scale his custom woodworking business. Pablo shares insights on the birth of his lean business starting with an accident, how he developed workforce understanding of processes with QR codes, the process standardization, and the role of a strong skills matrix (and how it inspired GembaDocs Skil...

Tom Hughes sits down with Stephan Hilmer, COO of Tridelta Meidensha, to discuss how standard processes revolutionized their approach to efficiency and training. Stephan reveals how Lean methodologies helped their company navigate the challenges of the pandemic and optimize production. "Knowledge is really, really bad. Knowledge is bad until you put it on paper. You are the expert when you get ever...

Hampton Conservatories are one of the original GembaDocs customers, so Tom got Dwain Steele, Production Manager, to dive into how standard processes with GembaDocs took the chaos and burden out of their workflow in the last three years to create a book of knowledge. "The power it gives my team - ’I did a process today’ - this is fantastic, they went home, they feel great, because they've created t...

In this episode, Tom Hughes, founder of GembaDocs, sits down with Ryan Tierney from Seating Matters to explore the transformative power of standardized operating procedures (SOPs). Discover how Seating Matters became a world-class Lean organization, the challenges they faced during implementation, and practical tips for success. “We wasted so much money, so much time with systems that weren't up t...