Gemba Academy Podcast: Lean Manufacturing | Lean Office | Six Sigma | Toyota Kata | Productivity | Leadership

Most resistance to lean is blamed on the wrong thing. Ben Morley, an Air Force pilot turned Lean Six Sigma consultant, argues the tools are never really the problem. The breakdown almost always lives somewhere between leadership buy-in and an assumption nobody thought to question. His conversation with Ron Pereira covers cockpit emergencies, a $5 million backlog that dissolved from a single customer phone call, and what a caterpillar turning to soup has to do with organizational transformation. In this episode you’ll learn: How a single quote reframes what transformation actually looks like (1:59) What flying C-17s across seven continents taught Ben about process discipline (3:26) How DMAIC and pilot training turn out to be the same methodology (7:44) Why skipping rigor in the define phase creates variation in the cockpit and the conference room (9:41) How preparation before an in-flight emergency keeps your hands moving while your mind stays clear (15:39) What to do when crossed arms and skepticism g