Bruce Hamilton

President, vice chair, teacher, change agent

Bruce Hamilton, president of the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP), brings hands-on experience as a manager, teacher, and change agent. Prior to GBMP, Hamilton led efforts to transform United Electric Controls Co.’s production from a traditional batch factory to a single-piece-flow environment that has become an international showcase. Hamilton has spoken internationally on lean manufacturing, employee involvement, continuous improvement, and implementing change. Also, he has contributed to numerous texts ranging from visual control to variety reduction. Hamilton’s blog, Old Lean Dude, is an ongoing reflection on lean philosophy and practices, with an emphasis on keeping good jobs close to home.

Thu, 10/09/2025 - 12:02
Kaizen Revisited Only tacit learning can teach managers the real power of kaizen
Thu, 02/02/2017 - 12:02
Here is an article I wrote 10 years ago, recently resurrected from the lost letter file. I can’t remember why I wrote it or for whom. Originally titled, “What is Kaizen?” the article still resonates with me as I hope it will with you. My study of…
Caramel Corn Kaizen Visual flow on New Jersey’s boardwalk
Mon, 12/19/2016 - 12:59
While holiday shopping at one of my favorite food places, Johnson’s Popcorn, I came upon a scene reminiscent of our lean training video, Toast Kaizen. After I placed my order for 18 one-gallon buckets of caramel corn for friends and family, the…
Doormats In defense of engineers
Tue, 11/08/2016 - 15:15
One of Shigeo Shingo’s popular status quo targets was engineers, whom he placed in three categories: table engineers, those who just sit around a table and talk about problems; catalog engineers, those who think the solution to every problem can be…
First Summer Job Four lifelong lessons in three short months
Mon, 10/17/2016 - 17:07
I was lucky that the first boss I ever had (at age 13) had much to teach at a point when I had much to learn. Chris M. was a brilliant but illiterate Italian immigrant and fisherman who had built a landmark restaurant and marina on the bay in Ocean…
Peripheral Discoveries ‘The best place to look for improvement is in an area where it is thought not to exist’
Wed, 09/21/2016 - 14:15
The following is inspired by The Teachings of Don Juan (Washington Square Press, reprint 1985), an anthropological novel from the 1960s written by Carlos Castaneda, chronicling his travels with Don Juan, a Yaqui shaman. To crudely paraphrase,…
Space Junk Are your workplace fixtures junk, or do they facilitate flow?
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 14:40
Last weekend in the Nantucket Ferry terminal, I passed a defunct phone booth: an ornate wooden kiosk used 20 years ago to frame a pay phone, provide a modicum of privacy, and hold a phone book. It appeared that this particular phone booth had been…
Consult With Humility Lean guru? Let’s get real.
Wed, 08/17/2016 - 14:34
A friend and colleague remarked to me that “the lean market has become mature,” implying a depth and breadth of lean understanding in industry that I have rarely seen myself. Standardized work, for example, almost always looks like time setting to…
Lean by Doing Perhaps hands-on learning is the only way to unlearn ingrained frameworks
Wed, 08/03/2016 - 14:08
Early along, as a student of the Toyota Production System (TPS), now referred to as lean, I struggled with some of the concepts and systems. For example, Shigeo Shingo’s claim that a four-hour machine setup could be reduced to less than 10 minutes…
Profitless Part Proliferation A false sense of profitability cloaks great waste
Mon, 07/11/2016 - 13:50
I wrote a piece a little more than five years ago about a variety reduction program (VRP), an amazing but little-known product-design optimization tool. At the time I referred to VRP as an idea whose “time had not yet come.” Last week, as I gave a…
Eye of the Beholder Things get ugly fast when we fail to understand lean concepts
Thu, 06/30/2016 - 12:56
Many moons ago, when I was just getting started on my lean journey, I visited a large automotive supplier to benchmark pull systems. My own factory had started a pilot kanban between two work centers and I was hoping to gain some insight from a…