Kevin Meyer

Consultant, speaker, and author

Kevin Meyer has more than 25 years of executive leadership experience, primarily in the medical device industry, and has been active in lean manufacturing for more than 20 years serving as director and manager in operations and advanced engineering, and as CEO of a medical device manufacturing company. He consults and speaks at lean events; operates the online knowledgebase, Lean CEO, and the lean training portal, Lean Presentations; and is a partner in GembaAcademy.com, which provides lean training to more than 5,000 companies. Meyer is co-author of Evolving Excellence–Thoughts on Lean Enterprise Leadership (iUniverse Inc., 2007) and writes weekly on a blog of the same name.

Wed, 03/18/2020 - 12:01
The Devil on the Bus Hug a contrarion
Tue, 05/27/2014 - 16:20
The other day, while skimming LinkedIn, I came across yet another one of those cheesy quotes that, unfortunately, have become all too common on the site: “Surround yourself with people on the same mission.” I proceeded to get into an online…
The Dangerous Lite Side of Mindfulness and Lean Mindfulness, as with lean, is a continuous journey
Wed, 04/16/2014 - 12:02
I’ll preface this article by saying that yes, I’m from crazy California. I eat granola with fruits and nuts in the morning, am vegetarian (well, pescatarian), dislike wearing shoes, and practice yoga. At least I don’t have dreadlocks—yet. So there—…
Just a Simple Strategy Dispense with collecting pretty binders (and dust) on a shelf
Mon, 03/17/2014 - 09:06
I remember two decades ago when I was in my first real executive role, and I was asked to come up with a strategy for my business unit. I was in control and I could develop and set a direction! I could finally use some of what I had learned in…
Chaos Can Be Productive Given back the right to think for ourselves, we revert to conscientious beings
Wed, 03/05/2014 - 17:00
Rules are funny things. We like some of them because they make us feel protected, aligned, and perhaps operating on a fair playing field. We dislike them because they can protect us to the point of being smothering, align us to the point of being…
The Power of High-Performance Decisions Instead of creating rule-bound processes, improve the quality of decision points
Mon, 01/27/2014 - 15:00
For the past couple weeks, I’ve been digging into employee handbooks because a startup I’m involved with has grown to the point of needing one. Few perhaps realize how that document, usually given to you on your first day and then mostly forgotten…
Three Lean Blogs to Follow This Year Recommended reading for management improvement
Wed, 01/15/2014 - 08:05
Once again I have the privilege to be part of Curious Cat’s annual management improvement blog review and will be taking a look back at three of my favorite blogs. TimeBack by Dan Markovitz Dan has become one of my favorite bloggers, and a good…
About That ‘Human Error’ When social judgement meets performance variability
Mon, 12/09/2013 - 17:00
Thanks to Twitter, again, I recently came across one of the most insightful articles I’ve read in a long time—on a safety blog, no less. Steven Shorrock takes on the concept of “human error” and adds considerably more perspective to this oft-used…
Of Meetings, Metrics, and Dishwashing Some of the best solutions occur when people meet face to face
Mon, 10/21/2013 - 17:18
Last week I started a discussion post in the lean Six Sigma LinkedIn group about Gemba Academy’s latest featured video showing a morning stand-up meeting at my old company, Specialty Silicone Fabricators. I had started the morning meetings years…
Of Maps, ERP, and Basic Thinking We must learn to think again
Fri, 10/04/2013 - 16:01
A hat tip to Mark Graban for pointing out this article on a problem the Fairbanks airport has been experiencing with Apple Maps. It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. (OK, it’s still funny.) “There’s a way to get to the Fairbanks Airport,…
The Process of Exploring Out of the Box There’s more to learning something new than simply thinking about it
Mon, 09/23/2013 - 15:10
On the long series of flights back home from Bhutan and Nepal last weekend, I came across an article on CNN Tech, “Mark Zuckerberg’s Bizarre New Self-Improvement Goal.” I haven’t really been a fan of the arrogant wunderkind, and the article didn’t…