Mike Micklewright

Lean trainer and facilitator

Mike Micklewright has been teaching and facilitating quality and lean principles worldwide for more than 25 years. He specializes in creating lean and continuous improvement cultures, and has implemented continuous improvement systems and facilitated kaizen/Six Sigma events in hundreds of organizations in the aerospace, automotive, entertainment, manufacturing, food, healthcare, and warehousing industries. Micklewright is the U.S. director and senior consultant for Kaizen Institute. He has an engineering degree from the University of Illinois, and he is ASQ-certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt, quality auditor, quality engineer, manager of quality/operational excellence, and supply chain analyst.

Micklewright hosts a video training series by Kaizen Institute on integrating lean and quality management systems in order to reduce waste.

Tue, 05/28/2019 - 12:02
Leggo My Ego Good-to-great leaders are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar
Tue, 04/15/2014 - 14:58
Years ago, there was a memorable TV commercial of a toaster waffle that had this very memorable tag line: “Leggo my Eggo.” Today, this product still exists, as does the tag line, but the tag line is much more obscure than it once was. Today, CEOs…
Should the Senate Call on Itself to Testify in GM’s Ignition Switch Problem? You decide
Mon, 04/07/2014 - 11:38
Well, phew… I’m relieved. We have someone to blame. At least GM will be able to fire the engineer who allegedly lied under oath about a 2006 design change to fix the faulty switches on the Chevy Cobalts. Now we can all get on with our lives, right…
Build Lean Into Your QMS When Converting to ISO 9001:2015 There’s no better way to prevent nonconformity due to human error than with lean tools
Mon, 03/31/2014 - 14:20
Editor’s note: This article discusses topics covered at greater length in episodes 19–23 of a new streaming video training series, Creating and Sustaining Lean Improvements—Integrating Principles, Culture, and Tools by the author and 360…
A Holistic Approach to Lean There’s more to lean that its tools
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 15:56
Editor’s note: Mike Micklewright will be a guest on Quality Digest Live, on Feb. 28, 2014, at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern. Micklewright will also present a webinar, “Sustaining Lean Improvements While Adding Spark to Your QMS,” on March 6, 2014,…
Use Lean Concepts to Right-Size Your Documentation System Reduce procedures by 50% via ISO 13485 and AS9100 upgrades
Mon, 01/14/2013 - 11:54
Got your attention by what seems a bizarre claim? Yes, you can significantly reduce the number of procedures you maintain by converting your ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS) to one that is also certified to the medical device standard ISO…
Are You Humble Enough to Be a Lean CEO? CEO does not stand for chief ego officer
Thu, 11/15/2012 - 10:52
If you’ve answered the question above with, “Absolutely yes, I am a very humble leader,” you probably are not. But don’t get me wrong: Humility should not be a substitute for confidence. In fact, perhaps the two greatest assets a lean leader,…
Gemba + Auditing = GembAuditing Merging the gemba walk with the QMS requirement of internal audits greatly enhances both
Tue, 09/18/2012 - 17:01
Many companies’ internal quality audit systems suffer from a reputation of being mildly effective to completely ineffective or just nonvalue-added. Often, it’s viewed as a policing department from which one’s dirty laundry must be hidden. Also, the…
Making U.S. Manufacturing More Competitive Dig around the roots and prepare for planting
Wed, 09/05/2012 - 12:00
After recently returning to the world of process improvement consulting, I began to ponder where U.S. manufacturing stands with regard to worldwide competitiveness after so many decades of highs and lows. Globally, we have U.S. manufacturing to…
Wasting Away in Juryville Is the time-consuming process of jury duty too sacred to improve?
Fri, 06/01/2012 - 10:34
I write this as I am sitting in the Jury Assembly Room (JAIL for short) on the 17th floor of the Richard J. Daley Center in downtown Chicago, waiting for something to happen. I estimate that there are another 130 poor souls who probably have a…
Consultant vs. Executive Back in the trenches
Tue, 04/03/2012 - 13:01
Fourteen months ago, I changed careers. I had been an independent consultant for 17 years (I still do public speaking), built a good practice and then gave it all away to go back into the corporate world as a vice president of global continuous…