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

Most lean practitioners know the theory of constraints. Fewer apply it before they start fixing things. Hessam Vali, a manufacturing consultant and MES software founder based in Wichita, argues that most improvement efforts fail because they target the wrong kinks in the hose. His framework is deceptively simple: if the deepest constraint is still in place, no one will ever see your work.

In this episode you’ll learn:

What “lean is constant ticking, not occasional kicking” actually demands (2:54)

Why fixing the wrong problems leaves customers unable to see progress (7:24)

How Rapid Plant Assessment and value stream mapping work together to find constraints (10:03)

Why backsliding happens and how to catch it before it compounds (14:52)

How checklists and behavior-level metrics detect process drift faster than control charts (18:34)

Why technology without an operating system solves nothing (22:16)

What AI should and should not be trusted to do in a lean environment (27:11)

Why transformation gets worse before it gets better (30:13)

The reason firefighting organizations cannot find time for kaizen (31:40)

“You are doing firefighting because you’re not doing kaizens, because you’re not pausing, you’re not looking at it, you’re not fixing problem from the cause, and you’re not going to be out of that circle unless you change that behavior.” – Hessam Vali

Keep Learning

If Hessam’s point about finding the vital few constraints before launching improvement work resonated, the School of Lean covers the foundational tools for mapping value streams and surfacing the kinks worth fixing.

Learn More About School of Lean at gembaacademy.com/school-of-lean

Podcast Resources

Hessam on LinkedIn

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When your team is deep in firefighting, what does it take to carve out the time to step back and address the constraint that is feeding all those fires?

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 greet you on day one (20:41)

Why values on the website and culture on the floor are two different things (22:34)

When loyalty to a system that keeps you stuck is the real thing to diagnose (25:38)

“Values are your belief. Culture is your behavior. Those are two different things.” – Ben Morley

Keep Learning

If the gap between what your organization says it believes and how people actually behave on the floor resonated with you, the School of Leadership addresses exactly that kind of culture-and-conduct disconnect.

Learn More About School of Leadership at gembaacademy.com/leadership

Podcast Resources

Ben on LinkedIn

Ben’s Website

Caterpillar Soup at 30,000 Feet

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Where in your own organization is dormancy being mistaken for absence of progress?

Most continuous improvement practitioners are using AI the same way they use Google, and getting roughly the same quality of results. David Osagie-Igiehon has taken a different approach. He builds custom agents trained on lean principles, CI methodology, and the specific knowledge domains his work demands, and the gap in output quality is significant. What he describes is less about automation and more about compressing the time it takes to do rigorous work.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How an accountant became a lead lean consultant and Master Black Belt candidate (2:41)

What it means to use AI as a collaborative tool rather than a driving system (4:19)

How building a custom AI agent named Dominique changed the pace of research (5:27)

Why the quality of your prompt determines the quality of your output (7:27)

How a properly structured prompt produced a 125-page governance document (11:23)

Whether critical thinking can survive in a world built around AI tools (17:34)

How to create a specialized AI agent trained on CI knowledge and methodology (20:46)

What excites and concerns a lean and AI practitioner about where this technology is heading (29:51)

Why the human review step is the part of the AI process you cannot skip (32:48)

“Critical thinking would never disappear because people are superior than machines.” – David Osagie-Igiehon

Keep Learning

David describes reaching Master Black Belt as the foundation that lets him know whether an AI output is actually correct. If you want that same grounding before trusting AI-generated analysis of your own processes, structured Six Sigma training is where that foundation gets built.

Learn More About School of Six Sigma at https://www.gembaacademy.com/school-of-six-sigma

Podcast Resources

David on LinkedIn

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If you built a custom AI agent trained specifically on your company’s lean methodology and problem-solving approach, what would you want it to know first?

Most organizations have a strategy. Far fewer can actually execute one. Michael Caito built and sold a food delivery business decades before DoorDash existed, then spent years helping other companies close the gap between where leaders want to go and where they actually end up. His diagnosis is consistent: the gap is almost always an accountability problem, and accountability is almost always the leader’s problem first. The conversation with Ron covers what CEOs truly own, how to know whether you have a strategy issue or an execution issue, and why the cadence of your team meetings matters more than most leaders want to admit.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How focusing on what is vital applies the Pareto principle to business (2:24)

Why the strategy-execution gap exists in most organizations (9:29)

What five things a CEO truly owns in any business (10:55)

When to make a people change and how to know you have waited too long (13:34)

How an operating rhythm makes performance visible across the organization (15:34)

Why monthly goal reviews beat quarterly check-ins for compounding results (17:28)

The difference between leading indicators and result-based measurements (20:00)

How to tell whether you have a strategy problem or an execution problem (22:44)

What a struggling leader should do first before choosing a system or hiring a coach (26:39)

“Performance is visible and the person that’s not performing or hitting their goals, they’re not gonna be comfortable working there.” – Michael Caito

Keep Learning

If Michael’s point about building a real management cadence around goal-setting and performance visibility resonated, the School of Leadership offers structured ways to develop exactly those skills across your organization.

Learn More About School of Leadership at gembaacademy.com/leadership

Podcast Resources

Michael on LinkedIn

Michael’s Website

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What Do You Think?

When was the last time your team reviewed goals together in a structured monthly meeting, and what got in the way of making that a non-negotiable rhythm?

Most lean practitioners spend their careers trying to change the minds of adults who have been doing things the same way for decades. Ted Pendergrass decided to start earlier. Over 20 years coordinating a career technical education program at a California high school, he brought 5S, practical problem-solving, and Yellow Belt certification to students who had never heard of lean. The conversation covers what actually stuck, what surprised him, and what the rest of the lean community could do to help.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How a cabinet maker’s instinct for efficiency led to lean teaching (4:57)

What happens when high schoolers 5S their Google Drives (6:57)

Why practical problem solving opens students’ eyes more than any other unit (9:06)

How student tours reveal whether lean is actually taking root (12:22)

Why education is not the most lean process and what chunking has to do with it (13:34)

How to teach students to use AI as a tool rather than a crutch (15:53)

Why CTE programs are the right entry point for spreading lean (19:46)

What a Yellow Belt certification does for a student in a job interview (21:51)

How the California Partnership Academy model keeps students engaged and career-ready (24:18)

Why getting companies inside schools changes what students believe is possible (29:00)

What practitioners outside education can do to plant lean seeds in their communities (30:49)

“If you have to ask if it’s good enough, it probably isn’t.” – Ted Pendergrass

Keep Learning

Ted’s seniors earned Yellow Belt certification as a capstone to a three-year lean program. If that kind of structured progression interests you for your own team or organization, the certification path is worth a close look.

Learn More About Certifications at https://www.gembaacademy.com/solutions/certifications

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Stay current on new courses, podcast episodes, and continuous improvement resources. Sign up for the Gemba Academy newsletter at gembaacademy.com/news

What Do You Think?

If you had two hours with a classroom of high school students, which lean concept would you start with and why?