Attitude is contagious. If you come to work with a good attitude, everybody around you will probably have a good day. If you come to work with a bad attitude, everybody's going to have a bad day.
- Mark Preston, Founder and CEO of Lean Applications
Episode Summary
Some of the Supply Chain Now’s teams favorite episodes are conversations featuring longtime friends who have achieved amazing things in their personal and professional lives. This episode features one of those special colleagues, Mark Preston, Founder and CEO of Lean Applications.
Mark is a published author, a continuous improvement guru, and a sought-after keynote speaker. He has been driving positive change in manufacturing and sales environments for over 30 years, impacting people and organizations in equal measure.
In this episode, host Scott Luton welcomes Mark back to the show to discuss:
• What Lean really means to him, and what kinds of waste it truly eliminates
• His five-step checklist to help organizations reinvigorate their Continuous Improvement Programs in 2023
• How we can all resist the ‘drama’ and become more focused and productive
Episode Transcript
Intro/Outro (00:03):
Welcome to Supply Chain. Now the voice of global supply chain Supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues, the challenges and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from Those Making Global Business happen right here on supply chain now.
Scott Luton (00:31):
Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Scott Luton here with you on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s show. Now, today we’ve got a very special episode. So, you know, when I look back on the, um, almost 1100 podcasts that we’ve dropped, uh, over the last three or four years, some of my favorite shows to do are those with old friends and colleagues that I think really highly of. And today I’m very fortunate to have that opportunity once again. So, our guest today is a global business leader. He’s a published author, a continuous improvement guru, sought after keynote speaker, a former business partner, and a really good friend. And that’s just scratching the tip of iceberg. So get this, our guest has been really driving positive change in manufacturing and sales environments for over 30 years. We’re not supposed to say over 20, I think me and Greg White made that <laugh> that decision here age ago, but Mark’s been at it for, uh, quite some time driving real change and impact, right?
Scott Luton (01:28):
Impacting organizations and people. So he started with TDK Electronics. Do you remember all those cassette tapes we all had back in the eighties and nineties? It was in this critical early role that our guests was able to study Kazan Manufacturing techniques in Japan, right? He’d go on to work at organizations such as Respironics and Acuity Brands Lighting. Now at Acuity, uh, our guest led the, uh, lean deployment really across the company supply chain. We’re talking 16 plants, five distribution centers, and 14 supplier development programs. Lots of rattlesnakes killed, which we’ll, we’ll reference <laugh> a little later on in the conversation. Where, so that makes sense. Currently, our guest is a lean champion for the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, and also serves on the national board for AME as well. So, hey folks, you’re in for a treat today. With all that said on welcome in, my dear friend, Mr. Mark Preston. Mark, how you doing?
Mark Preston (02:23):
Good, Scott. Thank you very much. Looking forward to it.
Scott Luton (02:25):
You bet, you bet. Well, a ton of experience, a ton of impact, ton of outcomes and bottom line results. And of course, you’ve got a big love for working with people, right? Uh, to not only make the processes and organizations better, but, but to develop the people too, right?
Mark Preston (02:41):
It’s about the people. You know, I remember starting my thinking towards, uh, even in, uh, high school. I had a job on the night shift at Bandag Tower Retreads in Griffin, Georgia, okay? And I remember being on the floor with cramps in both legs, thinking to myself, man, I gotta do something about this. I gotta do, I gotta go to college. I gotta do something. And so here I am, uh, many, many years later, and, uh, still love working with people and making their jobs better and making companies better.
Scott Luton (03:15):
Well, you know, uh, I’m, I’m so glad you started there because that’s one of the most important things we can share via this episode, right? Um, it is all about the people, even in this, in this techno, uh, technology driven world we live in. It’s about the people. And, um, and you also beat me to the punch. So I wanna, I know you really well. I’ve had a chance to, um, you know, watch in action, you know, do some of it with you, um, have, you know, break bread and hear a lot of your stories. So, uh, I’m delighted to be able to share a lot of that with our audience. So let’s start with, you just referenced Griffin, Georgia. Is that where you grew up? Mark
Mark Preston (03:50):
Grew up in Griffin. Uh, interesting. I was adopted at three days old to older parents and ended up, um, meeting my birth mother last year, uh, uh, and actually, uh, found out I had a full brother and a half-brother and a half sister. And it’s like, I have a whole new family now in my fifties. And so it’s been a really exciting, uh, journey for me in that regard. But growing up in Griffin, always living in Georgia, you can tell I have the southern accent. So, uh, you know, I, uh, I love the south and I love, um, the food of the South, the barbecue. And I know you love the barbecue here in the south too,
Scott Luton (04:29):
Man. We sure do too much, mark. We love it too much. Um, I was just talking about open air barbecue, uh, the other day, which is a legendary place. Been around since I think the twenties. Okay, so Mark, one, before we get into the, the, the main part of our discussion here today, got two quick questions for you. Number one, where did you get, where did your love for driving? Good, change begin. And number two, one of my favorite questions I’m gonna ask you is, what do folks get wrong about lean?
Mark Preston (04:57):
So the first question I love, I’m a people persons and I love to, to work with people, and I love to see the light bulbs go off in their eyes when they see that it’s not just a, a job a robot can do, but it’s something that you can use your mind with and really come up with creative solutions. And so that engagement factor really drove me to, to driving, uh, improvement in, in companies that are world class, have engaged employees, they don’t have, uh, people that are not engaged. And this is a real true factor in, in manufacturing that I see it. Second question, how do people get lean wrong? Well, lean is not about eliminating people. You know, a lot of people are like, they come from companies, oh, we’re gonna lean out the company and they cut 20% of the employees out.
Mark Preston (05:47):
Well, that’s not what Lean is about. That’s not lean transformation at all. Lean is about eliminating waste. And I don’t know of anybody except for my daughter’s ex-boyfriend, uh, that’s a waste, you know? And so other than him, people aren’t waste. And you’ve gotta really think about what waste can I drive outta my job to make it better? What waste can I drive out of the company? And so my acronym for Lean is living engaged attitude now. Hmm. So people think, oh, lean’s something you do at work. No, are you living lean? Are you living it? Can you find your keys in five seconds or less? Or are you looking for ’em? When you wasting time when you could be with your family and hobbies? So are you living there? Are you engaged? Are you just working for a paycheck? Or are you also working for, to improve yourself and to improve the company? So how are you engaged in what you’re doing? Attitude is contagious. You know, you come to work with a good attitude, everybody around, you’ll probably have a good day. You come to work with a bad attitude, everybody’s gonna have a bad day. Mm-hmm. So attitude is so important in this thing we call lean. And then now is the end. There’s no better time than now to improve. So think about are you living engaged attitude? Now? That’s what I think about when I think about lean and eliminating waste.
Scott Luton (07:15):
Yeah. You know, um, I’ve seen you in action. You know, we go back quite some time, um, and I’ve seen you working with companies that implement Lean the right way, and then it creates a growth opportunities. It actually creates jobs, right? Um, which goes counter kind of prevailing to what some of the folks, uh, out there that make assumptions around what Lean in. So I love that we started with the right definition there. So, uh, mark, um, let’s move into our checklist here. Our powerful checklist, uh, right, um, five ways that organizations can reinvigorate their Continuous Improvement Programs in 2023. So what’s the first one on your checklist?
Mark Preston (07:55):
I’m gonna start with the first three. All involve learning to see how can people see waste better? How can people see how to be more efficient? How to be better quality, how to have better safety. So the first three that I’m gonna talk about is really geared toward helping people see, learning to see. And the first one is gonna be rattlesnake hunts.
Scott Luton (08:21):
Okay?
Mark Preston (08:22):
And so it’s not a real snake that I’m talking about, <laugh>. It’s, it’s really, uh, something that will bite you. If you see it bite you, if you hear it, if you’re around it long enough, it’ll bite you. It could be a safety issue, a cord that you’re gonna trip on. It could be a quality issue with mixed labels that you’re gonna put on the box wrong, or it could be something that’s not organized that might turn the customer off as they tore the plant. So these are rattlesnakes that are gonna bite you, you know, eventually. And so we call this a rattlesnake hunt, and it’s a three day event that actually is like fives on steroids, a fives,
Scott Luton (09:04):
And really quick. Yeah, mark, I’m glad you’re, you beat me to the punch. What’s fives for some of our listeners out there?
Mark Preston (09:08):
Fives is a tool for organization. It, it involves sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. So if you have a cabinet and you’re wanting to organize it, you’ll sort it first because you don’t wanna set an order, something that you don’t use anymore, right? So you’re gonna sort it, then you’re gonna set an order, everything’s gotta place, everything’s in its place, and then you’re gonna shine. You’re gonna repaint the cabinet, make it look new again. Um, then you’re gonna standardize, maybe there’s some color coding that makes it easier to find things, and then you’re gonna sustain it, which means really going back and making sure it stays that way. So that’s the fives. But yep, a lot of companies do fives and it becomes negative. It becomes over months. Here comes the police. We better hide everything and then we’ll get it back out later. <laugh>, you know, it’s, there’s nothing on the to-do list, uh, to improve because it just becomes a check the box activity. Well, if you wanna reinvigorate your 5s or really help people learn to see, do a rattlesnake hunt.
Scott Luton (10:13):
So Mark, uh, I’ve been a part of some of your rattlesnake hunts, these, these work, so well, there’s a, there’s an esprit de corps and a camaraderie. There’s even some competition, and I’ve seen it. Um, and I love the, uh, so to our listeners, think of those rattlesnakes that, that, you know, mark just kind of gave some examples. Well, uh, I’ve seen war rooms that are dedicated to these rattlesnake hunts where folks are taking pictures of, of, in some cases, hundreds of rattlesnakes or opportunities for improvement. And then mark, as I, I believe during the three days, you kind of, the teams prioritize what to address, and then they, they, uh, drive real change right there during those three days. Is that right?
Mark Preston (10:52):
That’s correct. First day you go tag and take pictures of, you have three teams with three to five people on each team. And you each, each team has an area to go hunt rattlesnakes in first day, you actually go tag rattlesnakes. So their goal is 100 per team. So they’re gonna put a hundred, 300 pictures on the conference room wall, a hundred per team, and then they’re gonna label ’em, are they safety, quality fives? Then they’re gonna say, what are their top three? That evening after day one, you’ll have 300 pictures on the wall of, of snakes that we want to go kill. The plant manager or the vice president will come in and they’ll judge the biggest rattlesnake, the most rattlesnakes, the biggest safety, the biggest quality. We’ll spare no expense, go to dollar store, go get some candy bars and, and have some prizes the next morning, <laugh>. But it’s a little bit of the pride competition. Who’s got the biggest rattlesnake, right? And then the next two days, they have to kill 80%, which means take the after picture of it being fixed and put it up there next to the before picture. Now what does that give you? Three days, find 300 problems and fix 250 of them. That’s pretty incredible. I don’t think you’ll get that payback in many other workshops like that. And it’s a really great thing for people to get engaged and excited about it.
Scott Luton (12:16):
I love it. I love it. I think we’re gonna offer up a article with more information on rattlesnake hunts. Mark’s been leading them and doing ’em for quite some time, and it’s a really a proven approach. So, okay, so that’s the first one. The first of our list of five, uh, ideas for reinvigorating your continuous improvement. The first one’s rattlesnake hunts. What’s the second one? Mark.
Mark Preston (12:36):
See the big picture? So value stream mapping. If you don’t know how to do value stream mapping, you really need to look at the value stream map of the facility, because we are all in silos with blinders on. We don’t, assembly doesn’t know what shipping does or other departments do, but if you get that big picture of a value stream map, you can really see the product flow, the information flow, and all the data associated with it. So value stream mapping is a key to really understand, because if you don’t do it, it’s just who yells the loudest is where, what, what you’re gonna work on. And you don’t wanna do that, right? You wanna prioritize what’s the most important thing to work on in the whole facility. So you need to do a value stream map. Now, one of the things that I’m starting to do with value stream maps is layer on top of that a quality stream map. So you can imagine what’s the entire quality system look like on top of a value stream map, and it blows away ISO inspectors, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you can see on one wall the entire quality stream for your facility mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And next I’m gonna put standardized work on top of that so I can see all the standardized work in the entire facility on top of the value stream map. So value stream mapping is definitely number two that will really take, uh, plants a long ways.
Scott Luton (13:58):
Mark, lemme ask a dumb question. Um, I think when folks hear the word standardized and standard work, maybe they make some assumptions, but what, what are we really after there? What, what is standard work?
Mark Preston (14:10):
Well, if it’s not written down, how do you improve it? That’s the question I would have, right? As a sensei. So you gotta start somewhere. What is your standard today that we want to improve? So when I talk about standardized work, it’s what we know is the best so far today in timing and, and efficiency. And what can we do to eliminate waste in that standard to make it a better standard and continue to improve. So when I look at standardized work, there’s a difference in standardized work and work instructions. Work instructions is all the details and all the pictures and everything to train someone. Standardized work is really what are we supposed to do it in? What, what’s the time we should do it in, and what’s the time we are actually doing it in, which is the cycle time. And so we do a really good analysis of that so you can see how you can improve and eliminate waste.
Scott Luton (15:07):
Love that. Oh, thank you. Uh, all right, so the first one, run snake hunts. The second one’s value stream mapping. And as Mark mentioned, there’s some things you can layer on top of that to make, uh, value stream mapping even more valuable. What is item number three? Mark
Mark Preston (15:20):
Playbooks all winning teams. I have a playbook. So if I go to the accounting department and I ask the accounting manager, can I see your playbook? You’re a winning team, correct? So I’d love to see your playbook, you know, will they be able to give me a playbook? And what is that playbook? Is it everyone’s job in the department? Think about what is the, um, we called it a cpoc supplier input, process output and customer of that department, which is a holistic view of that department. What’s all the processes that accounting does that are they mapped out? So if you create a playbook, you have a really good chance of improving in that department. So I use playbooks a lot of times, not only in manufacturing assembly areas, but also in, uh, the office areas. So a playbook is a really key thing to develop in purchasing customer service, accounting, you name it, any department.
Mark Preston (16:22):
And think about it this way, Scott, if you started a job and you go to accounting, you were starting an accounting and, and you go to, uh, the accounting manager, and this is my first day on the job, and that accounting manager gave you a playbook with all the processes mapped out with, uh, their metrics, their, uh, your job description, and what all we’re doing in that department, how much faster will you be, uh, up to speed in a new role? You know, one of the things we did at Acuity, we put in the back of the playbook, all the acronyms, and we had hundreds of acronyms. But think about a new person. How long does it take you to learn all those acronyms? But you got a playbook and you actually can refer to it. So I’d say the third one is learning to see through playbooks. And that means process, mapping your processes and really looking at what goes on in each department.
Scott Luton (17:16):
You know, I really love that one. And, you know, you mentioned the office environment about halfway through your response there. And I think one of the things that I think, you know, I think when some of our listeners maybe hear lean or contagious improvement, they’re thinking like a, uh, a factory floor or something. However, these are really our, it’s a mindset, as you mentioned on the front end. And these are really universal elements, I think of, uh, all the office environments out there and the filing system. I don’t know about you, mark, but I hate when it takes me 27 mouse clicks to get somewhere. It should take me one, you know? And, and, and that’s just like a, a universal opportunity for, for making things easier and more efficient in the days of, of, uh, of our employees’ lives, right?
Mark Preston (18:01):
It’s been, my experience is there’s just as much waste in the office as there is on the plant floor. The problem is you can see a big pile of inventory on the plant floor. You can see people waiting. You can see things on the plant floor that you can’t see in the office until you start mapping those processes. Why does, you know, getting a marketing brochure process take 10 people and five weeks? Why, why can’t we reduce that waste? So it only takes three days to do a marketing brochure. Those are the questions you have to ask. And until you map those processes, you don’t see that waste.
Scott Luton (18:40):
Love that. What a great example. It truly is universal. Um, okay, so we’ve got our first three. The third one there was playbooks. Um, what’s the fourth item for reinvigorating your continuous improvement in 2023?
Mark Preston (18:52):
Communication. So at, Wills was the owner of Sure Seal. And actually we actually, he was a supplier that I worked with on a 13 week Honda supplier development program. They ended up winning the, uh, association of Manufacturing Excellence AME award after five years of work together. And, uh, he said it best, people aren’t afraid of change. They’re afraid of uncertainty. And I think that’s totally true. If you knew what you’re gonna be doing and, and how it’s gonna affect your job, you aren’t as scared, right? So one of the things we did in communicating to that plant is and I and myself and some of the team created on a ping pong table, an entire Lego layout of the shop floor down to the people, the trash cans, the machines, <laugh>, the entire thing was in Legos. And
Scott Luton (19:49):
We, but that was an expensive model. Mark <laugh>,
Mark Preston (19:52):
Sorry, talk to us.
Scott Luton (19:53):
I bet that was an expensive, uh, model, wasn’t it? Legos are very proud of the products.
Mark Preston (19:58):
He had a ton of Legos, so he brought ’em out of his closet, I guess, and started it, and it was good. Loved it. Now people are doing it with 3d, uh, models, right? So you can print it, do a 3D printer and make it up, but how important is it to see the entire layout? Then we got all the employees to come over and give their suggestions on how to improve the layout. Then we put a huge whiteboard in the plant with each month and all the events we were gonna do so that they could see when we’re gonna get to their area to improve it. You know, that’s the key is communication on your lean journey. What are those people talking about in the conference room? How’s that gonna affect my job? When are we gonna do something? And so they just want, whether it’s a newsletter or some kind of, uh, communication, another great way to communicate is to have a wall of fame in your plant.
Mark Preston (20:52):
So people really like their picture. I had something to do with the transformation of this plant. So if you were to submit a suggestion and do it, can you give the before picture, the after picture and your picture, and it goes on the wall of fame in the front of the plant? Not, not only does that communicate to the people on the floor, maybe they have an idea that same idea can be used in their area, but also think of this is a wow factor. A customer comes in, they see a wall of fame with hundreds of improvements, and they wish their company had that because they see the culture there. So it’s a game changer with just a wall of fame. Not only recognizing people, but also sharing ideas and also, uh, really showcasing what you can do as a wild factor to your customers.
Scott Luton (21:44):
All right, so Mark, I wanna ask you, I wanna jog your memory for a second here. You know, cause you’re, you’re, you’re talking about the power of the people. And we both know, um, some of the best ideas, if not, not all the best ideas come from the people for dry, you know, make an impact driving good change. You and I and a colleague grew up in the Pacific Northwest visiting a, a food plant that supplied a, a big chunk of, uh, French cut potatoes for french fries for one of the, uh, most well-known restaurants in the business. And they were telling us the story as we were on the plant talking with the people that one of the, um, this, this high-end potato cutting machine, uh, they were having product kind of spill out of it. And, and, and, uh, one point, one aspect of the machine. Well, one of the operators who knows, who knows it best, had this great idea, they presented a management, and I wanna say, I can’t remember the numbers exactly, but this one idea that was applied to not just that one machine, but of course all the machines, they cut down like 15% in terms of the waste of potatoes. And that was one of my favorite parts of that fa of that whole, uh, trip. You remember that?
Mark Preston (22:49):
Oh, definitely it was an amazing plant and that they still are. And it was just a river of potatoes running through that plant <laugh>. And, and honestly, it was the best break food I’ve ever had. If you remember, they brought out some fresh fried potatoes for us, Steve, ah, for, for break. And uh, but we did a value stream map of that facility. And, and I be back to what you were saying is it was amazing the engagement of the employees and, and some of the best, you know, the experts aren’t the people in the office, they’re the people that do it every day. And you get some of the best ideas from those folks. And this was one of those cases.
Scott Luton (23:25):
Yeah, that’s a, and and I, um, I was remembering those freshly fried, but, uh, wedge, uh, b uh, french fries, uh, the other day. That was one, one. Highlights that trip too. Um, okay, so we have gone through the first four. The fourth tip there was, was really investing in more, more effective communication on a variety of levels before, before french fries jumped in my mind here, mark. So, uh, who, what’s number five is round out this list. What’s the fifth, fifth tip?
Mark Preston (23:55):
The fifth one would be standards. We talked about it a little bit, but I want you to think about standards in a plant. Um, number one, do you have a non-negotiable list? And I say that because people come and work every day from other companies, they don’t know what not to do unless you tell ’em sometimes. And so I encourage every plant to have a non-negotiable list. And it can be as simple as no handwritten graffiti signs. You know, type it up, laminate it. If you’re in the south, if everything’s gotta be laminated, just don’t put a piece of paper up cause it’ll curl up and look terrible in no time. What’s world class look like? And that’s what you want to get embedded into your people. What does the non-negotiable standards, others are like, no flat surfaces above six feet. People put coffee cup on top of their locker, it stays up there for weeks, right?
Mark Preston (24:52):
And so why not put an angled roof on that locker? So you can’t put anything up there. Maybe, you know, no flat surfaces, but I would encourage whatever it is, you come up with your own non-negotiable list and really start off in new employee orientation by telling people what we expect not to see out there on the floor. You know? And so there’s several things that you can come up with, you know, labeling on all designated locations. Um, don’t put water or any liquids on top of electrical boxes. I see this almost every plant I go to. And you, you know, as well as I, if I drop one drop of liquid in my, on my computer, it’s done. But we have water bottles sitting on top of electrical panels and control panels in the plant. And these are million dollar pieces of equipment. So that might be one.
Mark Preston (25:44):
But non-negotiable list is one form of standards. Another form of standards is what is the factory standards when it comes to color coding? What is the highway color? And so I usually go with the OSHA color code standard that you can Google and, and get, but you know, it’s usually yellow, uh, and it’s four inches wide. And these are the alleyways. So there’s standards that you can set in place. Um, the other standards are your metric boards. You know, if you have multiple plants, you know, I always think about if I’m the owner of multiple plants, I don’t want to have to go to a plant and figure out what’s going on on the board. I want some kind of structure and standard around are they doing safety, quality, productivity, delivery and cost, you know, in some form. And so why can’t that be the same everywhere you go?
Mark Preston (26:41):
So what is that standard? And then we talked about standardized work. You know, what is the, the best we know so far? Um, and can we copy that across the board if we’re doing the same operation in many places, we also do what is a model cell? Do you have one area that is almost like you’re testing ground? What is the best? We know this is the best cell or best line that we have in the plant and we’re really trying to make it better. Then we’re copying and pasting quickly throughout the rest of the plant, but we have this one experimental line that’s gonna be best and continues to get better. But that’s the standard. That should be our standard. Everything else should be pulled up to that. So I think standards is number five.
Scott Luton (27:28):
Love that. And you know, one of my favorite parts of senior in action when you, you hold these, uh, these great workshops is your collection of pictures through the years, uh, of folks doing, doing things the wrong way. And you know, it’s funny cause we’ll pass right by these things. You know, if you’re, if you’re there every day and you don’t stop to think about it, but man, to your point, there’s some dangerous situations. And then there’s some, there’s some others that may, may be harmless, but they communicate the wrong standard, especially if you think about the visitors that, that we bring through our factories and whatnot. So I love the fifth being standards cause it’s looking at him, it’s really looking at standards differently and how your facility communicate what, what it communicates and what it implies, right?
Mark Preston (28:09):
That’s right. That’s right.
Scott Luton (28:12):
All right. So, uh, um, you know, I need about six hours with you, mark. Uh, and then we, we, we at least have a more effective, uh, reconnect session. Um, as we start to wrap here, I wanna make sure we mention your book that you published a few years ago, which is entitled
Mark Preston (28:28):
Southern Sensei. Southern Sensei. Of course, I’m from the South. So every chapter’s got a Southern, uh, title waste is like kudzu. You can never stop killing it. And talks about the eight waste. Uh, if the barber goes under, give it a yank on visual trigger system. What causes you to, to reorder the next thing or do the next thing. Uh, going on a Rattlesnake Hunt is one of the chapters in there as well. But Southern Sensei is on Amazon in Barnes and Noble. And, uh, love for you to, uh, take a look at that and anything I can do to help
Scott Luton (28:59):
A lot of timeless, uh, classics there. Uh, and then I don’t know if you, I don’t know if you want to give it up yet in this interview, but I love your title idea for Your Secret, your, your, your next book. You wanna share that?
Mark Preston (29:13):
I’ll No, not right now. <laugh>. I think, well, I will, you know, I think it’s, it’s gonna be a bestseller and the title’s gonna be Drama is the Ninth Waste <laugh> because, uh, I, I think, you know, you have these eight ways, but there’s so much drama. It doesn’t matter what company or or store you’re in or wherever you are, there’s drama and how can you be more professional? How can you have a better vision as a leader? How can you focus better without negative pressures pulling you down and, and being proactive? You know, one of the things about a rattlesnake hunt that we did mention is that it’s about being proactive than reactive. Some of the best companies in the world are more proactive than they are reactive. They’re not always fighting fires, they’re actually killing snakes before they get bitten, right? And so that is a key thing, uh, that really distracts us and distracts our focus and causes a lot of drama in plants.
Scott Luton (30:13):
Agreed. Uh, and I love that because with that drama, you’re creating friction. You know, we hear that that’s, that friction and frictionless has become almost cliches these days. Uh, but it, it really, it’s, it’s a real concept and we feel it, right? So I love the title of that book. I can’t wait for that bestseller. And, uh, it’s a pleasure to reconnect with you here, mark. Um, how can folks, so we’re gonna put some and your bio information on the, on the, uh, uh, uh, episode notes page. But how can folks connect with you? Mark,
Mark Preston (30:43):
Love to work with you. I’m actually, um, southern sensei gmail.com. Uh, you spell sensei, s e n s e i. And my phone is (404) 308-2898. And I have a website. It’s www.leanapp.com, my, my company’s lean application. So it’s short for lean applications. So www.leanapl.com.
Scott Luton (31:10):
Love it. Folks connect with Mark Preston via those ways. Uh, you can probably find him on LinkedIn, check out his book, uh, convers you’ll leave any conversation with Mark, uh, much better off, much more informed, and probably, uh, chuckling a little bit at some of his stories. So Mark Preston, a pleasure to reconnect with you, um, and really have enjoyed your perspective here.
Mark Preston (31:32):
Thank you, Scott. Thank you very much.
Scott Luton (31:34):
You bet. Okay, folks, hopefully you’ve enjoyed this, what I think is a very practical, uh, episode here with, with these five very practical tips from someone who’s been there and done that, uh, in Mark Preston. So, hey, be sure to find Supply Channel now, wherever you get your podcast from, subscribe so you don’t miss any episodes like this one. You can find us on YouTube. That’s an easy way of connecting and engaging in our episodes. But whatever you do, as I bet Mark can agree, uh, it’s all about deeds, not words, right? Enough that lip service leadership go out and do something about it. So with that says, Scott Luton challenging you to do good, to give forward and to be the change. And we’ll see you next time, right back here at pache now. Thanks everybody.
Intro/Outro (32:16):
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Mark Preston has been driving change in manufacturing and sales environments for over 30 years using continuous improvement – lean. During his 11 years with TDK Electronics, he studied Kaizen manufacturing techniques in Japan during TDK Executive Sensei training. He later led the TDK Georgia Plant lean initiatives and increased videotape and startup recordable compact disc productivity. After TDK, Mark invested 7 years in various executive roles within Respironics Inc where he implemented Demand Flow Technology. Accomplishments at Respironics include leading the lean layout of a new Kennesaw, Georgia facility, creation of a new structured purchasing organization, improving the supply base by creating and implementing a 13-week supplier development program. As Director of Operations for the Asthma and Allergy Division of Respironics, he teamed with suppliers and engineers using Design for Manufacturing techniques to also launch the Mini Elite portable Nebulizer. In 2006, Mark became the Director of Acuity Business System at Acuity Brands Lighting. He led the deployment of lean in the Acuity supply chain for 16 Plants, 5 Distribution Centers and 14 Supplier development programs. During this time, he continued his personal training with Singijutsu in Japan and was promoted to Vice President of Supplier Development and Operations Excellence. Currently, Mark is a lean champion for the Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and is on the AME National Board where he leads the board’s Key Result Area for Enterprise Excellence. Mark is a keynote speaker for organizations across the US including APICS, CSCMP, MODEX, CME, SCOPE and IMPACT Manufacturing. As a founder, Mark is excited to continue his passion of teaching and sharing through Lean Applications. Connect with Mark on LinkedIn.
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