Authentic Continuous Improvement

By Ron Pereira Updated on January 13th, 2011

From time to time a blog article absolutely knocks me out of my chair.

This morning was one of those occasions. One of the blogs I always, without fail, read is Evolving Excellence which is written by my friend Kevin Meyer.

Today, Kevin had to write the type of post no one wants to write.

Yesterday I got the 5am call all of us dread: one of my manufacturing team members had lost her life in a car accident on the way into work.

I was inspired by Kevin’s words and how he, as President of the company, reacted to this tragic situation.

I was also inspired how Kevin reminded us that the folks we work with – often times just some number in our massive ERP systems – also have dreams and families and aspirations.

One of the reasons I’m so passionate about authentic continuous improvement is its focus on the person. Stated another way, authentic continuous improvement practitioners don’t just talk about respecting people – they actually do it.

Kevin obviously gets this and I truly admire him for it.

I’m going to kindly request that you not leave a comment here on LSS Academy in response to this particular post… instead I’d really appreciate it if you would take the time to visit Evolving Excellence and then leave a comment there, if you so wish.

Ron Pereira

Ron has more than 20 years of experience in various manufacturing, supply chain, and senior leadership roles. Ron has held the titles of process engineer, engineering manager, master black belt, and director of manufacturing & continuous improvement. In 2002 Ron was the first American to win the Nokia Global Six Sigma and Overall Quality award in Helsinki, Finland. Ron holds a bachelor's degree in automated manufacturing and an MBA in technology management.

Rob
October 22, 2008 - 9:34 am
Reply

In recent years Toyota made respect for people one of the pillars of the Toyota Way, this sums up what it actually means.