Kevin Meyer, Author at Gemba Academy

Kevin Meyer

Kevin has over 35 years of manufacturing leadership experience in the automotive lighting, telecom electronics, and medical device industries. He has been responsible for lean transformations at Sylvania, Abbott Laboratories, Newport Corporation, and most recently as President of Specialty Silicone Fabricators. He guest lectures on business, manufacturing, and leadership topics at his alma mater Rensselaer as well as CalPoly.

101 Articles

The Pearls and Turds of Continuous Improvement

By Kevin Meyer - March 3rd, 2023

My wife and I watched the documentary Stutz for the third or fourth time last weekend. It’s a unique story that always provides something new each time we watch it. The movie features actor Jonah Hill interviewing his therapist P

RIP Steve Player, Budget Destroyer

By Kevin Meyer - November 22nd, 2022

We all know a couple people who have changed the direction of our lives and careers, even with very brief interactions. Something they said created an a-ha moment that changed our perspective or provided the catalyst that helped draw

The Good Karma of Lean

By Kevin Meyer - October 24th, 2022

Our Gemba Academy team was at The Association for Manufacturing Excellence annual conference in Dallas last week, the largest lean conference in the world. By all accounts it was a great success, with over a thousand people excited a

Lean, Chess, and Techno-Solutionism

By Kevin Meyer - September 30th, 2022

Those of us somewhat interested in chess, or perhaps curious thanks to blockbuster shows like The Queen’s Gambit, have been following the chaos in the world of grandmaster-level chess, particularly the feud between world champion

Leverage the Power of Safety to Drive Cultural Transformation

By Kevin Meyer - February 11th, 2022

Earlier this week our good friend Mark Graban at Lean Blog reminded me of an article on how former Alcoa CEO Paul O’Neill focused on improving workplace safety, which contributed to driving growth from $3 billion in 1987 to $27 b

Continuously Lubricating Processes

By Kevin Meyer - January 14th, 2022

As I push through my later 50s I’m finding that I value flexibility and balance far more than strength and endurance. This is augmented in my case as I’ve always had very high calcium levels, and even after removing dairy

Thinking Beyond the Brain

By Kevin Meyer - November 12th, 2021

I recently finished one of the more remarkable books I’ve read in a long time: The Extended Mind – The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, by Annie Murphy Paul. This is a well-researched (over 250 journal citations) yet

The Value of Friction and Inefficiency

By Kevin Meyer - September 10th, 2021

Our professional lives are generally consumed by trying to make our processes more efficient to reduce waste and help increase the value we deliver to our customers. Our personal lives are similarly consumed by trying to find time on

Reconstructing Degraded Processes and a Yearning for Darkness

By Kevin Meyer - July 9th, 2021

Yesterday I returned from almost two weeks in Iceland, which was tacked on to two weeks exploring Maine. Nearly a month away from the home and office, and our first international trip in well over a year. We had a fantastic time with g

On Learning, Listening, and Wisdom

By Kevin Meyer - May 14th, 2021

I’ve long felt that the single best indicator of leadership success, especially at the executive level, is whether the person is a voracious learner. Bonus points if the person intentionally looks for opportunities to learn new

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