Gauthier Duval on Kaizen Events, Organizational Development, and ”Veryable” Labor

Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership

Video, transcript, and more: https://leanblog.org/461

My guest for Episode #461 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gauthier Duval, the Director of the Lean Center of Excellence at Veryable.

He's applied and taught Lean for over 18 years, including time with Freudenberg-NOK (an auto supplier featured in the book Lean Thinking), Simpler Consulting, and other manufacturing companies in the U.S. and Europe.

Today, we discuss topics and questions including:

• Your Lean origin story?
• The next steps in your career and learning??
• Freudenberg-NOK — 2004 — Growtth Consulting spinoff
• Working with Lean – Europe vs. US?
• Simpler – worked with Chris Cooper – Episode #129
• Your view on the role of what's often called “kaizens” (kaizen events) vs. ongoing daily kaizen improvement?
• Multi-day events vs. small discontinuous improvements?
• How should people be participating?
• The role of the senior leader?
• Kicking a company president out of a Kaizen Event??
• Lessons you've learned on the psychology of change?
• Organizational behavior and organizational development? — how do you define that?
• What makes an organization a “learning organization?”
• Chris Argyris — why should more Lean people be reading his work?
• Tell us about Veryable – the company, the problems you solve and how it works…
• How to expand “JIT” beyond just materials?
• Variable labor in a “lean mindset” way — including “respect for people”??

The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more.

This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.