Mike Taubitz on Lean and Safety, Dr. Deming, General Motors and Paul O’Neill

My guest for podcast #175 is Mike Taubitz of the firm Sustainable Lean and FDR Safety. Mike is a retired GM employee (including a stint as Global Safety Director)  and we met at the Michigan Lean Consortium conference in 2011. We quickly discovered our shared interest in Dr. Deming, Lean, and, most importantly, safety improvement. I hope you enjoy our chat about his background and lessons from his career, the integration of Lean practices and safety improvement, lessons from Paul O'Neill and other great topics. Like my dad, Mike is a graduate of the then General Motors Institute (now Kettering University). Some key quotes: “It's not just what you do, but why.” 5S is not just neat, clean, and organized – it's about team identifying waste and developing standards We are “a nation of solution seekers” instead of working on “foundational thinking.” For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/175. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.