The Lean Practitioner Transcription

Ken Rolfes of KDR Associates was my guest on the Business901 podcast, A Lean Practitioner. In the podcast, I asked Ken what he enjoyed most about his work and he replied:

Basically, what I enjoy the most is really getting the people energized in companies when they see the possibilities of what they can do themselves.

That’s kind of what the heart of Lean is all about, isn’t it? It’s really engaging the people and using the talents that you have and what you see is so many of the organizations and companies that you walk into use so little of the brain power in their organization so what I think Lean does is it helps you unlock the brain power and use a much larger percentage of that. I think if you’re talking about North American manufacturers or service providers whether they’re in medical or industrial or any sector at this point, you can’t afford to waste the brain power of your people.

Our conversation continued on discussing the Lean 3P, Customer Centricity and the upcoming AME Conference in San Antonio. Below is a transcription of the podcast.

Ken Rolfes of KDR Associates, has spent more than 30 years in public and private companies that design, manufacture, and market technically based products for the medical device, industrial product and computer industries. He has extensive Lean Enterprise experience in general management, new product development, cost management systems, turnarounds, acquisitions and divestitures, and various financial transactions including IPO, private equity and venture capital financing.

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