* Steve Bera, Reflections on NUMMI and Lean, Part 2

See http://www.leanblog.org/259

Remastered audio 2025

Today's episode #259 is Part 2 of a discussion I started with Steve Bera in episode #256. Steve was one of the original 16 “NUMMI Commandos” that General Motors sent to work with Toyota in the 1980s, as discussed in the outstanding book Comeback: The Fall & Rise of the American Automobile Industry.

In Part 1, we talked about his experience at NUMMI. Today, we talk about what happened after his two years at NUMMI, why he feared getting lost back in the regular old GM, what he's done to teach and spread Lean in various industries over the past 30 years, and other thoughts on the current state of Lean.

A transcript of the discussion can be found at the bottom of the post. You can also read a summary I wrote of the two posts on LinkedIn.

Topics Covered In This Episode:

• The book describes the confusion about the lack of a “repatriation plan” – what happened? To you? At GM? Why was it hard to spread lessons back into GM?
• What have you done since leaving GM?
• How do you see the “state of Lean/TPS” in America? How much progress are we making?
• Do you have any experience working with healthcare or seeing the opportunity for Lean as a patient?
• What's the “risk” of a poorly executed Lean initiative?