GA 329 | Gathering Lean Stories with Dewey Mauldin

If I had to, if I had to go back in time and I would learn that right from the get go and not be so tool driven. I believe we'd have been, you know, obviously further along in our journey, but it would have been an easier road just getting the people involved early on.

Today I'm excited to welcome Dewey Malden to the show. Now Dewey and I first connected over LinkedIn and come to find out he's been listening to a few Gemba Academy podcasts and watching some of our videos. And the thing that I think you're going to appreciate about today's episode is just the experience and the humility and the kindness and the knowledge and the wisdom that Dewey has. He's been at this for quite some time. He's been practicing lean and he was even practicing lean before he even knew it was lean. And as you'll hear he works with Daimler trucks and so he started there as an operator and moved his all the way up into different management positions and he's been doing lean for, for quite some time and I'll let Dewey explain the specifics on that. But what we really did today was we just, we just went back over his career and listened to a bunch of different Lean stories and everything from how he experimented with balancing cycle time and tak time as a young operator and a team leader. Want to went to vacation and he kind of took over and started experimenting with some things and, and just as just a number of different stories of, of success and even some challenges and obviously many, many lessons learned along the way. So really, really enjoyed it. Show notes for this episode which will include links to everything we talk about can be found over@gembapodcast.com just look for episode 329. Again gembapodcast.com look for episode 329. Also wanted to point out if you head on over to gemba academy.com I want you to go over to our lean practitioner certification area. This is a new certification program we launched earlier in the year and it's been going very, very well. It's similar to what we do with our green belts, black belts and master black belts on the kind of the lean to six sigma side. But this one is 100% lean and it's pretty intense. Takes about, well, it takes several months to get through this program but it's heavily involves, you know, obviously watching some Gemba Academy videos. But the most important thing you're going to do is pretty intense weekly coaching with one of our coaches here at Gemba Academy. As they walk you through and help you practice the things that you're learning. So go over to gembaacademy.com and check out our lean practitioner certification. Okay, enough from me. Let's get to the show. Dewey, welcome to the show. How are you?

Hey, thanks for having me, Ron. It's good, good to talk to you.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We had a real nice chat. I was, a few weeks ago, we were kind of, kind of brainstorming what we were going to talk about and that was a lot of fun. So I think this is going to be, it's going to be a good one here. I'm excited.

Dewey, I wanted to give you a call just to hear you over the phone, to kind of work out the jitters a little bit before we actually did the call. So it was good talking to you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was fun. So, Dewey, before we jump in and you tell us about yourself, why don't we start with that quote? Because, you know, we like to begin all of our episodes with a quote. Do you have one?

Yeah, I actually have a couple of them. And it's not. The first quote is really not by any lean practitioner. It's actually by the head football coach at Clemson University, Dabo Sweeney.

Oh, man, I'm an Ohio State guy. So there you go, man.

He's like, come on now, listen to you enough. Know you're a big Ohio State fan, but. Yeah, I'm not necessarily a Clemson fan, but the leadership qualities.

Yeah, yeah, he's a good dude.

I'm attracted to it. But he once said, and I believe it was after a big game, they were actually interviewing at the end of the game and he said this quote and it captured my attention really quick. So I wrote it down and it says, if you want to be an overachiever, you first must be an over believer. So that, that really struck a chord with me and my lean career because, you know, in a lean environment or a, you know, in the lean system, you have to, you have to believe in the system. So you have to over believe and once you do that, you get passionate about it and once passion mixes in with lean and the self knowledge, then you can really, really start to drive some lean thoughts and lean initiatives wherever you work.

Yeah, those, those college football guys, man, I don't know what it is. They're super inspiring. You know, I'm, I'm again, I'm a Buckeye fan, so I don't, I'm not a big Alabama fan by any means, or even Clemson, but But old Sweeney and even. Save it. These guys, they have some wisdom, these.

Football coaches, you know, and you know, you hear, you hear that those people and, and they talk about, you know, they talk about leadership. They also talk about processes and staying focused on the process and the details. So they, they, they really preach lean in a different way. Yeah, just using football as the forum, so to speak.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So what's your second quote, Dewey?

Yeah, so the second quote came from the Toyota Kata book, and it goes something like this. The much broader and more important lessons are to understand the value of a strong, coherent leadership philosophy, investing deeply and deliberately in nurturing a culture and developing leaders, and to have ways in which leaders are intensely focused on self development and developing others to continuously improve all processes. Without that, I think the leadership philosophy kind of is governed, so to speak, to have that element of self knowledge and passion to drive some of your leadership.

Hey, so listen, before we go any further, I know that we were talking ahead of time that just from, you know, you work at a pretty big company and we'll hear about that here in a second, but probably a little disclaimer or anything like that, so we don't get you in trouble by that.

You know, any opinions given here are solely mine. It's not necessary the opinions of, you know, Daimler Trucks, North America. But so they are my opinions, my experiences. So I'm happy to give them to you on the podcast.

Yeah, love it. Thank you. So, Dewey, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us about your, your background, maybe how you first got into all this continuous improvement, lean stuff and then, and then tell us what you're up to these days.

All right, so I was in the military, the U.S. air Force for four years. And I was actually in your neck of the woods in Texas there for a while. Four years in Abilene, Texas.

Okay.

A little bit West Texas.

Yep. Football. Friday Night Lights country right there, boy.

Yeah, it's definitely Friday Night Football and that, that neck of the woods. So I got out of the Air Force after four years and I joined at the time it was Freightliner Corporation, but now it's Daimler Trucks North America. But I joined the manufacturing in 1988, working as an hourly individual on the floor. And along about 1998, I was asked to join my first Kaizen training within the plant. And I actually sat in that, that room with the consultants and started listening to the Kaizen. So, you know, I got, I got hooked up in lean and that forum. Then 19 in 2002 I became a supervisor in that same plant and in 2006 I became the lean manager. So there was about an eight year span from where I was an hourly person getting introduced to lean until 2006 to where I actually became part of the plant manager staff as the lean manager of the plan. So it happened for me really, really quickly once the aha moment hit me and I started driving my own improvements and obviously getting recognized for it and was able to move up the ladder pretty quickly. And then as the, as the lean manager we have some, you know, internal type awards process and as the manager and we started winning the, a lot of the internal awards, we, I think I ended up while I was there, like 17 first place awards.

Goodness, you give me anybody else a chance, Dewey?

Yeah, well, you know, at the time, you know, we were, we were really strong at the beginning and we, you know, there's a lot of low hanging fruit and we had a very, very, very powerful team in the plant that I was working. And it wasn't just me, don't get me wrong, I had a, I had some, some horsepower behind me. But, and the reason I'm telling you this is that, look, it's just that I did all this just, just through the passion and understanding of Lean and trying to do what I could within the scope of my responsibility. I never, never had a career plan. I always wanted to be the best that I could be in the moment and let what happens happen. And it just turned out very nice to me that Lean helped my career, put it on blast and rocketed up through the ranks fairly quickly. And now I'm currently a lean consultant for the company, working more in the corporate office for Daimler. For Daimler Trucks North America. Yes. You know, I've been here 32. We just, just had my 32 year anniversary. So over half my life has been spent with, with Daimler and 13 or about 13 of those years were the, were the lean manager. So it's been an awesome career. Still is. I love it. I love what I do. Get to interact with a bunch of people every day, get to, get to talk lean and really, really put it to work and you know, see the results.

So Dewey, we were talking a few weeks ago when we were doing our kind of pre podcast call there. You were asking me like, what's the best podcast? What's the best way to do the podcast? And I said it's easy, just tell stories. And then you say, oh boy, I got some stories, man.

So I have, I have Some stories, I mean, you know, when you've been in it for as long as I have. And again, 1998, you know, as you implementing, doing projects and meeting resistance, and not just meeting resistance, but you know, you're looking for those light bulb moments going off in other people's eyes. You have, you have pretty good stories, really, really have to put forth a little bit of struggle to get those experience. But it's been fairly well, the stories are abundant.

So here's what I want to do. Dewey, I thought it might be interesting. I mean there's some specific stories that you gave me some little teases on that I want to get into. But before then I thought what might be interesting is if you could maybe just give us a high level overview. And all we've got is, are our voices here on a podcast. We don't have video or anything like that. So all we can do is use our voice and our imagination. But why don't you tell us what it looks like when a Daimler truck plant is humming, the lean systems working and everything's beautiful.

I can give you a before and after snapshot. Before when you walk into a Daimler plant back, you know, 15, 20 years ago, extremely noisy, extremely. A lot of activity, a lot of, you know, unnecessary activity, really loud. But now when you go into a Daimler facility, more specifically the one I was, I worked at for so long, is that you walk in and suddenly you can't believe your eyes that it's actually a truck plant. Because things have really cleaned up. People seem to be a little bit more at ease now. Don't get me wrong, truck building is a hard job, but it's become easier over time given the fact that we've implemented some of these lean tools. But you can see there's visuals everywhere. There's mark on the floor, there's AGVs running around. The things that you would normally see in a high performing facility is you start to, you see those and you witness those things in our plants nowadays.

Beautiful. So I know you got a story. Let's kind of maybe start early in your career. And this one, I believe you were in an hourly employee. If I have my facts right and has to do with implementing tact time. You know the one I'm talking about?

Oh yeah, that's a good story. I have to go back and back in 1998 as an hourly worker when I was invited to do the first be part of the first Kaizen group of the plant and we were setting in the training and they were Some consultants in there, and they started talking about. They started talking about the 7 waist, and that became my first aha moment, when I said when they started talking about the seven waste, because they actually started categorizing and naming the way that I thought. You know, I heard a lot of your podcasts when they talked about when people say I was doing lean before, it was really lean.

Yeah.

Feel like I was always doing that part of it. I just didn't know it. So when they started talking about the 7 waste, and they started talking about and labeling the 7 waste, it just. It just clicked in that moment. And I was like, yeah, this is the way, I think. So we. We done the training, we got through the training, we went out there and we ran our event, and it was really a walking event. It was really, you know, trying to look at the walking, reduce the walking, do a little 5s cleanup and that type of activity just to kind of get us used to the Kaizen, Even though they did teach us about tight time. So fast forward, you know, a few weeks after the after event, and I'm an hourly worker, and I'm trying to figure out this tact time thing on my own. I'm doing it timing the line. I'm timing the product going down the line that I'm working on, and I'm trying to figure out how we can run this thing, this line, a little bit consistent. And so I think I have it all figured out. And it just so happens that the team leader went on vacation. So I asked my supervisor said, hey, you know, can I fill in for the team leader? And he's like, yeah, no problem. So I come in that morning, I set everything up to run it to tack time.

What was the tack time? Do you remember?

It was. It was probably eight, three, probably about five and a half, six minutes tack time.

And so needed in a truck every six minutes.

Well, the part of the pop, the sub assembly that I worked on was actually the axle line. So you took more than one axle for one truck. So the tack time on that line was a little bit different than on the main line.

Okay.

So that's where it took a lot of, you know, I had to figure it out.

It's a feeder line, basically.

Yeah. And then I had to experiment with it. But nonetheless, I had worked it out, and I had cut the line speed on. And everybody that first day was saying, hey, we're going too slow. We got to speed this thing up. I was like, nah, running my own little experiment here. Let's see how this thing shakes out. So at lunch I would check and see if we were on target. And then at the end of the day, as the time clicked closer to the eight hour mark when everybody was leaving, the last product was pulling into station and we had finished up, you know, and I, you know, I get a lot of. I didn't know it could run like that or, you know, something like that, but I ran it that way for the entire week and got people used to it. So I figured out the tak time and they understood what I kind of was doing. So when the team leader, normal team leader, you know, returned from vacation, everybody was inquiring, you know, why can't we run it this way all the time? And he had no clue. I kind of try to teach him, but, you know, old habits are hard to break. You know, you come up and you run the line speed as fast as you want and stuff like that. But I had proved to myself that this worked. So I ran the experiment within, you know, the roles and responsibility of my own job, experimented and just to show myself that it can be done. And then I really, you know, showed people that, you know, it could be done differently. And looking back, you know, through the lens of time, really what I was really doing was really respecting the people out there and not having them to work any harder and get unnecessary effort than they had to. So if I run it at a steady pace, and I think that's what really, you know, enlightened me is that I was showing those people a little respect and then they showed it back to me saying, hey, why don't you run it like this all the time? And so I think that it worked out really well and you know, I implemented it. It didn't stay there long because I wasn't the team leader but I was affiliate team leader. But nonetheless, I ran my own little experiment, proved out the principle or the tool and, and yeah, so I'm curious.

So sounds like you were balancing the cycle time to attack time. Sounds like what you were doing was the not to. I'm not trying to poke at the, the team leader, but were they running the running. Were they overproducing when normally reducing.

But they were, they were, they were running for just in case, you know, running it just so that, you know, if we had any other downtime, you know, activity, we would have enough buffer at the end.

Yeah, I got you, I got you.

You know, it was a, it was a hurry up and wait mode and yeah, you know, plan for failure type mentality that the Person had.

Yeah.

So and I come in and kind of flip that script with, with attack time. And I think everybody are really seeing what, what could be done if you, if you really look at it at a different way. Yeah. And go from there.

Got it, got it. So let's fast forward a little bit in your career as a supervisor. You were mentioning there was a situation with, with the plant manager.

Yeah. So that was. So after, you know, I had been promoted to supervisor back along in 2002 and then I was lucky enough to get on our. At that time in 2000, I think it was four, maybe five. We, we started really, you know, looking at creating a, an operating system for us using all the lean tools. And we put a lot of work in creating an operating system. And I happen to be part of the team that actually got to put our playbook, if you will, together and started implementing some of the tools. And our plant manager, like I said, we had an awesome team there and the plant manager was full bore behind it. He was a go getter and he had a meeting, said yeah, we're going to do this, we're going to do this and we're not going to look back. And I just happened to be on what we would call the implementation team and he actually put me in charge of some tools and we did all this training. We brought the hourly up, we trained the hourly, said this is what it's going to do, this is what we're doing and you know, go back in, go back out to the shop floor and this is what we need to look at. And if, and it's just not a manufacturing, you know, it's the manufacturing environment that, you know, in the firefighting culture that really they're only asking one question at the end of the day when you're in a production type environment back in those days that is, you know, just how many can you give me at the end of the day? And that was the only question that we really had to had the answer from the plant manager down to the people on the floor. We were after a number. We were really results driven type culture. So when we started implementing, we started to slow the lines down, we had the training but production started suffering and he really was getting frustrated and he come into an office where me and the actual leader or the manager over the implementation team and he started talking and he was just really frustrated, didn't know what to do. And I just simply said, look, if we're going to do this new school type operating system, then I think you May want to learn how to ask a new school question. And at that moment, I kind of seen the light bulb go off in his eyes. And I think he kind of understand that it's the type of questions and what he was driving, the behavior he was driving from that position. So fast forward a couple weeks and I'm walking down the hallway and he was in front of me and another supervisor was walking towards him. And as he was, as they were met, he said, hey, how'd it go today? And, you know, the supervisor indicated, well, you know, we got this many here and we got this many here, and we got this many. So we started, you know, just reeling off the numbers that he thought that the plant manager wanted to know. And so he just said, hey, I got this many, I got this many, I got this many. And then the plant manager stopped, said, that's good. Can you tell me what the top three quality items coming out of your area were today? Can you tell me what, you know, how many people did you cross train today? And he started asking those questions, which the answers only derived from the standards that we, that we implemented. And I never forget is that the supervisor looked at the plant manager like he had a third eye in his forehead. He was so confused, just like, where is this coming from? But, you know, looking back again through the lens of time is that, you know, we didn't know anything about the lean management system at the time or behavior driven type activities, but we were hitting on the, hitting on the notion that it was all about coaching and teaching. We just didn't know that part of it because we were so early on in our, in our journey. But I think the plant manager kind of started in that, in that area as we go, as we went forward. So we kind of changed a little bit of the culture, the way we ask questions from that point on.

How did it make you feel when you heard the plant manager ask that question?

And I was, I was back there because, you know, me and the guy, he was asking questions. You know, we're really good friends. We, you know, most of us managers there and supervisors, we. We've been there forever and, you know, we're like family and, and I just. My balls just got really big as I was looking at him. And, and because he didn't know the answer. But, but the plant manager didn't chastise him for that. He just sent him a, you know, it was a message that, look, going to be asking some different questions. You may want to come up with some different answers. These types of questions and so that you can give me the answer. So it was great that he understood what I was saying, and it felt really good. And it was just another niche that I would think that it just gave me confirmation that I really think I understood the process at that time.

Do you know, like, how long was the, you know. So that earlier part of that story was that the plant manager was. Was. Was frustrated because maybe the, you know, production wasn't going as fast as he thought it should be or something like that, Even though it might have been going as fast as it needed to be. Right. Based on tak time. But how long was that transition to where people got comfortable that, hey, sometimes slow and steady wins the race, or every time, slow and steady wins the race. Like how, you know, like how long was that, that transition?

Well, we had a. I would say it took us a good six months to really get into the rhythm of understanding the flow and how to create a consistent flow. We were experimenting left and right with the calculations, you know, spacings and stuff like that. So it really took us a few months to really get into that rhythm. And now you go in there today and it's. It's. There's no question what the line speed, what the tack time is. It's posted on all the scoreboards. It's electronically shown throughout the facility. So the culture has really, really changed since 2004.

So talk about now. Also, as a supervisor, something that we often struggle with as lean practitioners is this whole balance between tools and people. And sometimes we can be drawn to the tools over the people. Can you. Can you elaborate on that?

Yeah, I mean, at the beginning, obviously, you know, as the old saying goes, I got a hammer and everything looks like a nail. Right? So you're looking, you got a new tool, you want to go try it out? So it was really, really tool driven. And it only got us so far. I think we made the transition to understanding really what the. About 10 years afterwards, probably in 2000. And what. Probably 10 years, 2010, maybe 2012, where we really started getting into the people side and the coaching side of lean manufacturing. I think I was first introduced, I think it was in 2012, to Kata, where we started trying to use dakata coaching model at that time and understanding. Try to understand. You know, it's more of a people process than it is a tool driven is a thinking production system, obviously, than a, you know, than a tool processing or tool production system. So it took us. It took us a few years to get that right or to begin. We still are still doing it today. But it took us a few years to understand that we needed a lean management system to go along with that tool driven system.

Got it, Got it. I want to go. We could talk all day here, I think if we're not careful. But I know there's a couple other ones that I want to touch on. So when you moved into a lean manager position, I understand that you worked on a purchase rec process. Talk a little bit about that.

Oh yeah, that was one that some forgettable because I was. We had a new plant manager come in and he's the one that actually promoted me to be the lean manager. And I wasn't there in that position just a couple months and he asked me, he said, hey, I'm having problem with this purchase wreck process. He said, I need you to form a team and see what you can do about it. He said I'm getting these late requests. We're running out of stuff that I can't explain. He said, I just need somebody to dive into it.

So basically you're talking about purchasing materials and supplies that you all need in the factory.

Right. And the requisitions behind that. So there's a whole paper trail obviously. And. But he said, hey, I need you to do this. And by the way, you know, I needed, I need you to do it on this week right here. I'll be out of town. I was like, no problem. So I formed a team and about the second day into the, you know, as we were, you know, doing the value stream map and trying to identify the bottlenecks and trying to figure out where we could improve, came quite apparent that the plant manager happened to be the bottleneck.

Wow. Oh boy.

Yeah. So, and so I was like, there's no way we're sitting in there in the, in the group. And then. And we're sitting there talking and I said, no, there's no way. We need to, we need to look at this a little deeper and keep asking why.

Keep asking why.

There's no way. And but what he did is actually he put a limit, a dollar limit that has to come by him and the limit was very low. Problem is, is that the plant manager, you know, they travel, go out of town a lot. So the problem was when he got back, the forms weren't in FIFO order first in, first out. He didn't have a way to recognize the purchase Rex. They were just, you know, in his box, part of the, part of the mailing system. So. But nonetheless we, we, we discovered, hey, if we're going to do this. That has to. We have to relieve that bottleneck. So I had to make the call to the plant manager while he was on vacation. And I was, I was extremely nervous and was not looking forward to the phone call. But I made it and he understood and he gave us, you know, he upped the limit and I told him what was all going on. We'd have Visual management in there, would have fifo, and we put a lot of visual controls in it. I said, so when you get back, you'll see this folder right here. And it means, you know, these are in there, they will be in order, and you just have to start looking at them in FIFO order and getting them out into the. Back into the process. And, you know, that would. That should solve most of our problems. So he understood. I mean, he, he wasn't too hard on me.

It's a process. Not his fault necessarily.

Right. He was just trying to, you know, he was just trying to make sure that, you know, we, we stayed in within our budgets and like that. But it was part of the process. And I think he understood that.

Yeah. You know, I wonder how many people listening to this. Their heads are just shaking because. Side to side, because they got the same problem. I can't tell you how many times I saw how many different people have to approve. And then, oh, boy, let's keep it under that one. Or let's send two different POs through. So we keep it under. You know, it's like, come on, people.

Yeah, you know, it's. It was, it was a good little first test. Yeah. For me. And we, you know, we laughed about it after he got back and I told him, you know, I was really nervous. And he said, like, so, yeah, it worked out. It worked out. But it was, it was definitely a good first project for me.

Yeah. So let's go ahead and wrap up with one last one. I've been interested in hearing this one. I'm not sure where exactly you were in your career, but it was when, if I have it right, something to do with your. An experience with your first Toyota consultant. And about questions and all the rest of it. Tell us about that one, Dewey.

So I forget the year. I want to say it was in 2007, maybe 2008. We had a consultant come in. They worked for Georgetown, out of, you know, Kentucky. Great guy. Great guy. He had a good personality. He came in, very likable guy. And he come in. He went first down to the, you know, down the assembly line. And he was Just, you know, he was just looking and he started talking to people at the very end of the line. And he started, hey, do you know, you know, how this, where this defect come from? Yes, we know where it comes from. You know, everybody's, you know, well versed in the, in the process. And he asked the question, he said, hey, well, does this, you know, does the person who created it know it? Yeah, yeah, they created. Well, let's go talk to them. So we went back through the process and found the person that actually created the defect and started talking. Well, he noticed something in that area that caught his attention and it was a gentleman who was, who was really working extremely hard. He was walking a lot and, and he asked me about him and I'm like, yeah, he's, he's one of the most, you know, he was, he was a really disgruntled worker. You know, he had that reputation about him. And so I said, he said, perfect. So he went over there and struck a conversation with him and it's just immediately, I was beside him, you know, he just immediately struck a conversation with the gentleman and was talking to him and it was just a normal, normal tone talking about, you know, just things that, you know, every day happening, what's the weather? Then they slowly progressed into the, to the point where he was talking about the job. And then he slowly progressed into the point where, you know, what do you think about, you know, what's the hardest part of your job? And he really, really asked the questions to coach him down to where, you know, the guy felt comfortable telling him, you know, this is the roughest part of my job. And then he started talking about, the consultant asked him about, well, what can we do to improve this? And you know, I had a sense that the consultant knew exactly what needed to happen. He just, he was just trying to sell, not really sell, but guide him in that direction so that when he answered it to a certain extent and he, we jumped on it. So he said, yeah, if I didn't have to walk so much. And he started asking, hey, what will you do if we move this right there? He said, that'd be great. So immediately we start moving material closer, building a cart, blah, blah. And within, I guess a day we had that job, that one position cleaned up. We cut the walking out, we built him a cart. And you thought that we had bought that gentleman a new truck or something because, I mean, he was just so happy that we actually improve that job. And he couldn't just get enough of this consultant.

And well, he was also happy, not just because his work was better, but he was being asked, he was being involved.

Yes, exactly. Right. So at that point, you know, there was another aha moment. It's like, you know, you got to be a little bit part of a salesman. You kind of. If you know the answer, you don't give the answer, but you ask the questions so that they answer it and you agree with it. And then you start implementing that. Yeah. Giving them ownership of it. And that's kind of what he did. And then he looked at me, and the guy right across from. From this gentleman was practically doing the same thing. And so he said, hey, that one. That one's yours right there. I'll be right beside you while you do it. So I followed the same regimen.

First coach, second coach, Right?

Yeah, yeah. So we did the same thing. And. And, you know, it was interesting. I just. From that moment on, I just learned how to, you know, strike up a conversation, really just getting them comfortable and talking, and then, you know, just getting to the heart of the problem. And then when they give me ideas, they act on it as immediately as possible so they have input. So it was another aha moment. And. And the guy was great. We did some great things. He was in there two or three different times. But that. That one really stuck out with me because it was my first interaction with him, and he gave me so much knowledge within that first week that, you know, I was forever grateful and still am to this day, that he showed me how to do that.

You know, the thing I love about that, I don't know if you guys do anything with TWI and job instruction or anything, but, you know, first part there is put the learner at ease. Right. And it sounds like that's what you guys were both doing is just human to human. Right. We just be, you know, talk to each other and get to know each other and put them at ease and then. And then you get on with it. Right. So it's a beautiful example.

Yes, he was. He definitely. He definitely did that. And he was an expert at it, that's for sure.

Yeah. Well, goodness, Dewey, I think what we need to do is. This is going to be episode 329. We need to have you back on here maybe in another 20, 20 episodes or so. And. And let's work up some more stories because I think we could probably talk for rest of the day here if we weren't.

I could talk all day. Lean. I mean, it's just. It's good to get to talk to you and take a little time out of my day and really get some more war stories because, you know, that's where you build your experience. You know, that's what it's all about.

Maybe to wrap this one up, Dewey, why don't you, I mean, you've obviously, you know, been at this for a while and you've seen a lot and you've done a lot, you've learned a lot. I'm sure you've made a lot of mistakes along the way. We could probably have an episode on all of Dewey's mistakes. Right. And what you learned from them. But why don't you give some words of wisdom, let's wrap it up with maybe some folks who are, let's maybe talk to that person who's maybe they've been on a journey for a little bit and they're doing okay. So they're not maybe brand new, but they're doing okay. But they want to take that next step. They want to get to that next level. Why don't you speak to that person?

Yeah. So one of the things that I learned in each area that, that I worked in or each level is that, look, you just control the things within your role and your responsibility. If you want to as a supervisor, just do it within your control. You don't need permission to do some of these things because it's going to make people's lives better. But the one thing that I would say is like the people side of it is the most important part. Do not forget the people, because they're the ones that are going to make or break the system. They are the system. They are the system. So learn how to coach, learn how to teach, learn how to listen and all the soft skills that go along with that and show that type of respect to the people who are actually doing the value added processes in the, in the, in the work area. So if I had to, if I had to go back in time and I would learn that right from the get go and not be so tool driven. I believe we'd have been, you know, obviously further along in our journey, but it would have been a easier road, you know, just getting the people involved early on.

Yeah, absolutely. Dewey, what's the best way for folks to connect with you?

Well, I'm on LinkedIn as everybody. I'm kind of new to LinkedIn. I haven't been on there long. You know, when you work somebody somewhere for over 30 years, you don't want to go someplace and, you know, look for work. I mean, I've Never really looked work, you know, I know it's a social site, but it's this business site, but I'm on LinkedIn. You can find me there. Other social medias, I'm on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. So I'm still there, but typically the most. The best place to get me is through LinkedIn.

Spell your last name, Dewey.

It's Malden. M A U, L, D, I, N.

Got it, Got it. Well, Dewey, it's been a lot of fun, man. I knew it would be. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing a few stories with us. We sure do appreciate it, but. And I'm sure we're gonna have you back on down the road, so once you start maybe just documenting all those stories that you want to share, and we'll get it lined back up.

Well, it was great talking to you, Ron. I've been looking for this since we started connecting on LinkedIn, and I'm glad I got a chance to talk to you now.

You've been listening to a few Gemba Academy podcasts, is that right?

Yeah, I've been through a few of those, actually. You know, when I got this new role, one of the first things they pointed towards is the Gamba Academy. So that's where I started, you know, watching the videos. And then I kind of got on to the podcast, and once I got onto the podcast, I started really picking and choosing the podcast and kind of seeing, you know, whether by the title, this really relates to me. But then I started listening to the other ones and I was like, you know, all these podcasts are great. So I just started listening to them. I listen to one or two a day, so. Oh, man, I just looked up the other day. I think I've listened to over 100 hours just this year, so your voice, you know, I listen to you on the radio and I get to talk to you so.

Well, thank you so much, man.

That's why.

That's why our downloads, our stats have gone up. It's. Dewey, man.

It'S a great platform you created.

Thank you.

All your guests have been, you know, they have bring their own unique twist to. I just listened to Karen just yesterday, which.

Karen.

Karen Ross. I'm sorry, where she talked about creativity.

Oh, yeah.

You know, that. That's, you know, that goes along with Lean because, you know, you gotta have created. Once you create a standard, you're challenging the next person's creativity to improve that standard. And once they do that, the next person comes along, you know, so you're kind of Daisy chaining that creativity along the people and. And that's what it's all about. So I really, really connected with what she was saying.

Yeah.

You know, it's just not her. It's just everybody.

Yeah. Well, thank you.

It's a great platform to listen to if, you know, get indoctrinated and get your Lean fix for the day.

There you go. There you go. Well, we sure do appreciate it, Dewey. Now you're part of the mix, man. Officially.

It's great. You know, I'm. I feel lucky to. To be on your podcast and be able to talk to you and maybe help somebody out later on down the road.

I know you have. I know you have. Well, listen, you keep up the good work, my friend, and let's do stay in touch.

Yeah, we sure will. Thanks for having me on, Ron.

Okay, Take care.

You too.

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