Deacon Wardlow is a self-described ‘New Tech Nerd’, who has spent a lifetime at the intersection of technology, manufacturing and continuous improvement. After leaving college in the US, he moved to Japan and was exposed to Toyota Kata, Kaizen, and Ishikawa.

He talks to Ben Merton about the differences between the Japanese and American approaches to continuous improvement and what manufacturing companies can learn from software companies if they embrace disruption.


Episode Summary

• How Vantage LED was able to build a culture of continous improvement using Agile and Scrum in a manufacturing environment.
  
  
• Why manufacturers really struggle with disruption and innovation: there is an inherent fear of failure, which is seen as part of the process in the technology world.
  
  
• How the decline of US manufacturing is a function of a collective failure to embrace disruption in manufacturing
  
  
• Contrasting the efficiencies delivered by the Japanese culture of ‘sameness’ and equality across the organisation with the American mindset of ‘craftsmanship’.
  
  
• Why American individualism might inhibit the team building necessary to a well-run manufacturing operation
  
  
• While technology has already displaced certain jobs, this is something that will lead to faster improvements in people’s quality of life and work.
  
  
• How leadership is about helping people achived goals and giving them credit for that achievement
  
  
• Why continous improvement is not a 9-5 job: it’s a mindset about helping people.