When operations are designed to flow, performance stabilizes naturally. Lean Focus builds the systems and daily disciplines that eliminate firefighting and turn execution across safety, quality, delivery, inventory, and productivity, into a lasting competitive advantage.
Is This Happening In Your Operations?
Revenue is growing, but profit isn’t.
You’re carrying too much inventory—and still missing shipments.
Lead times are long, unpredictable, or constantly changing.
The organization runs in firefighting mode, not planned execution.
Quality issues, rework, or customer complaints are rising.
New products or demand increases create operational instability.
Productivity varies widely by shift, site, or team.
You lack real-time visibility into performance and problems.
If this feels familiar, your operation isn’t broken—it’s constrained. We help organizations remove the constraints and unlock capacity, speed, and margin.
Lean Focus applies a focused set of Lean principles to redesign how work flows through operations.
Rather than relying on expediting, firefighting, or headcount reduction, our approach eliminates waste, builds capable processes, and equips people with the systems needed for stable, repeatable performance. Within the Operations Practice, three principles form the foundation for transformation: Flow, Pull Systems, and Standardization. Together, they eliminate stop-and-start chaos, align production to real demand, and create the stability required for true operational agility.
Principle 1: Flow eliminates the stop-and-start chaos that undermines operational performance.
Instead of accepting bottlenecks, batching, and excess work-in-process as unavoidable, operations are designed so work moves continuously from start to finish. As interruptions are removed, lead times become predictable, quality stabilizes, and teams can respond quickly—redeploying resources where they create the most value.
Principle 2: Pull systems create flexibility by aligning work to actual demand—not forecasts or production targets.
Instead of pushing inventory through the operation, work advances only when the next step is ready. This reduces overproduction, frees working capital, and stabilizes execution. The result is an operation that can shift priorities, absorb demand changes, and scale output smoothly—without chaos or heroics.
Principle 3: Standardization provides the stable foundation that enables true operational agility.
Rather than relying on improvisation or individual heroics, clear and shared standards establish the best-known way to work. This stability makes problems visible, accelerates learning, and allows improvements to be scaled quickly. As a result, teams adapt faster to change—because they are improving from a common foundation, not reinventing solutions under pressure.
The Lean Focus Business System™ (LBS™) turns operational principles into execution.
Within the Operations Practice, Flow, Pull Systems, and Standardization are operationalized through the proven tools and disciplines embedded in the Lean Focus Business System™. Applied side-by-side with seasoned, senior-level practitioners, LBS™ enables operations teams to stabilize daily performance, eliminate friction, and improve safety, quality, delivery, inventory, and productivity—creating repeatable operational excellence across industries and geographies.
Smooth operations are the result of disciplined system design—not incremental fixes.
A conversation with Lean Focus is a working session, not a pitch. Our senior-level LBS™ practitioners will show how the Lean Focus Business System™ stabilizes daily execution, improves visibility, and turns operational friction into a lasting competitive advantage.
Industry Experience of Our Operations Practice
PACKAGING
RENEWABLE ENERGY
BUILDING MATERIALS
AEROSPACE & DEFENSE
AUTOMATION EQUIPMENT
AUTO PARTS & COMPONENTS
MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEMS
COMMERCIAL VEHICLES & TRUCKS
GENOMICS & PRECISION MEDICINE
TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS
CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS
CARDIOVASCULAR DEVICES
INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY
INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS
LIFE SCIENCES TOOLS
TEST & MEASUREMENT
HVAC SYSTEMS
& MORE
Organizations We’ve Helped To Transform Operations
Our Operations Practice Regional Leaders
About Ryan
Ryan is the Senior Vice President, Operations Practice of Lean Focus. He is a proven business leader with extensive experience in general management, supply chain management, process improvement, strategic marketing, business development, data analysis, and solution presentations. He has led teams through both the creation of innovative solutions to challenging problems as well as the execution of improved processes that ultimately generates measurable results. He is an accomplished commercial leader and continuous improvement specialist with 20+ years of experience in applying lean principles across executive, commercial and operational functions
Ryan has led the application of lean principles starting with the Danaher Business System (DBS) and continuously applying lean solutions across operational & supply chain teams as well as in commercial and P&L environments. Ryan holds a B.S. Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University as well as both a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Masters of Engineering (MEM) from Northwestern University.
About Manuel
Manuel has over 20 years of experience in Human Resource Management and Organizational Development. He has initially provided support for lean business transformations at all levels as a HR Consultant and later by leading customer-focused Talent and HR organizations in multi-national companies (up to $2.2B and 40+ locations). His assignments include various Talent leader roles at Danaher´s Water Quality Business and Head of HR positions in Pharma and Biotech. As an entrepreneur he has (co-)founded start-up businesses and professional networks. He is passionate about applying lean and agile thinking to build, improve and sustain impactful HR and talent practices, placing and developing key talent to drive the transformation journey, and building a lean leadership culture at all levels of the organization. Manuel holds a MBA (Diplom-Kaufmann) and Ph.D. in Business Administration (HR focus) from Essen University.
About Michael
Michael is the CEO of Lean Focus Nordic, bringing over 25 years of leadership experience. His career includes ~18 years at Danaher Corporation, where he held multiple executive roles, including General Manager/Managing Director Dentistry and Biotech businesses, as well as several VP Operations & Supply Chain and VP of Lean Business Transformation. In his role as Danaher Corporate Director, he was responsible for Danaher Business System implementation in EU. Most recently, he led Operations & Supply Chain of a $1B acute care diagnostics business, transforming it into one of Danaher’s most Lean-mature organizations.
An expert in driving transformational change, Michael specializes in implementing Lean practices and applying Lean business systems in large-scale organizations to enhance quality, delivery, innovation speed, and cost efficiency. He has successfully led cross-functional Lean transformations across diverse industries, cultivating high-performing, problem-solving cultures on a global scale.
Michael is renowned for driving radical business transformations and delivering impactful results. He excels in building enduring cultures of Continuous Improvement, anchored in collaboration, empowerment, and mutual respect.
About Tim
Tim Niewand is a senior operations and business transformation leader with nearly 15 years of global experience driving Lean transformation, strategy deployment, and commercial and operational excellence across diverse and complex environments. A hands-on leader, he embodies true Gemba leadership—personally facilitating Kaizens and leading cross-functional transformation initiatives that deliver measurable, EBITDA-driven results.
Trained by former Toyota plant managers and Danaher Business System leaders, Tim has facilitated more than 80 Kaizen events across 25 companies in 10 countries. He has built a reputation for translating strategy into execution—aligning teams, simplifying processes, and eliminating operational friction to unlock performance.
During his tenure with Danaher, Fortive, and Vontier, Tim held multiple senior leadership roles including Business System Director, Head of Supply Chain, and Head of Marketing. As a Business System Director, he played a central role in driving policy deployment, leading global transformation initiatives, and coaching executive leadership teams to embed Lean thinking across operations, commercial, and functional organizations.
In an operational leadership capacity, he led end-to-end supply chain transformations, delivering significant improvements in productivity, margin, and working capital while simultaneously improving safety, quality, and employee engagement. He has also led M&A integrations, establishing governance, execution cadence, and cross-functional alignment to accelerate value capture.
He serves as Board Vice Chair of Cornerstone College and has previously held Non-Executive Director roles within aged care organizations, bringing governance, financial oversight, and strategic guidance.
Tim holds a Senior Executive MBA from Melbourne Business School, a Bachelor of Engineering in Aerospace (First Class Honours), and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Aviation (Distinction) from RMIT University. He is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
Contact Our
Operations Practice Today.
Operations Practice Case Study
How Lean Focus Helped North America’s Largest Cabinet Manufacturer Win the War Against Time and Variance
20
Manufacturing Facilities
13,000+
Employees
1. Challenge
For over 70 years, this client has shaped the places where people come together, enriching lives and creating meaningful memories through stylish, high-quality cabinetry. That legacy, combined with a top-notch dealer network and more than 12,500 dedicated employees across over 20 manufacturing facilities, has made them the number one residential cabinet business in North America. The company delivers an unmatched portfolio of brands and products across price points, product types, and channels through an industry-leading distribution network of more than 7,900 dealers, major retailers, and builders.
However, the company is primarily in the business of manufacturing, and in manufacturing there are two wars waged every day: the war against time and the war against variance. Wasted time cannot be recovered. And when a manufactured item meets its targets for cost and cycle time, every subsequent item must match that standard. As it pertained to this client, time was not being used efficiently, and an unacceptable level of variance had taken hold, both across manufacturing plants and within individual facilities. Leadership knew these issues were undermining the operational excellence that had long defined the company.
2. Opportunity
When a new CEO with deep Lean experience joined the company, he recognized that a Lean Business System was the solution to the business’ challenges. He identified Strategy Deployment, Daily Management, and Problem Solving as the tools that would deliver the greatest impact. The opportunity was clear on multiple fronts. A select group of manufacturing plants could be strategically targeted to produce immediate improvements in time efficiency and variance reduction, translating directly into financial results. At the same time, the company lacked staff with the skills required to sustain a Lean Business System, creating an opportunity to build that capability through strategic hiring. Critically, the President and Vice President were fully aligned with the CEO’s vision, providing the leadership commitment essential to driving transformation.
Operations Practice Client Testimonials
“I was confident that engaging key experts from Lean Focus would accelerate our efforts to build a culture of continuous improvement—one that embraces curiosity, rapid experimentation, data-driven learning, and problem solving. The people and the tools integrated seamlessly with our team to establish visual performance goals across safety, quality, delivery, inventory, and cost. This partnership enabled me, as the leader, to drive greater predictability and flexibility as we scaled our organization.”
“Lean Focus has served as a valuable extension of our team, using the Lean Focus Business System™ to enhance agility across critical business processes. Their long-term collaboration led to measurable improvements in reduced order entry time, increased OTIF performance, and a significant decrease in financial deductions stemming from process delays. More recently, they’ve supported us in identifying and recruiting key Lean talent, further strengthening our organizational flexibility for future growth.”
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Lean Focus
North America
P: +1 (630) 800-8519
E: [email protected]
Lean Focus
Europe
P: +49 173 2505762
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Lean Focus
Nordic
P: +45 4030 3080
E: [email protected]
Lean Focus
Asia Pacific
P: +61 458 967 510
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International Phone Number: +1 (630) 800-8519
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