I recently participated in the AME conference in Jacksonville, Florida, a terrific rally for manufacturing excellence with the tongue-twisting theme, “Strategic Success Through People-Powered Excellence.”

I had a small role on a keynote panel that attempted to answer questions from attendees relating to generating the “people power” needed for strategic success. The session evoked a sense of déjà vu because the challenge to get everyone actively engaged in improvement—referred to in pre-lean times as total employee involvement or TEI—has resurfaced, after nearly three decades of dormancy, under the heading of people-powered excellence. I thought to myself, “This is a good thing that the lean transformation discussion has moved to the social part of lean, but why has it taken so long to resurface?”

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