Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement

Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement

Longtime manufacturing process engineer and trainer John Dyer discusses operational excellence and continuous improvement with Professor Mohamed Saleh, a Lean, Six Sigma and continuous improvement expert. Between them, the two share nearly 60 years of continuous improvement expertise. IndustryWeek has partnered with Dyer and Saleh to present their insights to a wide audience of manufacturing professionals.

Episodes

January 5, 2026 22 mins

The aim of leadership is to help people and machines and gadgets do a better job— not to put out fires or be the hero.  

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Understand why lack of proper training rather than a lack of employee effort creates bad operational outcomes, and gain insights on training measures that work. 

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Gain insights into the importance of continuous improvement as a daily habit, with reduced costs as a result, not a goal. Understand why this approach extends to all disciplines and departments, not just manufacturing production. 

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Delve into why Dr. Deming promotes the idea of selecting suppliers based on total cost and moving toward a single supplier for any one item. 

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Explore the meaning behind Dr. W. Edwards Deming's third point for management: Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

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Delve into the meaning behind Dr. Deming's second of 14 points for management transformation. Learn why it is meant as a wake-up call for management unwilling to change their culture, systems and how they treat their people. 

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Explore the meaning behind "constancy of purpose," the first of Dr. Deming's 14 points for management transformation and learn why it is important to team-based continuous improvement. 

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November 18, 2025 26 mins

Delve into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, statistician, management consultant and often referred to as the father of the quality movement. 

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Podcast hosts John Dyer and Dr. Mohamed Saleh reflect on their favorite discussion topics from past episodes and highlight the No. 1 driver of organizational change. 

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Delve into three types of workplace structures—non-union, cooperative union and non-cooperative (or blocking) union—and learn the benefits or early engagement and collaboration. 

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Organizations don’t just age chronologically—they build layers of belief systems, rituals, unspoken norms, and hardened habits. And as the years pass, change becomes more of a cultural excavation than a simple upgrade. Tune in and discover how to transform age into wisdom—not weight.

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From family-run operations to enterprises the size of the Titanic, delve into how size can either accelerate progress or stall it completely. Part 2 of a two-part series. 

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Learn how organizational size fundamentally shapes the transformation journey—from complexity and communication to culture and pace. First of a two-part series.

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October 23, 2025 22 mins

Assess your own leadership DNA against these 10 leadership characteristics. 

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Dive into the practical side of coaching: five powerful vehicles leaders can use to shift from a directive, command-based mindset to one rooted in growth, development, and shared success.

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Explore the real purpose of leadership: coaching and developing others. Unpack how traditional hierarchies reward comparison and control, while true leadership multiplies capability and distributes power.

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Whether you’re leading a transformation or supporting a team through daily challenges, these three interwoven traits define whether you thrive—or just survive.

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Explore the critical differences between sympathy and empathy and why the latter is essential for meaningful leadership.

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Delve into the delicate balance between waiting for enough information to make a sound decision versus falling into paralysis by analysis. Understand the art of determining: What is the minimum amount of information I need to make a decision?

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Dive into the biggest roadblocks that hinder true systems thinking, including prioritizing short-term wins over long-term vision, creating a fire-fighting culture and avoid risk to the extreme. 

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