George Koenigsaecker, President, Lean Investments LLC, and former HON executive 2010 IW Manufacturing Hall of Fame Inductee
'Johnny Appleseed of Lean'
Of the 12 companies that George Koenigsaecker placed on lean journeys, all are still traveling that path today. It's the sustainability of the system that he originally brought to Jake Brake back in the 1980s that has been his life's work.
As president of the Jacobs Vehicle Equipment Co. (Jake Brake) and group president of the Tool Group, which was the largest business unit of Danaher, he implemented the Danaher Business System. His next stop on the lean journey took him to HON, where he led its lean conversion from 1992 until 1999. Volume tripled.
His first exposure to lean, however, came while he worked at Deere & Co. in the 1970s and was charged with assisting in a strategic alliance with the Japanese company Yanmar Diesel. He discovered Yanmar Diesel's success was achieved by using Toyota's senseis in an early application of TPS. His furthered his education in Japanese production systems during his tenure at the automotive operations of Rockwell International, where he managed to visit 144 manufacturing facilities in Japan.
His success in bringing lean to the companies he managed, and now invests in, stems from his insistence that lean be viewed as a long-term investment. "Companies must be willing to go through their value streams many times to receive the most value. Until you have gone through your value-stream processes at least five times, you haven't really experienced lean," explains Koenigsaecker, who currently serves as president of Lean Investments LLC.
The ultimate secret to success, he explains, is how companies develop people during their lean journey. "Leaders must learn how to see waste. They must be humble. Above all they must be able to learn, for learning is how you design a culture that is sustainable through multiple generations."
