The State of Lean Manufacturing

By Michele Nash-Hoff

Industry Reimagined 2030 was founded in January 2022 with the vision of U.S. manufacturing becoming revitalized, globally competitive, and advancing societal interests. Our transformative mission is to achieve a sea-change in the national narrative from a prevailing worldview of U.S. industry in ‘inevitable decline’ to one of ‘vibrant opportunity.’

By 2030, we will bring about through collaboration and scaling the following:

50,000 world-class domestic manufacturers (10x increase)
Additional 2.2 million to the manufacturing-related, middle-income workforce (25%)
Reduce the environmental footprint to supply U.S. goods by 30%
$1 trillion GDP (cutting in half the gap in trade with Germany, Japan, S. Korea, and Taiwan)
Consumer purchases of US made goods increased by $500 million

Our first initiative has been Reimagining Lean, and over the past year, we spoke to over 30 Lean experts and thought leaders from around the country. The best “guesstimate” of these experts is that only about 10% of American companies are committed to the Lean journey of continuous improvement, which means it has only been the innovators and early adopters that have adopted the Lean journey. This means that we haven’t crossed the chasm to the mainstream of American companies.

Twenty of these Lean experts agreed to work in a collaboration entitled "Reimagine Lean. These experts come from organizations such as AME, SME working the Shingo Institute, Lean Frontiers, the TWI Institute, and the Lean Six Sigma Institute.

This is original research intended to spur step-change adoption. The questionnaire was developed by Lean practitioners and thought leaders and was sent out over the last two months.

The purpose is to stimulate a 2-3x higher adoption rate. Our audience: (1) Companies deploying Lean but not reaping the full potential of gains; (2) Companies familiar with Lean yet have not begun adoption; (3) Service providers, consultants and educators aspiring to cross-the-chasm and reach a broader, mainstream population. We are pleased to provide a briefing on the findings.

The State of Lean Manufacturing

Doug Berger, President and Founder of Industry Reimagined 2030, will present the key findings and moderate the discussion. Mr. Berger has been a transformational executive with over 30 years leading breakthrough initiatives (doug.berger@ir2030.org

The findings from the Lean Questionnaire are now available. Click here