Meyking big machines.

Early in my career, as a Deming consultant, I had the chance to study and support Terex’s senior vice president of continuous improvement. That meant factory floors: Genie in Redmond, Washington, where they build aerial lifts; ASV in Grand Rapids, Minnesota; the haul-truck plant in Motherwell, Scotland; and an excavator plant in Germany.

It’s where I learned that a factory is a system — and that the system, not the people in it, is the thing you improve.