GembaTalk S1 E5 – “Just Start!” to overcome perfection and implement lean, with Brian Meyers
Tom talks with Brian Meyers, founder of Fat American Manufacturing (FAM) and multiple off-road manufacturing brands to find out how traveling to Japan and Europe gave Brian a new perspective on Lean – and how his company has rapidly implemented standardized work to improve efficiency.
By embracing standard work, giving employees ownership, and integrating SOPs into daily operations, Fat American Manufacturing (FAM) has made incredible progress in just five months. If you’re struggling to get started with Lean, Brian’s advice is simple: “Just start.”
“When I got to Japan I saw everything and I was like this is crazy and then I came home and I was really frustrated and I was like we suck but I had no idea how to do it and I didn’t know what I was looking at […] And then all of a sudden everything was like click, click, click, click, click, and I was like, it’s lean, I saw lean!” – Brian Meyers
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“It’s important to make failures because you learn from it.” – Stephan Hilmer
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“The SOP for checking the water level is to stick your finger in a hole and touch water. If your finger is wet, it is good. If not, fill more water. And they were like, ‘are we really making an SOP for this?’ And I was like, well, that’s how we do it. ‘You know, like, well, I’d like to make an improvement’. Make an improvement later, just get it documented”
– Brian Meyers
Key Topics
Brian discovered Lean backwards – by visiting Japan before knowing what it was
The culture shift needed to make standardization work
Why Brian gave every employee the power to create SOPs instead of restricting it to managers
The challenges of balancing production vs. documentation
How FAM integrates SOPs directly into their ERP system for real-time learning
Using QR codes to make SOPs accessible at the point of work
“Yesterday alone, we made 35 SOPs. If you have 10 people doing SOPs, you won’t get far. If you have 40, you’ll get there fast.”
– Brian Meyers
Takeaways
Exposure changes everything – Seeing Lean firsthand in Japan made Brian realize what was possible.
SOPs aren’t just for the shop floor – Documenting office processes helps eliminate waste in administration, too.
Ownership is key – When employees create their own SOPs, they buy in and continuously improve them.
Just start – Perfection isn’t the goal; documenting current processes leads to immediate improvements.
