Lean by Doing

Kevin Brady flew in from Ireland to spend a week touring lean companies with us, and we sat down to hear the story behind one of the best lean tours in Ireland.Kevin spent 15 years as a design engineer before taking a production manager role at Applied Concepts, a small Irish company that builds sandblasting equipment and a tractor PTO-driven compressor that found an unexpected market blowing out slurry lines. It took him nearly two years to get the owner on board with lean. Their starting point was a “before” video of a cluttered shop, along with a challenge to see what he could do in a year.They started with morning meetings and 3S time. The results speak for themselves. Kevin designs and builds nearly everything in-house, from the mezzanine floor to the signs, holders and parking spots for blast pots. As Kevin puts it: “The easy thing is to clean up a mess. The hard thing is to clean up a culture.”Applied Concepts runs a lean tour every second Wednesday. If you’re ever in Ireland, put it on your list.#LeanManufacturing #2SecondLean #ContinuousImprovement #3S #LeanByDoing

Ryan Tierney and the guys talk about Lean Tours and the benefits (or harm) of feedback.#leanmanufacturing

Ryan Tierney and the guys discuss customer friction and how to remove it from the process. This will reduce the burden on your customers and your team!

Ryan Tierney from Lean Made Simple traveled from Ireland to visit Lean By Doing and other companies throughout the area. The guys discuss the differences they saw in lean practices, rethinking their processes, and the lean culture that has begun here in the Midwest.

Joel from our customer service team talks about his trip to the Siouxland Lean Consortium 2026 and what he learned from several lean tours in Iowa.