Today’s guest is Tim Mclean. Tim is our first guest from Australia and is the Principal and Managing Director of TXM Lean Solutions. In his mid 20’s, Tim was promoted into a Plant Management role and this lead to senior operations and general management positions at Hoechst and in major Blue Chip companies including PPG Industries, Carter Holt Harvey and Amcor. In these roles, Tim continued to increase his knowledge of continuous improvement and lean methodologies and successfully apply these approaches to achieve breakthrough improvements in operations that he was managing.
In 2004, Tim moved to leverage this experience across a wider range of industries by setting up TXM. TXM has grown to be a leading international Lean consulting company with offices in Australia, China, the UK and USA and projects in 15 countries.
Tim visits many factories across Australia and the region including literally hundreds of small and medium sized manufacturers. It was the experience of seeing these businesses, talking to their owners and understanding their challenges that lead Tim to write his book, “Grow Your Factory – Grow
Your Profits: Lean for Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Businesses”published in 2014 by Productivity Press in the USA. Tim is a passionate believer in the future of Australian manufacturing lead by the growth of innovative small and medium sized companies producing advanced niche
products for the world.
Today Tim and I will talk about:

* The unique challenges and advantages of working with small to medium manufacturers with teach lean and continuous improvement.
* What happens when business owners find that their business management systems are holding them back.
* The downfalls of point optimization
* The benefits of benchmarking to truly understand the applications of lean principles
* The need to focus on building relationships, trust, and respect

Interview Links
Tim’s Company TXM
Tim’s Book – Grow Your Factory – GrowYour Profits: Lean for Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Businesses
Learning to See by John Shook and Mike Rother
Creating a Lean Culture by David Mann
David Mann’s Episode on The Lean Leadership Podcast
Connect with Tim on Twitter
Connect with Tim on LinkedIn

Sponsor Links
Get a Free Audiobook from Audible.com
TWI/Lean HR Summit
The Summit on Lean Leadership
10 Ways to You Can Become a Better Lean Leader in a Challenging Environment
Schedule a free 15 minute Lean consultation with Chris