November 2025 - Elevate Constructionist

Aizuchi: The Japanese Art of Listening and Presence

Posted on November 26, 2025November 26, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 7 min

Aizuchi, The Japanese Art of Listening and Presence in Construction

In this blog, I want to share a game-changing concept that can transform the way superintendents and project managers communicate with trade partners. The technique is called Aizuchi, and it comes straight from the heart of Japanese culture. I absolutely love this concept, and I’m excited to explain why it matters so deeply for construction teams.

What Japan Taught Me About Presence

One of the most fascinating things I observed in Japan was how people interact. Their presence is unbelievable. I’ll never forget how our co-host, Mommy-san, would keep waving until the bus was completely out of sight. That wasn’t politeness. That was presence. Full attention, full energy.

And honestly, it showed me two big gaps we have in construction.

Two Habits We Must Stop in Construction:

Executives who don’t listen.
You’ve seen it. They rush the conversation. They cut people off. They dismiss information. This destroys communication.
Supers and PMs talking over trade partners.
We often aren’t truly hearing what trades are trying to say. We’re filtering information through hurry, ego, or distraction.

In Japan, even when someone wasn’t making direct eye contact, they were fully focused, nodding, responding, and anchoring their attention to the speaker. In the U.S., we’re distracted, multitasking, batching, and scattered.

What Aizuchi Really Means

Aizuchi literally means listening with a hammer, listening with a beat, keeping the mind anchored, responding rhythmically, making small sounds of acknowledgment.

It is the practice of:

Being fully present.
Actively listening.
Responding in real-time.
Staying in one-piece flow.

When we adopt this, we stop filtering, stop rushing, and start understanding what people actually mean, not just what they say through ego or stress.

Presence Is Lean

Any leader who says, “I’m too busy to be present,” is actually overcommitted and working in a non-lean way.

True lean leadership requires:

Showing respect.
Being fully attentive.
Understanding before responding.
Operating in one-piece flow.

Paul Akers exemplifies this. He gets hundreds of messages a day, runs multiple companies, but when he’s with you, he’s with you. Fully present.

How to Practice Aizuchi as a Leader

Here are practical steps you can apply on your jobsites immediately.

Prepare yourself before talking to someone:

Remember their name. Say it three times within a minute. Show respect. Be intentional.

Give full presence:

No phones. No distractions. One activity frame at a time.

Actively listen:

Use simple acknowledgments. Nod. Repeat back key points. Anchor your mind to what they’re saying.

Respond with intelligence, not pressure

Instead of forcing, pushing, or shortening durations in a pull plan, pause and offer solutions.

For example, instead of “You have to do this,” try,
“Okay, I hear you. Can we rezone? Add a second crew? Change equipment? Prefab the bottleneck?”

This is where intelligence replaces overbearing leadership.

Why Listening Is the Hidden Superpower

Almost all breakdowns on projects come from not using the genius of the team.

And what is the number one thing preventing us from using that genius?

We don’t listen.

Without listening:

People shut down.
Communication breaks.
Problems hide.
Solutions never surface.
Flow collapses.

Presence unlocks the team’s intelligence and removes massive waste.

Aizuchi on the Jobsite, Every Day

In Super PM Bootcamp, I teach activity frames.
Start a task, do the task, finish the task, then move on.

But crews rush. They half-listen. They silo themselves. They push before understanding.

Aizuchi flips that.

It teaches:

Listen.
Absorb.
Respond.
Then act.
With full attention.

This is the foundation of Reflect, Plan, Build, Finish the Takt rhythm.

Your Challenge

Aizuchi is not just politeness. It is not cultural flair. It is a skill and a discipline that will radically improve communication and eliminate the waste of ignoring team genius.

How can you be more present, truly listen, and replace pushing with intelligence in your daily interactions?

The answer to that will change your leadership forever.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here)
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here)
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, he’s dedicated to taking construction to new heights. With a wealth of industry experience, he’s crafted the Field Engineer Boot Camp and Superintendent Boot Camp – intensive training programs engineered to cultivate top-tier leaders capable of steering their teams towards success. Jason’s vision? To expand his training initiatives across the nation, empowering construction firms to soar to unprecedented levels of excellence.

On we go

We Don’t Blame People

Posted on November 25, 2025November 25, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 9 min

We Don’t Blame People

Welcome everybody and welcome to this blog. In this blog, I want to talk about a topic that completely changes the way we lead, the way we solve problems, and the way we build healthy project cultures. The topic is simple: why we do not blame people. If you care about developing high-performing teams, achieving flow, and improving your environment, stay with us in this blog.

The Struggle With the Concept of Blame

The idea of not blaming people can feel confusing. When I first heard the lean principle that we do not blame the person, we blame the process, my mind immediately went to the extreme examples. What about truly evil acts in history? What about people who do horrible things? Doesn’t accountability matter?

For a long time I wrestled with that tension. But over years of study, reflection, and experience, the concept became clearer. With influence from authors like Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie, and from understanding evolutionary psychology and human behavior, the pieces finally connected.

Understanding the True Self Versus the Ego

Here is the core insight. When we say we do not blame people, we do not blame their true selves. Their core self, soul, conscience, or present self, depending on your worldview.

Whether you believe in a divine creator or purely evolutionary biology, the reality is the same. Human beings are born into environments shaped by genetic wiring, mutation, natural selection, and survival instincts. Our bodies and brains are survival machines, always scanning for threat, always reacting, always protecting.

Eckhart Tolle calls that part of us the ego. The ego lives in fear, in the past, in the future. It lashes out, hides, fights, and defends. It is driven by survival.

Our true self is something different. It is conscious. It can override instinct. It can choose.

So when someone behaves poorly, what are we really seeing? Their true self? Or something else? That question changes everything.

The Forces That Shape Human Behavior

Once I walked this thinking all the way through, across science and philosophy and real human examples, I realized something powerful.

The reason we do not blame people is because behavior comes from many forces that are not their true self. These forces include:

System.
Process.
Environment.
Culture.
Learned and prompted behavior.
Genetic wiring.

Any one of these can override a person’s intentions. All of them together create the conditions for success or failure. When we focus on the person instead of the conditions, we fail to solve the real problem.

Prompted Behavior and Learned Patterns

Think of prompted behavior. If someone was raised from birth to believe violence was noble, or that another group is the enemy, would they ever have a fair chance to choose differently? Our brains work like AI systems. The prompting determines the output. When the input is broken, the behavior will be broken.

Genetic Wiring and Human Limits

Think of genetic wiring. Sociopathy, neurodivergence, trauma responses, chemical imbalances, neurological differences. Nobody blames a child born with Down syndrome for the way they interact with the world. Nobody blames a person with a missing limb for not completing a physical task. Yet we often blame someone whose brain wiring is different, even when that wiring was not their choice.

This does not mean dangerous people should be free or without accountability. Prisons and mental hospitals exist for a reason, and public safety matters. What it means is that our approach should be rooted in problem-solving, not condemnation. When we understand the cause, we can work toward a cure for future generations.

What Changes When We Stop Blaming People

When we stop blaming people and start addressing root causes, extraordinary things start to happen.

Teams stop attacking each other and start attacking problems.
Conflict turns into collaboration.
People feel safe to speak up.
High performance becomes possible.
Respect for people becomes a lived reality, not a slogan.

Lean Thinking Requires Respect for People

Lean thinking is built on this foundation. The Japanese culture that birthed lean holds a deep belief in the inherent value of every human being. Not that every behavior is good, but that every person contains a true self-worth honoring.

If we want to be true lean thinkers, this is where we must go. We do not blame the person. We find the system issues, the process issues, the environment, the culture, the prompts, the wiring, and we fix the root cause.

That is how we elevate people. That is how we elevate construction. And that is how we elevate the world.

If you want to learn more we have:

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Kaizen and Kaikaku: Continuous vs Radical Improvement

Posted on November 25, 2025November 25, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 9 min

Kaizen and Kaikaku: Continuous vs Radical Improvement

In this blog, I want to talk about the heart of Kaizen and how Kaizen and Kaikaku apply directly to construction. These concepts are foundational to creating high-performing teams, stable systems, and long-term improvement.

If you are interested in learning the difference between continuous improvement and radical improvement, stay with me.

What is Kaizen

Kaizen means “to make better.” It is continuous improvement. In the United States, it was often taught as a one-, two-, or three-day workshop, which created a misconception that Kaizen only happens in meetings.

That is not true.

There are two major types of Kaizen:

Spot Kaizen.
System or process Kaizen.

Spot Kaizen can happen on the spot, boots on the ground, when someone simply sees something that bugs them and decides to fix it. It can be small, simple, and immediate.

System or process Kaizen is broader. It looks at how a part of the process affects the whole. That is why Taiichi Ohno would ask, “How does this improvement apply to the entire process?”

Kaizen is not just improvement. As the Japanese taught it to me, Kaizen is:

Love of the customer.
Pride in the work.
Acknowledgment of the employees.

If the people on the ground are not acknowledged, the soil is too hard for improvement to take root. Kaizen is the water and fertilizer that prepares the ground.

Spot vs System Kaizen

Spot Kaizen is:

Fix what bugs you.
Small, simple improvements made immediately.

System Kaizen is:

Improvements that affect the entire flow.
Improvements at the bottleneck, not outside it.

Paul Akers said it well
“There is nothing so wasteful as improving something that should not exist at all.”

Eliyahu Goldratt and his family have reinforced this for years. If your bottleneck is in one location, improving something outside of that zone does not improve the system. It distracts from what actually matters.

An analogy: Seeds, soil, and growth

Mr. Yabe from TESSEI gave us a powerful analogy:

TPS and Lean are the seeds.
The people and the company are the ground.
Kaizen is the water and fertilizer.

If the soil is hard, meaning people are not acknowledged, you cannot grow Lean, TPS, or any meaningful improvement. Acknowledge people first. Improve systems second.

What is Kaikaku

Kaikaku is radical improvement. Big changes. System-level transformations.

Kaikaku looks like:

Switching out a major piece of equipment.
Restructuring an entire sequence.
Implementing a new system.
Opening a new facility.
Adopting a new software platform.

Think of Kaikaku as the vertical leap. Kaizen is the steady upward slope.

System implementation vs continuous improvement

Let’s compare different systems on a scale of 0 to 10 for effectiveness and then look at their trajectory.

Examples:

The Last Planner System might be a 6, but has stayed stagnant.
CPM might be a 1 and has gotten worse due to abusive behavior.
The Takt Production System might be an 8, and it keeps climbing.

Toyota may have started around a 6, but continuous improvement pushed it upward for decades.

You must understand two things

The effectiveness of your system
The trajectory of your system

A system with upward trajectory beats a stagnant or declining one, even if it starts lower.

Free-market analogy

Consider this analogy:

US free-market capitalism may be a 60, but trending downward.
Communism may be a 1, also trending downward.
Japanese free-market capitalism may be a 62, but trending upward because of how the government manages the system.

Trajectory matters just as much as the starting point.

How Kaizen and Kaikaku apply in construction

This always comes back to the question
“Jason, should we implement fast or slow?”

The answer:

If your system is not at its minimum functioning level, implement fast. That is Kaikaku.
Once the baseline is in place, move to steady, people-friendly Kaizen.

Example:

If I walk onto a job that has no Last Planner System, no Takt Production System, and no morning worker huddles, I am not going to tiptoe. I am going to implement morning huddles immediately. We might fail for a couple of weeks, but that radical improvement gets the system to a functioning baseline.

After that, we move into gentle, steady Kaizen improvements.

In Japan, this is normal. The average employee submits 50 – 100 improvement ideas per year. In the US, the average is one to five. We have a lot of room to grow.

Kaizen and Kaikaku together

You need both:

Kaikaku to launch the system.
Kaizen to elevate the system.

Continuous improvement keeps the trajectory upward. Radical improvements reset the baseline when needed.

A question for you

Is your system at its minimal functioning composition?
Are there any radical improvements you need to make?
And once the base is in place, are you improving upward?

These questions shape the future of your project, your team, and your company.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog.

If you want to learn more we have:

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

On we go

SMED: How Rapid Changeovers Create Flexibility and Flow

Posted on November 24, 2025November 24, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 11 min

SMED: How Rapid Changeovers Create Flexibility and Flow in Construction

When I talk about SMED, I am talking about Single Minute Exchange of Die. I first learned this on a lean trip to Japan with Paul Akers. In construction we often say SMET, Single Minute Exchange of Task. Today I want to share how this concept was taught to me, the remarkable things I saw firsthand, and how I am applying it in my work with phenomenal results. You are going to love this blog.

Understanding Single Minute Exchange of Die

Single Minute Exchange of Die originated from a powerful need. In United States manufacturing history, Henry Ford was a pioneer. During World War II his team created a Liberty ship every 60 minutes. One ship per hour. That is incredible. The mass production model worked beautifully in a high demand environment with large spaces and economies of scale.

Japan had a very different reality. Their factory sizes were smaller. Demand was lower. Variation was higher. They could not mass produce ten thousand of one model and wait for buyers. Instead, they might receive an order for seven hundred fifty Camry’s and then four hundred units of a different vehicle. They did not have separate plants for every variation. They needed to change machinery and dies quickly. They also did not have the money or space to hold massive amounts of inventory.

This constraint became a gift. It led to the development of Just in Time and ultimately SMED.

Why Japan Needed SMED

If you only produce what is needed when it is needed, you must be able to switch over fast. Imagine producing seven hundred fifty Camry’s with slightly different trim or dash layouts. If it took an hour to change dies, the temptation would be to overproduce the first variation. That creates excess inventory. Excess inventory creates transportation. Transportation creates defects. The entire system begins to spiral into waste.

SMED broke that spiral. It allowed Japanese manufacturers to switch from one product to another in under ten minutes. This kept production aligned with demand and prevented all seven wastes from cascading.

An Incredible SMED Example

We visited a company in Mifune that supplies parts to Toyota. Inside were six massive stamping machines with dies that weighed thousands of pounds. Paul timed the changeover for us. When a machine hit its quota, the team shut it down and began a full die exchange.

They had rail lines under each machine. When the machine stopped, a cart slid in. A panel dropped to create a roller tray. The old die slid out naturally with no motors or cranes. A second cart brought in the new die. It rolled into place. The machine reset. Then the process repeated down the line.

In six minutes all six huge dies were changed. The machines were stamping new parts. The entire line was running. The operators were tuned in like an orchestra. Paul narrated each machine clicking back online.

I used to think SMED meant one minute. It actually means single digit minutes. Anything under ten. Watching those operators run the entire line again in six minutes was one of the most impressive things I have seen in lean manufacturing.

Why Slow Changeovers Hurt Construction

When changeovers are slow, people overproduce. Overproduction creates excess inventory. Excess inventory leads to defects, over-processing, transportation, motion, and waiting. In short, slow changeovers destroy flow.

And here is the important part. Changeovers are not always about dies. They are about tasks.

What is our die in construction?

It is the moment we switch.
From a meeting to production work.
From a field walk to a pull plan.
From planning to executing.
From one task to the next.

Every time we switch contexts, if it takes fifteen or twenty minutes to reset, we lose flow.

Single Minute Exchange of Task

In construction trade partners often say they want the whole building or the whole floor. The real reason is that they do not have SMET. They do not have a fast, repeatable, efficient way to switch tasks.

Imagine a fire sprinkler contractor saying they want to install all mains through the entire building at once. That is batching. It slows everyone else down and tanks the schedule.

But imagine instead that they have a mainline installation cart. When they finish in one zone, they can switch the cart to install branch lines in under two minutes. That is SMET. Zone to zone to zone. No batching. No friction. No overproduction. Just flow.

Your Challenge

Identify your change points. Where do you switch tasks, phases, or mental focus? Where does friction slow you down?

Then ask, how can we reduce that changeover to under ten minutes?
How can we get close to one minute?
How can we create Single Minute Exchange of Task?

We have applied this in our remote consulting business with great success. It applies everywhere in construction and everywhere in your personal work systems.

A Final Thought

Frederick Taylor separated crafts so deeply that crews lost their ability to switch tasks smoothly. But historically carpenters handled rough carpentry and then finish carpentry. All they needed was to change their bags and tools. That was SMET in real time.

We need more cross training. We need more multi skilled crews. We need fast task switching. And we need systems that protect flow.

Find one place today where you can implement this. Then watch what happens.

If you want to learn more we have:

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

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Gemba and Genchi Genbutsu The Leadership Habit That Changes Everything

Posted on November 21, 2025November 21, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 12 minGemba and Genchi Genbutsu: The Leadership Habit That Changes Everything

Gemba and Genchi Genbutsu are two of the most powerful concepts in Lean leadership. This blog will show you why these habits transform teams, elevate morale, and improve flow — and why every construction leader must embrace them.

Let’s break down what these words actually mean.

What Gemba and Genchi Genbutsu Really Mean

Gemba translates to the place of work or as some say, the scene of the crime.
If you want to understand what’s happening, you go to the place where it’s happening.

Genchi Genbutsu means go and see for yourself.

Put together, they reflect this simple truth:

Great leaders stay close to the field. Disconnected leaders drift into an ivory-tower mindset.

Lean companies operate with leadership on the shop floor, wearing the same uniforms, walking with teams, and solving problems at the source. Non-Lean companies elevate leadership away from the work, isolated in offices, disconnected from the labor that drives the business.

Mr. Amezawa, former CEO of Toyota and executive at Lexus – once shared a story comparing Nissan and Toyota. At one point, people preferred working at Nissan. Over time, Nissan declined while Toyota soared.

The difference?

Nissan adopted the Western model: leaders hidden in offices.
Toyota adopted the Gemba model: leaders always present, indistinguishable from the team.

You couldn’t tell a Toyota GM from anybody else. Same clothing. Same floor. Same involvement.

That’s Gemba. That’s Genchi Genbutsu.

The Purpose of Going to the Gemba

In Toyota by Toyota, a phenomenal book I love, the authors explain the real purpose of going to the Gemba:

You go and see so you don’t have to see the same mistake again.

Once a leader goes to the Gemba, sees the problem, fixes the root cause, and implements real countermeasures that issue should never appear again.

This aligns with Taiichi Ohno’s famous method: the “Ohno Circle.”

He’d draw a circle, put you in it, and tell you: “Watch.”

At first, you see nothing.
Then he returns:
“What do you see?”
Still nothing.

Eventually, with training, you begin to see the truth.
A worker’s arm reaches too far.
A part is slightly out of reach.
A motion repeats unnecessarily.
A hand twists awkwardly.
A tool isn’t within the strike zone.

Soon you’re spotting dozens, even hundreds of improvements.

This is the power of Gemba.

Finding the Real Constraint

Adam “Beanie” Bean from Australia taught me something profound:

Don’t look for the system constraint on schedules or reports first. Just go to the field.
Look for where the human struggles.

Where someone struggles, you’ll often find the bottleneck.

That moment of friction, the hesitation, the awkward reach, the heavy lift points directly to the weakest link in the system.

Genchi Genbutsu exposes the truth faster than any spreadsheet ever can.

The Most Powerful Leadership Lesson from Toyota

One of the greatest things I ever heard came from Mr. Amezawa himself.

He said, “I will only fire you for two reasons.”

If you lie.
If you look down on Gemba people.

His voice was strong. Deep. Uncompromising.

“Gemba people,” he said — meaning frontline workers.

If a leader ever disrespected the workers, demeaned them, or looked at them as “less than,” they were gone. Immediately.

Why?

Because the people closest to the work are the ones touching the product.
How they are treated directly affects the customer.
And the customer experience directly affects the company.

It’s a chain of love – or a chain of neglect.

Love the workers.
They love the work.
The work loves the customer.
The customer loves your company.
And the work keeps coming.

It’s that simple.

What to Look for at the Gemba

A Japanese leader once answered this perfectly:
When you go to the Gemba, look for three things.

3S — Sorted, Straightened, Swept

If the environment is messy, nothing else can be seen clearly.
3S is the foundation for observation.

The Movement of People

Not like Frederick Taylor, where the goal was to make people work faster.
Lean is the opposite.

You look to ensure:

Smooth flow.
Minimal reaching.
No overextension.
No unnecessary motion.
People stay within their natural strike zone
Machines should handle the heavy motion.
People should flow with ease.

I once watched a worker move through her tasks with such grace that it looked like poetry.

Minimal motion.
Maximum value.
Pure flow.

That’s what you look for.

Struggle

In Western culture, struggle looks like effort or dedication.
In Japan, struggle is a problem.

Humans lifting too heavy? Bad.
Humans sweating excessively? Bad.
Humans working overtime because the system is broken? Bad.

Lean prioritizes the least amount of human burden possible.

Struggle = waste.
Struggle = variation.
Struggle = harm.

Why Lean Fields Look Empty (and Why That’s Good)

In Takt, Last Planner, and Kanban environments, you’ll often see:

Fewer people.
Less motion.
Quieter zones.
Smoother flow.

It confuses classical CPM project leaders, who associate movement with productivity.

Busy ≠ productive.

A kid trying to scrub Kool-Aid out of carpet is “busy.”
But not productive.

Lean eliminates pointless motion.
What remains is value.

The Magic of the Ohno Circle: Improvement Explodes

In Toyota by Toyota, leaders describe how most people in an Ohno Circle initially find maybe one improvement in an hour.

But once they learn the Lean eye:

Flow units.
Friction points.
Change points.
Bottlenecks.
Overburden.
Unevennes.
Waste.

they begin seeing improvements everywhere.

100 ideas in minutes. 1,000 in days.

This is the awakening that Genchi Genbutsu creates.

The Challenge for Leaders Today

Every leader, no matter how high your title, must stay close to the Gemba.

Executives: walk your projects monthly.
Department heads: spend time in the field weekly.
Field leaders: walk the job every single day.
General superintendents: twice daily.

You must be at the place of work.
The real place.
The place where value is created or destroyed.

Leadership belongs at the Gemba.
Not in an office.
Not behind a screen.
Not in reports.

So here’s your challenge:

How can you bring yourself closer to the Gemba?
And how can you ensure you never again look down on Gemba people?

This is the heart of Lean.
This is the heart of Toyota.
This is the heart of leadership.

If you want to learn more we have:

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

On we go

Poka-Yoke: How Japan Prevents Mistakes Before They Happen

Posted on November 20, 2025November 20, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 9 min

Poka-Yoke: How Japan Prevents Mistakes Before They Happen

Poka-Yoke, or error proofing, is one of the most powerful concepts I witnessed firsthand in Japan. After seeing it in action, I can confidently say this idea is phenomenal. It has reshaped how I think about quality, flow, and construction. If you want to understand how Poka-Yoke can transform your projects the same way it transforms manufacturing, this blog will be exciting for you.

The Story: Error Proofing in Action

We visited a high mix, low volume production facility built around the Kanban method. Workers operated inside U shaped or even full 360 degree production pods where everything they needed was immediately within reach.

At one pod, a leader demonstrated a metal part that required two exact spot welds before being placed in a receiving machine. When he spot welded both points, the part transferred into inventory flawlessly. When he intentionally applied only one weld, the receiving machine refused it. The part would not move forward.

A sensor detected the missing weld.
No inspection needed.
No rework.
No defect passed downstream.

This was Poka-Yoke at its best. Mistakes are prevented by design, not corrected after the fact.

Toyota’s Approach to Quality

One thing I learned is that Toyota sets the standard for quality. If a vendor delivers a defect, Toyota requires three months of 100 percent inspection of that part. Not as punishment, but as a corrective action that trains people shoulder to shoulder and protects the value stream.

Even though this inspection may seem like waste, the waste of passing a defect downstream is far greater. This reinforces the core lean philosophy: quality must be built in, not inspected in.

Understanding Poka-Yoke

Poka-Yoke ensures that defects cannot move forward in the process. It uses physics, shape, sensors, sequence, and design to make wrong actions impossible.

Not hard.
Not complex.
Just thoughtful.

It is everywhere in Japan. Machines stop if a weld is missing. Items do not fit if they are misaligned. Tools only insert into the correct locations. Containers only accept the correct quantity or component. In manufacturing and construction, these tiny details prevent massive downstream costs and frustration.

Continuous Improvement and Taiichi Ohno

We heard a story from Mr. Amezawa, who worked closely with Lexus and Toyota. He joked that everyone used to say “Oh no” when they saw Taiichi Ohno approaching, not because he was harsh, but because he could see through every form of waste instantly.

Teams once showed him a clever improvement where they trimmed off a small metal corner earlier in the process. Ohno simply asked, “How can we prevent that corner from existing in the first place?”

That is lean thinking.
Fix the root, not the symptom.
Prevent, do not react.

What This Means for Construction

Poka-Yoke has endless applications in construction. Think about it.

What if a component could not be installed out of alignment because the jig physically prevented it?

What if a part would not fit unless it met the correct specification?

What if materials were stored in right sized frames that auto verified quantity and quality?

What if a task literally could not continue unless prerequisites were complete?

These are examples of “quality at the source,” which eliminates the need for downstream correction.

We already see this concept on factory lines, where sensors immediately remove defective tomatoes or parts. That same mindset can be applied to crews, tools, layouts, inspections, and assemblies on your project.

Jidoka and the Human Touch

A related concept is Jidoka, which means automation with a human touch. Sakichi Toyoda created weaving looms with metal pins that would drop if a thread snapped, stopping the entire machine. The operator instantly knew where the problem was.

Poka-Yoke prevents defects.

Jidoka detects problems immediately and stops the line.

Both protect quality.
Both protect people.
Both protect flow.

The Pursuit of Perfection

Paul Akers shared a story where he proudly showed a new improvement at FastCap. Mr Amezawa responded with:

Now do it without more money.
Then: Now do it without motors.
Finally: How can you prevent the defect from ever happening at all?

This pursuit of perfection never stops. Even after two decades, Paul was still being pushed to go deeper, upstream, simpler, and more elegant. That is the heart of lean.

The Key Question for Your Team

Here is the challenge for all of us. What is one thing you can error proof tomorrow so that a defect cannot move down the line?

Make quality a natural part of the process.
Make mistakes impossible.
Make excellence automatic.

If you can do that, you are already embracing the spirit of Poka-Yoke.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog.

If you want to learn more we have:

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

On we go

Obeya: The Power of the Big Room in Lean Collaboration

Posted on November 19, 2025November 19, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 10 min

Obeya: The Power of the Big Room in Lean Collaboration

Obeya literally means big room. I have talked about this for years, but I want to offer a fresh perspective that might change how you see open office collaboration entirely. If you want to understand why big room thinking is one of the most transformative elements in lean construction, this blog will help.

The Problem with Traditional Offices

There has always been debate around open office spaces versus private offices. Some people argue passionately for their personal space. Others insist that open layouts create chaos or noise. But here is the truth. Humans are designed to work as teams, and no environment destroys trust, connection, communication, and feedback faster than walls and closed doors.

When leaders isolate themselves in private offices while everyone else works elsewhere, it creates a classical management structure. Hierarchy appears. Distance grows. Communication slows. Trust erodes. And teams struggle.

Open office spaces with intentional support systems are the modern answer. You accommodate introverts and extroverts by creating respectful shared environments, using noise cancelling headphones, and offering production pods where people can work quietly when needed.

What I Saw in Japan

In Japan, I visited a company responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in work. Their entire operation ran out of a clean, efficient open office. Shoes off at the entrance. Minimal clutter. Movable boards with all their data and visuals. And when someone needed to meet, they simply gathered at the center of the room.

The environment built trust. It created natural proximity. Everyone knew what was happening in real time. Cross training was effortless. There was almost no hierarchy. Improvements happened constantly. And waste from unnecessary movement and siloed communication was nearly gone.

Construction should look the same. You can still have production pods and conference rooms when needed, but the team should be together, seeing the work, solving problems as one.

Why Big Rooms Matter on Construction Sites

If I am running a project, whether large or small, I am setting up a trailer complex with a unified open space. Everyone can see the situation room visuals. Everyone can monitor real time progress. Everyone can access the project data. The goal is simple: see as a group, know as a group, act as a group.

When people hide behind walls or in separate trailers, here is what happens. Trust breaks down. Feedback loops slow. Emails increase. Communication becomes siloed. Duplicate messages appear. Hierarchy creeps in. Culture gets damaged.

Big rooms eliminate those issues by keeping everyone close, transparent, and aligned.

Obeya in Practice

Think of it like a mission control room. Visuals everywhere. Data clear and visible. Leaders in proximity with their teams. Quick coordination. Real problem solving. Whether you picture NASA, Nick Fury in his command center, or a Star Trek bridge, the idea is the same. Leaders and teams work together in the same open space with complete visibility.

The opposite is a separated office. And if you hide in one, you are essentially a remote worker without any systems to support remote work. You are disconnected from the job and disconnected from the team.

At LeanTakt, our staff is fully remote. But we counter distance with intentional check-ins, Miro boards, virtual interfaces, and events that maintain proximity. A separated office on a job site has none of that. It isolates and disrupts everything.

We Must Work as Teams

Lean construction is built on total participation. But you cannot have total participation if everybody is separate. That is why morning huddles matter. That is why visuals matter. That is why proximity matters.

Until the crews meet as one group, they will always act like separate entities competing for space, time, and resources.

The Obeya, the big room, solves that. It unifies the team and removes the invisible walls that block collaboration.

Find Real Solutions Instead of Arguing Yes or No

The big room debate often sounds like political arguments. People argue all or nothing: open office or private office. Noise or silence. Chaos or isolation.

But the right answer is balance.

Have a shared big room and supplement it with production pods. Offer conference rooms. Provide noise cancelling headphones. Teach etiquette and visual discipline. Build an environment that works for humans instead of forcing humans to adapt to outdated environments.

This is how you achieve both collaboration and focus.

The Difference Is Monumental

There is a massive difference between a project that uses a big room and one that does not. The culture is stronger. The communication is faster. The problems are solved earlier. The team becomes unified instead of fragmented.

Even a big room done imperfectly outperforms a separated office system.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog.

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Andon: Stop, Call, Wait – Building a Culture of Immediate Response

Posted on November 18, 2025November 18, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 10 min

Andon: Stop, Call, Wait – Building a Culture of Immediate Response

One of the most powerful concepts I brought home from learning with Paul Akers in Japan is the Andon mindset. Stop if there is any kind of variation or problem. Call your team. Wait to restart the line until you have full kit and the problem is fully resolved.

This simple sequence changes everything.

Toyota does it over two thousand times a day across the globe. FastCap does it. Countless lean companies in Japan do it. And once you see it in action, you realize how much time and quality western culture loses by pushing through instead of stopping to fix.

In this blog, I want to walk you through why stop, call, wait is so transformative and how it applies directly to construction and organizational life.

The Principle: Stop the Moment You See Variation

In Japan, I watched line workers respond to the smallest variation. A screw felt slightly different. A latch had a touch more resistance. Anything that was even a bit off was enough for the worker to pull the Andon cord, pause the line, call the team leader, and reset the system.

This attention to micro variation shocked me. Not big problems. Not major failures. Slight variation.

I saw this in everyday life too. Paul once hosted Japanese guests at his home. One guest tried to open a door that was a little stiff. Instead of pushing through, she stopped, called Paul, and asked for help. To her, variation signals a possible defect. That level of respect for quality is remarkable.

What Happens When the Andon Cord is Pulled

When a worker detects variation and pulls the cord, everything stops. The entire line. Every workstation. Every person. All operations pause until the issue is corrected.

A team leader arrives, evaluates the part, changes it, confirms the fix, and restarts the line only after a point and call check.

And they do this with no blame. No frustration. No “just push through.” They protect flow by protecting quality.

Western culture often sees this level of stopping as overkill. In reality, it is the only way to eliminate rework and maintain predictable flow.

Why We Struggle With This in the West

Western manufacturing and construction inherited a push mindset from Frederick Taylor and decades of busy culture:

Just start.
We will sort it out later.
We do not have full kit but go anyway.
Push that trade ahead even if another is not ready.
There is a defect but keep going.
We will rework it downstream.
Rush. Hustle.

There is one word for this way of thinking: it is wasteful.
Rework costs at least eight times the original effort and often closer to one hundred times. Every push past variation damages quality, trust, flow, and the brand.

Stop, call, wait prevents that.

But applying it in western companies is uncomfortable because it goes against decades of muscle memory. When leaders stop the line, people sometimes feel scolded even though the intent is kindness, respect, and process improvement.

Full Kit: Do Not Start Unless You Can Finish

Another key element comes from Dr. Efrat Ashlag Goldratt and Rami Goldratt.
Do not start unless you have full kit to finish.

Most teams start with partial kit, missing information, missing materials, missing clarity, and then scramble through chaos. Full kit eliminates chaos before it starts.

Stop, call, wait is how you enforce full kit.
If you cannot finish as planned, you do not start.
If you hit variation mid-stream, you stop and correct.

Applying Andon to Your Own Company

When I came back to LeanTakt, I immediately saw breakdowns in our own internal processes. One example was our meeting scheduling system. A time zone mismatch caused dozens of people to wait for me in a free two hour Takt Production System course. That is disrespectful to their time.

So we stopped the line.
We paused work.
We fixed the process.

And even that small operational pause felt shocking because western culture is conditioned to push through.

But stop, call, wait is not punishment. It is the highest form of respect for people. It shifts our mindset from blaming individuals to improving processes.

Rework Is the Silent Destroyer

Every time you push a defect down the line, you multiply the cost. Every time you skip a variation, you hurt your brand. Every time you push without full kit, you lose time, trust, and predictability.

Stop now and you save hours later. Stop now and you protect flow. Stop now and you build a culture that does not tolerate rework.

The Challenge for All of Us

Here is the question I want you to take back to your team:

How can you teach your organization to stop, call, and wait not only for big problems but for small variations and never start a process unless you have full kit to finish?

That single shift will change your quality, your predictability, your team culture, and your flow.

If you want to learn more we have:

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Heijunka: Leveling Work for Flow and Predictability

Posted on November 17, 2025November 17, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 11 min

Heijunka, Leveling Work for Flow and Predictability

In this blog, I want to walk you through one of the most powerful concepts in Lean construction. Heijunka is leveling. It ties directly into Takt time and Takt planning, and when you truly understand it, your projects will never be the same. I am going to connect this idea directly to construction because the application is phenomenal.

What Is Heijunka?

Heijunka means leveling, and it is one of the most beautiful concepts in Lean thinking. When you pair it with Little’s Law, it becomes even more meaningful. In manufacturing, Little’s Law is slightly different, but when translated into construction it points to the need for the right batch sizes, leveled work, and finishing as you go. Everything should be leveled to create predictable flow.

Fixed Units and Flow Units

When we visited Japan with Paul Akers, we saw Heijunka everywhere. In construction, you either have a fixed unit and a flow unit or two possible flowing units where one must be fixed.

In a warehouse, either workers or product can move. You choose one to remain fixed and the other becomes the flow unit. In construction, the train of trades and the materials being installed are the flow unit. The building itself is the grow unit, which Nicholas Modig describes, because it is being formed and shaped every day.

In Toyota manufacturing, the car is the flow unit and the plant is the fixed unit. The principle is simple, no matter the environment. Identify what needs to flow and level everything around it.

Three Real Scenarios from Japan

We saw three examples that perfectly showed Heijunka in action.

Scenario one had five big machines and two humans. The machines moved faster than people, so the work was leveled by pairing two people with the machines.

Scenario two was the opposite. One human needed two machines to maintain flow. She would complete one step, move in a circle, complete the next step, place the part, and repeat. One person to two machines kept the system leveled.

Scenario three had one machine but required two humans. This was because the bottleneck was not the equipment but the human action required.

These examples show that Heijunka does not have one formula. You might need more humans than machines, more machines than humans, or different combinations altogether. What matters is that the system is leveled and flow is maintained.

How Leveling Works in Line Manufacturing

In Toyota’s line manufacturing system, cars move forward and spend about fifty seconds at each station. Everything in each station is designed to fit inside the Takt time. The work is leveled across machines, people, and work content. Some stations have two machines on each side, others require more humans, and some require only one machine because the work takes less time.

The result is perfect balance. Perfect flow.

How Heijunka Applies to Construction

In the United States, we rarely level work this intentionally. In the Takt production system, however, we absolutely do. We take a pull plan and then design how crews move from zone to zone. If one trade moves slower than another, we adjust that trade. Maybe they need two well prepared and fully kitted crews. That removes the bottleneck.

Sometimes the bottleneck is the zone. Sometimes the trade. Sometimes the work structure. The point is simple. Work must be packaged to flow. That is Heijunka.

Once the work is leveled, variation drops dramatically. You can monitor small disturbances, pull the andon, stop the line, and fix issues before they turn into massive problems.

The Human Side of Leveling

Heijunka is not only good for flow. It is good for people.

Humans thrive in even flow. It is safer. It is more visual. It reduces friction. It creates calm.

And yet, many Western superintendents resist stability. They fear looking lazy. They want adrenaline. They want to feel like firefighters. This creates the firefighter arsonist superintendent.

The Firefighter Arsonist Problem

I once set up a project in Tucson. It was organized, clean, safe, and leveled. The Last Planner System was in place. Huddles were running. Buffers were planned. The site flowed so smoothly that some people thought nothing was happening. But the work was going in fast and at high quality.

A superintendent took over after six weeks. At first things were stable. Then the systems slowly disappeared. Huddles stopped. Deliveries blocked the entrance. Trash accumulated. Work fell behind. When I asked why, he said the systems were boring.

He did not understand that boring meant stable. Stable meant productive.

He needed excitement, so he created chaos. He started fires so he could put them out. The flow collapsed.

The Key Concept Many Miss

In Lean thinking, stability is everything.

Respect for people is first.
Stability is second.
One piece flow is third.
Flowing together and takt time come after.
Visual systems and total participation follow.
Only then do we get continuous improvement.

Without stability, nothing works. This is the heart of Heijunka.

Flow State

Flow state occurs when the system moves without friction, bottlenecks, or interruptions. It is enjoyable. It is natural. It is predictable.

Paul Akers demonstrated this perfectly when he taught us how to get off a train in Tokyo. Move. Do not stop. Follow the signs. Have your transit card ready. Keep flowing.

Millions of people move effortlessly because the system is leveled.

Final Challenge for Construction Leaders

What can you level tomorrow on your project?
Where can you remove friction?
Where can you stabilize flow?

Heijunka is one of the greatest gifts Lean gives us. When you level work, you create safety, clarity, quality, and predictability. You create morale. You create flow.

I hope you enjoyed this blog.

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Point and Call: The Japanese Secret to Error-Free Work

Posted on November 15, 2025November 15, 2025 by Danny Jiménez⁩

Read 10 min

Point and Call: The Japanese Secret to Error-Free Work

In this blog, I want to cover one of the biggest game changers I have ever seen in human performance, family systems, and jobsite habits. It is simple, powerful, and incredibly effective. It is called Point and Call, and yes, it can change your life.

But before I explain the habit, I want to start with something personal that opened my eyes to why Point and Call matters so much.

Human development and why some minds work differently

My wife and half of my kids have diagnosed ADHD. As I have learned more about it, something fascinating keeps showing up in the research. Humans evolve slowly, especially compared to animals like dogs, which explains why dogs have hundreds of variations and humans do not.

Some scientists believe certain neurodivergent traits may be adaptations that help us handle today’s digital, distracted world better than neurotypical brains.

I grew up in a conservative environment where ADHD was sometimes questioned. But after seeing it in my own kids, I know it is real. And in many cases, it is not a disability. It is a superpower.

People with ADHD often:
• Thrive in high distraction environments.
• Perform better during emergencies.
• Stay calm under pressure.

Meanwhile, I am melting down in the corner.

The common struggle: finishing the last 5 percent

One trait I notice, both in normal childhood development and in ADHD, is difficulty finishing tasks. ADHD brains tend to be interest-based, not reward-based. If something is interesting, they are locked in. But when it is time to clean up or finish the last 5 percent, the interest vanishes.

That last 5 percent is critical. It is what closes loops, reduces stress, and keeps life organized. And that is where Point and Call comes in.

Checklists: the first major breakthrough

A huge improvement for our family came from The Checklist Manifesto. We started using standardized checklists for everything.

Every kid has their own daily checklist:
• Put up your backpack.
• Put your flask away.
• Put your lunchbox in the freezer.
• Clean your room.

And I use checklists for everything as well:
• Trips.
• Trainings.
• Lakeside weekends.
• Work events.

I never wing anything. The one time I ignored my checklist, I forgot my HDMI dongle for a project assessment. Lesson learned.

Point and Call: the second breakthrough

The second habit that changed everything is Point and Call. I saw it everywhere in Japan. It is simple, when you finish something, you point at each item and say out loud what you completed.

A real example, “Okay, I packed my laptop. I grabbed my cord. I threw away my trash. I thanked the videographers. My wallet is in my pocket. Everything is put away. I am safe.”

On the Shinkansen trains, the famous 7-minute miracle cleaners use Point and Call constantly, “Bathroom done. Lights checked. Signage reset. Door latched.”

It is a quality control habit that prevents errors even when you are tired, distracted, or rushed.

How we use Point and Call at home

We now use two daily habits:
• Standardized checklists.
• Point and Call to finish tasks.

With my kids, it sounds like this, “Okay, the car is in park. It is turned off. I have the keys. The windows are up. The mess is cleaned. We are ready to walk away.”

Point and Call closes the task in the brain. It prevents loose thoughts from pinging around like mental pinballs.

Why it works: dopamine vs. interest-based brains

A neurotypical brain gets a dopamine hit at completion. It feels good to finish tasks. Too much dopamine can be addictive, but in healthy amounts, it builds discipline.

Some minds do not get that dopamine hit. So finishing tasks is harder, boring, or feels incomplete. That is why some people rely on:
• Shame.
• Stress.
• External reminders.
• Pressure.

Point and Call becomes a healthy system to replace the missing dopamine reward. It creates closure.

Using Point and Call for safety

Point and Call is also powerful in construction safety. For example, “Okay, I hooked to the tie-off point. I checked my leg straps. My work area is clear. My buddy is ready. I have my radio. I know the rescue plan.”

It cements the habit. It prevents mistakes. And it builds confidence.

Honestly, I would not be surprised if companies like Hensel Phelps studied Japanese methods because I now see the similarities.

A habit you can use anywhere

Here is my challenge to you, what daily habit can you apply Point and Call to starting today?

For example, when I make my bed in the morning, “Pillows placed. Sheets pulled tight. Nightstand cleared. Shoes away. Clothes in the laundry. Everything reset. Ready for the next task.”

It clears the brain. It closes the loop. It removes mental clutter and creates peace.

The game changer

Point and Call is simple, powerful, and universally applicable. Along with checklists, it is one of the best tools I have ever seen for improving memory, reducing stress, and creating consistent habits.

It has changed my life, and I believe it can change yours too.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog.

If you want to learn more we have:

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