"The continuous-improvement program made famous by Toyota in the 1950s was embraced by corporate America before many of us got our first job. Today GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp is an ardent proponent, as are Ford's Jim Farley and Baxter International chief Andrew Hider, who just concluded his first annual "President's Kaizen Week." But maximizing value while minimizing waste through human-led continuous improvement processes can sound quaint."
"Polen became CEO in 2020, launching BD Excellence in 2024 to scale lean practices across the company, going from 50 kaizen projects to 1,500 last year. He argues that lean is a prerequisite for leveraging AI. "If you're not doing lean, do lean first," he told me. "Get those systems and capabilities and then start applying AI on top of solid processes and systems. I'm 100% convinced that AI with lean is where you get the power.""
Tom Polen, CEO of Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), scaled lean practices through the BD Excellence program, increasing kaizen projects from 50 to 1,500 in one year. BD manufactures 35 billion devices annually across a broad medical technology portfolio. Polen maintains that lean systems and capabilities are prerequisites for applying AI successfully, asserting that AI atop solid processes delivers greater power. BD completed a spinoff of $10.4 billion in bioscience and diagnostics to focus on an $11.5 billion medical technology business. The company faces pricing pressure in China and domestic challenges, yet its stock rose 16% year-to-date.
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