Systems that work · Cultures that thrive · Excellence that lasts
Which comes first, the processes or the culture they create?
Great Lakes Continuous Improvement helps businesses build both.
Systems that work · Cultures that thrive · Excellence that lasts
Great Lakes Continuous Improvement helps businesses build both.
I started Great Lakes Continuous Improvement to solve a problem that I have seen repeatedly across multiple industries: organizations build solid systems and processes, then watch them degrade as ownership blurs, accountability slips, and the people who showed up everyday got burnt out.
“A bad system will beat a good person every time.”
W. Edwards Deming
Alternatively, organizations actively push for a good culture while their systems lag behind, which wears down the people who were asked to care, until caring stops feeling worth it.
Either way, the results end up the same: operational performance suffers, talented people leave, and the financials wither. The bottom line is, quality systems and quality culture must be built at the same time, with sustainment designed into the process so that the structure holds for years.
Tim Morin, Founder and Principal Consultant
Every organization has two dimensions: the systems that power it, and the culture that accepts what is possible. These cannot be separated. Culture can drive excellence and push people to do remarkable things, while systems lock in performance and give customers a reason to trust you.
There is another side to each. Culture can put blinders on an organization, stunt its high performers, and throttle improvement; systems can become bureaucracy serving itself, stifling innovation and teamwork. You cannot install a quality system into a culture that will not use it, and you cannot grow a quality culture inside an organization with no system to channel the effort.
Every organization can be mapped to one of four states. Only one of them brings long-term, sustainable value to its customers and its shareholders.
Good people carrying the operation on their backs. It works until it does not, because heroics do not scale.
The system sets the standard and the culture runs it. The only state that holds its gains.
Firefighting as a way of life. Stable in the worst sense: the default state of decay, and the most common one.
Good machinery, jammed. The documents pass the audit while the behavior underneath tells a different story.
Nothing is written down that anyone follows, and nobody expects it to be. The organization runs on recovery: the same problems return, the same people put them out, and the day is measured by what did not catch fire. It is the most common state, and the most stable in the worst possible way, because everyone has adapted to it.
The people are the reason it works. They care, they cover for each other, and they carry the operation on their backs. The catch is that heroics do not scale: the moment volume rises or the person who held it together moves on, the performance goes with them. This state never stays put; it either builds the system underneath it, or it slides.
The machinery is good and the paperwork is clean. The audit passes, the corrective actions close, and the metrics are met, while the behavior underneath tells a different story. Signals get suppressed because raising them costs more than hiding them, and the documents slowly stop describing how the place actually runs.
The system sets the standard, and the culture is what runs it. Problems surface early because the people closest to the work are expected to say so, and improvements hold because sustainment was designed in rather than bolted on. This is the only one of the four that pays dividends year after year, and it is the state this practice is built to reach.
Most corrective action stops at the surface: operator error, machine malfunction, material variation. Push the five whys past the convenient answers and nearly every failure traces back to one of two principle root causes, and everything else is a symptom.
The planning work was skipped or rushed, so the problem was designed in before the first part ran. Ask this question directly: if we had done our planning thoroughly, would this problem exist?
Leadership knows about the problems and has accepted it. The system is reporting honestly, the people are talking about the systemic problems, but they are not addressed and resources are not put forward to fix them.
Accurately accounting for the problems is not about assigning blame. It is about making sure the solution is implemented where the failure actually happened, so it does not come back wearing a different mask.
Read more about the framework in Dialed In →Nineteen years in manufacturing quality, working to improve processes and help people. My work saves companies money, improves customer relationships, and builds better cultures.
I currently serve as Director of Quality and Continuous Improvement at a West Michigan manufacturer, and I am building this practice alongside that work. I have spent nineteen years inside plants across different industries, which include medical device, automotive, fabrication, furniture design and manufacturing, heavy truck, and consumer products. I have helped make everything from grill parts to diesel semitruck components, arterial cannulae for use in operating rooms to garden sprayers for your nearest big box store.
I taught quality sciences for several years in Ferris State’s Manufacturing Engineering program, and I hold the ASQ Certified Quality Auditor and Certified Six Sigma Green Belt credentials.
I also serve as a voting member of the US Technical Advisory Groups to ISO/TC 69 and ISO/TC 176, the committees that shape the international standards for statistical methods and for quality management itself, including the ISO 9001 standard.
The common theme is that no matter what you make, you can make it effectively, efficiently, and profitably. That is what I live and that is what I teach.
More about the work behind this →When I work with manufacturers, it is important to clearly understand what the needs are and how I can best help. Before either party commits anything, we take a first measure of your organization and objectives to assess if we are a good fit for each other, and which level of service makes the most sense. This stage produces three things that are yours to keep, whether you decide to work with me or not.
I ask your leadership team what they need, how far your organization wants to take continuous improvement, and where you believe the opportunities lie.
I walk your operation and take a brief look at your management processes to understand how the system performs today.
A short self-assessment you complete, paired with what I observed on the walkthrough, written up as a baseline that you can keep.
On your schedule. These happen in order, but not necessarily in one visit. We fit them around your calendar, in a single session or a few shorter ones, whatever works for you.
“Without a standard, there can be no improvement.”
Taiichi Ohno
Below are a collection of services that I offer.
Each module is delivered one of three ways: as a training course, a project that I undertake, or as a blend of the two. When a problem calls for expertise outside my lane, I bring in trusted specialists rather than stretch to cover it myself.
One engagement, three phases. Find the real condition, fix it, and keep it fixed.
“Culture is created by the expectations of management, and it changes only as fast as management can tolerate disruption.”
Tim Morin
One to three days on site, listening across functions and levels to find the real condition.
A prioritized plan built with your input, with ownership, sequence, and training defined.
A monthly cadence of audits, leadership reviews, and coaching that holds the gains.
I do not take on transformations without sustainment attached. Results decay without reinforcement, so all three phases are sold as one engagement rather than three separate purchases.
Dialed In is the field guide behind the method: the full argument for why systems and culture have to be built together, and what it costs you when they are not. The complete guide comes with a Deep Water engagement, and a teaser is available on request.
Explore Dialed In →Send a few details and we will set up the first look. No cost, and no commitment to go further.