The Mr. Miyagi of LEAN: 40 Years of Toyota Way Wisdom They Don’t Teach in Training!

The Mr. Miyagi of LEAN brings his wisdom and teachings to our first LIVE podcast!

In this episode of The Disrupted Factory, we sit down with Vitor Ferreira, the Mr. Miyagi of LEAN. After four decades across Michelin and Bridgestone, he’s trained more than 8,000 people and earned a reputation for cutting through noise with simple, practical truth.

Vitor explains why the world’s best manufacturers, no matter the culture, all share the same obsession: finding and fighting waste. That mindset, he says, is the competitive advantage. When Vitor talks 5S, he strips away the buzzwords: it’s not about neatness, it’s about making waste visible so productivity can rise!

He also shares the lesson that shaped his entire career: respect the operator. They’re the true masters of the process.

From there, Vitor breaks down the Five Principles of Lean, the Seven Wastes (TIM WOODS), and introduces his own “Ninth Waste”: resistance to change. And because tools only matter when they move numbers, he shows how SMED took a tire changeover from more than twelve hours to just two!

Finally, he calls out the uncomfortable truth: too many ISO and Lean programmes have become tick-box exercises. As AI speeds up the pace of change, he argues that leaders must stop firefighting and start focusing on effectiveness, capability and real financial impact.

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Thanks for watching and see you in the next episode.

#LeanThinking #ContinuousImprovement #OperationalExcellence #ManufacturingInsights #ToyotaWay #IndustrialInnovation #TheDisruptedFactory

00:00:00 Introduction to the "Mr. Miyagi of LEAN"
00:03:55 The Secret Shared by Michelin and Bridgestone
00:07:09 The True Goal of 5S (Productivity)
00:30:19 The $10 000 Fix vs. The Operator's Two Rods Story
00:33:37 Start Of Presentation - The Five Principles of Lean Defined
00:37:57 Why Inventory is Garbage in Lean Accounting
00:59:33 SMED: Slashing Changeover Time to Two Hours
01:07:04 AI and the Future of Waste Detection
01:09:15 Audience Questions
01:13:17 The "Tick Box" Trap: Why Audits Fail
01:18:13 Final Thoughts And Thoughts