The personal struggle:
From charisma to system

The basis for the leadership vision of Jan van Ginkel, Director of Operations at Borgesius, lies in a personal struggle he experienced after a year of Lean. He realized that successes were too dependent on his personal role and behavior. His central goal became, "How do I create an 'improvement system' that is not dependent on my personal role and behavior?".

This led to the development of a systematic approach that uses Performance Management as the essential trigger for Continuous Improvement.

Jan van Ginkel's six Leadership Principles (Recommendations)

Jan van Ginkel distilled his years of experience into the following six core principles for effective Lean:

1. Speak the same language
   • Understand what a good day means to an operator. Operators naturally want to perform well.
2. Recognize management as the biggest constraint
   • Management is often the primary bottleneck.
   • The shop floor (shopfloor) reflects the effectiveness of management. Leaders often underestimate their impact on the process.
3. Start small in your own environment
   • Start with manageable improvements at the local level.
4. Focus on process, not just results
   • Sustainable improvement comes from process excellence.
5. Stabilize first, then improve
   • Ensure stable processes before you begin optimization. Don't try to improve with unstable results.
6. Tailoring solutions to your context
   • Develop a customized approach; don't simply "copy-paste" from other organizations.

Lean in Practice: The day-to-day operations of the operations director

The recommendations are concretely applied in the structured Way of Working for the Operations Director with 9 plants. This system is designed to create a "Continuous Impulse" for improvement.

The activities Jan van Ginkel undertakes at Borgesius to support daily operations:

MT Progress Reviews (Hoshin Kanri / Performance Management)‍

The morning session focuses on KPIs (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost) and charts. The afternoon session focuses on Project A3 reviews to manage developments. This secures alignment from strategy to execution.

Weekly factory visits (Lean Leadership)‍

By visiting 1-2 sites each week, the manager demonstrates commitment to the process.

Obeya participation(visual management / Obeya):

‍Janattends the daily Obeya meeting to show leadership commitment, which is essential to prevent the boards from becoming "wallpaper."

Gemba Walk:

The Gemba Walk with the Plant Manager focuses on assessing progress on the shop floor and reading the improvement boards.
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Asking operators (respect for people):‍

Direct discussions are held with operators to ask what the main problems are and how they solve them. This recognizes knowledge on the shop floor and helps solve waste(Muda).

Focus on Visual Management:‍

Jan strongly believes in physical Visual Management Boards ("they stay on the wall") over PowerBI because they are always visible. This ensures daily attention and discipline.