automation, Education, manufacturing

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

Posted On: December 11, 2025
at 2:24 pm

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In This Episode

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. If you enjoyed this conversation with the Mr. Miyagi of LEAN, hit Like, drop a comment and Subscribe to The Disrupted Factory for more straight-talk insights from the people ACTUALLY shaping modern manufacturing.

Episode Guests

Known affectionately as the Mr Miyagi of Lean, Vitor Ferreira is a Master Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with more than forty years of hands‑on manufacturing experience. Vitor began his career in the tyre and tube manufacturing industry and went on to spend decades with Michelin and Bridgestone, where he cut through corporate noise with simple truths and trained over 8 000 professionals worldwide. A respected member of the Southern African Society for Quality and a former lecturer at Nelson Mandela University, Vitor combines academic rigour with shop‑floor credibility . At his consulting firm, Network Global Trading and Consulting, he builds lean management systems and coaches executives for performance improvement. His background includes an Honours BCom in Business Management and professional certification in Agile & Scrum . This formal grounding, coupled with decades of practical problem‑solving across automotive, construction, chemical and supply‑chain sectors , makes him a sought‑after authority on continuous improvement, quality management and environmental techniques . Vitor’s teaching philosophy hinges on “respect the operator” – recognising that those closest to the work are the true masters. In The Disrupted Factory podcast, he breaks down the Five Principles of Lean, the TIM WOODS framework for the Seven Wastes, and introduces a ninth waste: resistance to change. His stories of taking tyre changeovers from twelve hours down to two demonstrate how lean tools only matter when they drive real numbers. Vitor also cautions that ISO and lean programmes can devolve into box‑ticking; instead, he challenges leaders to focus on effectiveness, capability and measurable financial impact. By demystifying concepts like 5S, waste elimination and kaizen, Vitor Ferreira shows that continuous improvement isn’t about jargon – it’s about seeing the waste, respecting people and driving sustainable results.