eta consulting is a Lean practice — the Toyota Production System — for mid-market firms.

How we work

The firms that bring us in are running short on capacity — long lead times are usually the first sign — and they would rather not fix it by spending. More machines and more floor space is always an option, but it ties up capital and gives away the flexibility of staying lean. They come to grow capacity another way, and because they’re interested in how Toyota does it.

They also tend to have good people — employees who take to training and do their best work when they’re trusted to improve the process themselves.

So we lead with creativity before capital. We earn buy-in with ideas worth trying and results the team can see within days, not by handing down a toolkit. The way of working we leave behind sticks, because the people using it are the ones who built it.

What we do

There’s no single way in. Most clients start in a classroom — often Rishi’s Green Belt class at the University of Nevada, Reno — then bring us in to look at one bottleneck. When that process clears, they point us at the next, and the relationship grows one problem at a time.

That’s the common path, not the only one. We also teach on your floor, run two-day Lean strategy sessions and one-day problem-solving workshops, and take on Fractional Lean Officer retainers when you’d rather we stay in the room for the long haul. Every engagement is cut to the problem in front of us, not pulled off a shelf.

If the Toyota Production System interests you, call us. We’ll sort out the right shape from there.

Teaching

We’ve taught a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt class at the University of Nevada, Reno since 2017 — more than a thousand students certified so far. A good share of the clients we work with first met us there, having taken and enjoyed Rishi’s Green Belt class.

We teach the other belts too — White, Yellow, and Black — either at the University or on your own floor. On-site, we tailor the class to your industry and to what your strategy actually asks of your people.

How far a firm takes it varies. Typically a Lean leader comes first, the process champions follow, and in time a broader group of the people doing the work grow curious about process excellence and continuous improvement themselves.