Thirty Years Later, “Keep the Line Running” Is Still the Message

Lean Blog by Mark Graban · Aug 6, 2026

When I was a young engineer at GM's Livonia Engine Plant in the mid-1990s, I wrote down some of the things production workers said to me. One of them stuck, a worker in a machining department: “I want to stop the line to do my quality checks, but management says to keep the line running.” I've told that story in a few places since, including in Practicing Lean. I always thought of it as a […] The post Thirty Years Later, “Keep the Line Running” Is Still the Message by Mark Graban appeared first at Lean Blog by Mark Graban.