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GembaTalk Bonus Episode – How to Build a Culture Around Standards with SOPs with Brian Meyers

Brian Meyers from FAT American Manufacturing joins Tom Hughes to share how his team made standards part of everyday work. From empowering every employee to create SOPs to embedding them into morning meetings, Brian explains how “making it matter” drives consistency, respect, and growth.

In this bonus episode, Tom Hughes visits FAT American Manufacturing in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to talk with Brian Meyers, one of the most prolific GembaDocs users in the world.

In just over a year, Brian’s team have created more than 2,000 SOPs – and actually uses them every day.

This episode dives into how FAT American turned standard work from a chore into a cornerstone of culture. Expect real talk about ownership, respect, and how documenting the little things unlocks big results.

“You’re buying back your time by having a standard because you can just say go, here’s the SOP, go check it out and follow through with it!” – Brian Meyers

Watch now

Listen

Key Topics

Making SOPs a Priority

  • Why SOPs need to be part of daily conversations and celebrations
  • How FAT American turned documentation into a shared responsibility

Building Culture Through Standards

  • How morning meetings feature new SOPs
  • Using standards to respect people and set them up for success

Buying Back Time

  • The real cost of repeating instructions
  • How visual SOPs cut onboarding time and boost clarity

Common Challenges

  • Managing thousands of SOPs and avoiding duplication
  • The importance of clear deployment and naming systems

Lessons for Every Manufacturer

  • Make standards visual, not verbal
  • Think like a new hire
  • Don’t just create SOPs – live them

Links and Resources

Fat American Manufacturing
  • Find out more Fat American Manufacturing
  • Brian Meyer’s LinkedIn
  • Lean by Doing on YouTube 
GembaDocs
  • Explore GembaDocs for your training needs and process documentation.
  • Tom’s LinkedIn
  • GembaDocs on LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram

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GembaTalk Episodes

Pankaj Malik

GembaTalk S1 E6: How “What’s in it for me” revolutionized IOTAFLOW’s culture with Pankaj Malik

From daily struggles to Lean success, find out how IOTAFLOW created 1,000 SOPs, boosted efficiency, and transformed employee engagement and

Read on..
GembaTalk S1E5 Brian Meyers

GembaTalk S1 E5 – “Just Start!” to overcome perfection and implement lean, with Brian Meyers

After a trip to Japan, Brian Meyers realized his factory needed a Lean overhaul – he just didn’t realize it

Read on..

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