ABOUT

I'm Nik. Leanwrx is me.

No account managers, no junior team. The person who walks your floor on day one is the one who sees it through.

THE SHORT VERSION

I go where “good enough” lives, and I don't leave it alone.

I’ve spent 20 years improving how work gets done: running PolyOne’s global Lean Six Sigma program, redesigning how KeyBank served small businesses, and working shop floors across Northeast Ohio as an independent consultant, now Leanwrx.

The pattern never changes. The biggest gains hide behind habits nobody has questioned. Finding them takes someone willing to ask the uncomfortable “why,” and then stay long enough to help your people build the answer.

Lean is in the name, but it’s one tool in the belt. Some problems need a Kaizen. Others need statistics, a change plan, a customer interview or a carefully standardized process before anyone automates it.

When a project needs more hands or a specific skill, I bring in specialists I’ve worked with for years. You still deal with me, and I stay accountable for the result.

WHAT I BELIEVE

A few things I'll say to your face, too.

  1. “That’s how we’ve always done it” is the most expensive sentence in manufacturing.
  2. Lean doesn’t start in a conference room. Neither do I.
  3. Your best improvement idea is already on your floor. Usually on second shift.
  4. If the consultant leaves and the gains leave with him, it wasn’t lean. It was a rental.

Speaking to PMPA members, 2026.

BEYOND CLIENT WORK

Teaching is half the job.

  • Speaker to manufacturing groups, including PMPA’s national conference and Northeast Ohio members.
  • Writer of Field Notes on lean, operations and leading change.
  • Advisory committee member for Cleveland Bridge Builders at the Cleveland Leadership Center.
  • Volunteer teacher with Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland.

Let's talk about your floor.