The quote “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something” perfectly captures the spirit of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and the philosophy of continuous improvement that drives our community.
In industry, sustainable excellence is not built by one person. Rather, it is built by a system of engaged people who each take ownership of improving what they touch.
At its core, AME champions continuous improvement, respect for people and enterprise excellence. Continuous improvement is not about a massive, one-time transformation. It is about many small improvements made daily by individuals at every level. Individually, these actions may seem small. Collectively, they create culture. And culture creates excellence.
The AME Consortia Program’s “Local Lean Learning Networks model” reflects this same principle. No single company has all the answers. But when organizations come together to share best practices, lessons learned and innovation, everyone contributes something. Through peer learning, benchmarking and collaboration, the collective becomes stronger than any individual company. Thank you to the AME Consortia facilitators, Jonathan Jones, Manoj Mohta, Lenny Perry, Dana Presley, Bill Sample, John Spiesman and Ryan Zeng, and to the new facilitators being announced shortly.
In this way, the quote mirrors AME’s belief:
- No one company can master every challenge.
- No one leader can drive transformation alone.
As represented in our AME 2026 conference theme, “People first, progress together, a ‘yes/and’ approach to enterprise excellence,” every person, every team and every organization can contribute to excellence.
Continuous improvement and leadership belong to everyone. That is the power behind AME. That is the power behind continuous improvement. And that is how meaningful, lasting change happens.
Want to join us for more? We have incredible events scheduled for the next few months, including:
- The Theory of Constraints flow solutions workshop in St Louis
- Our (free for members!) AME Back to Basics Virtual Lean Summit in March
- And our annual AME Southeastern Regional Lean Summit in Charlotte, NC in May
In between, we have many other opportunities to attend virtual and in-person events, tours, and lean workshops. We add more events weekly, so if you don’t see what you need, please reach out! We will make it happen.
As always, please stay safe and keep looking for one another.
