Problems Don’t Age Well
Throughput Show Episode 13 featuring Matthew Rassi and Chad Bareither (originally aired 12/10/2025)
Guest host Chad Bareither sat down with Lean practitioner and executive coach Matthew Rassi to explore the mindset that separates high-performing manufacturing teams from those stuck in firefighting mode. Matthew’s core premise is simple but powerful: problems don’t age well—and the longer a team waits to address an issue, the more expensive, disruptive, and damaging it becomes.
Matthew works with manufacturers across industries to boost output and profitability without burnout or big budgets. Drawing on his experiences leading teams, raising 11 children, and studying world-class Japanese operations, he explained why the real barrier to improvement isn’t tools, equipment, or constraints—it’s behavior.
1. Problems Don’t Solve Themselves
Matthew opened with a fundamental truth: when teams ignore problems, delay decisions, or hope issues will “fix themselves,” those problems quietly grow teeth. Small leaks become plant shutdowns. Broken links in onboarding packets linger until a new hire is forced to fix them. Everyone assumes “somebody” should have solved it, but nobody does.
The underlying mindset, Matthew says, is avoidance. Many employees fear making a problem worse, don’t know how to fix it, or believe they’re too busy to address it now. Leaders unintentionally reinforce this by rewarding firefighting instead of early detection.
His challenge: run toward the fire. The sooner a problem is seen, the smaller it stays.
2. The Real Cost of Waiting: The Hidden Interest Rate of Problems
Matthew walked through a vivid cost-of-quality example showing how a small defect caught at receiving might cost $10—but if allowed to pass through each stage of production, that same issue could balloon to $100, $1,000, or even shut down a plant.
This exponential cost curve exists in every shop. The lesson:
Catch it early. Fix it immediately. Don’t let problems compound into crises.
The most dangerous phrase on any shop floor?
“That always happens.”
3. Solve Problems Forever: Bringing Discipline to the 5 Whys
Matthew spent significant time breaking down the 5 Whys—not as a theoretical tool, but as a discipline practiced daily inside world-class operations. In Japan, leaders routinely stop production when an abnormality appears because fresh clues disappear quickly.
He outlined two keys:
Go to the floor. Root cause cannot be discovered in a conference room.
Ask differently. “Why?” can sound accusatory; instead, use phrases like “Help me understand what contributed to this outcome.”
Solving a problem once—and preventing its return—is almost always cheaper than quick fixes, workarounds, or daily rework.
4. Ownership, Standards, and the Role of Leadership
Matthew described the four common causes of waste at the standard level:
No ownership
Poor standards
No standards
Standards not followed
Most organizations, he says, blame people before examining their processes. If nothing is written down, there is no standard to follow.
He also emphasized that Lean only works in servant-led organizations. Leaders must model the behaviors they expect: being present on the floor, participating in improvements, and demonstrating humility.
Teams mirror their leaders. If leaders don’t broadcast their own mistakes, employees won’t either.
5. Broadcast Your Mistakes: Accelerate Learning Across the Team
One of the most transformative practices in Matthew’s work is broadcasting near misses and errors. Instead of hiding mistakes, teams openly share them during huddles to prevent recurrence.
This practice:
Normalizes learning
Removes shame
Speeds up training
Builds shared accountability
Turns the huddle into a meaningful communication tool instead of a formality
Matthew calls broadcasting problems the ignition switch for cultural change. It replaces fear with curiosity and secrecy with collaboration.
Key Takeaways / Best Practices
Problems grow more expensive the longer they are ignored.
Run toward problems early; the clues are freshest in the moment.
A written standard is the foundation of consistency and ownership.
Use the 5 Whys at the point of work, not in a meeting room.
Leaders must model humility by sharing their own mistakes.
Huddles are a leading indicator of culture; daily communication is essential.
Broadcasting problems accelerates learning for the entire team.
Improvement is a behavior, not a toolset.
Q&A From the Episode
Q: How do we push ownership to production teams while still supporting them from leadership levels?
A: Matthew shared a model he observed in Japan where accountability is visible at every level. When a process failure occurs, the “days since last issue” counter resets not only for the operator, but also for the supervisor, manager, and even the plant owner. This ties leaders to the quality of frontline processes and ensures ownership flows both upward and downward. Leaders become partners in solving problems—not critics from a distance.