Every month, Starline Windows builds more than 10,000 windows, and no two are the same. Each is measured, engineered, and manufactured to a unique specification – a level of complexity that would break most production lines, and one Lesley Noland has spent more than two decades turning into a competitive edge.
As Chief Operating Officer of the family-owned Canadian manufacturer, Lesley has built a track record of being first: thermal break technology ahead of the North American market, powder coat finishing before 90% of the industry, automated guided vehicles on the factory floor, and now a full transition to Autodesk Revit and Inventor with AI-driven shop drawings on the horizon.
For a business making thousands of bespoke products a month, she explains, parametric modelling and automation aren’t aspirations – they’re operational necessities.
The deeper story, though, is cultural. Lesley describes an organisation where no idea is too wild to be voiced, where failure is rewarded, and where tribal knowledge is captured into digital systems before it’s too late. The line that captures the approach – start crazy and land simple – isn’t a slogan. It’s the mechanism by which Starline keeps finding a new edge.
Lesley Noland is Chief Operating Officer at Starline Windows, a family-owned Canadian manufacturer with over 50 years of history producing entirely custom window and facade solutions. With more than two decades at Starline, Lesley has led the company’s operational and digital transformation across purchasing, production, safety, and continuous improvement – earning a reputation for bold first-mover decisions and a culture that embraces change.
Episode 39
Digital transformation has no finish line, and pretending otherwise is how it fails. Tom Loader, Group Director of Digital Transformation at Multiplex, explains what it really takes to move a global construction business from reactive to insight-led, and why the work is never really finished.
Episode 38
Why does play belong in the boardroom? Michelle Lee of IDEO (the consultancy behind the original Apple mouse) makes the case that curiosity, creativity and experimentation are the qualities adults unlearn and organisations most need. It’s time to take play seriously.
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