Blog Profile / Lean Blog
| URL : | http://www.leanblog.org/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Industries / Manufacturing | |
| Posts on Regator: | 2140 | |
| Posts / Week: | 7.9 | |
| Archived Since: | March 4, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
Lean Thinking (Finally?) Gets to Chrysler Windsor Plant?
This article appeared back in May… May of 2013… as in this year: “Windsor Chrysler workers reduce waste to be world class.” I mean, good for them, but they are just now getting to this (even if the effort started in 2009 or so)… in the auto industry? Many hospitals were applying Lean thinking before [...]
Shingo Research Award for “Healthcare Kaizen”!
My co-author Joe Swartz and I are happy to announce that our book Healthcare Kaizen was named a recipient of the prestigious Shingo Professional Publication and Research Award. The award will be formally presented to the co-authors in early 2014 at the Shingo Prize annual conference. A formal release will be coming out in a few weeks, but [...]
Podcast #175 – Mike Taubitz, Lean and Safety
Please upgrade your browser MP3 File (run time 28:17) My guest for podcast #175 is Mike Taubitz of the firm Sustainable Lean and FDR Safety. Mike is a retired GM employee (including a stint as Global Safety Director) and we met at the Michigan Lean Consortium conference in 2011. We quickly discovered our shared interest in Dr. [...]
My Guest Post @LeanBlitz – Baseball and Warnings
My friend Chad Walters has contributed guest posts to my blog (and has been a podcast guest) and I’m happy to return the favor with a guest post on his site: “Guest Post: A Clown Post About Bryce Harper and Warnings.” Since his “Lean Blitz” blog is sports themed, I wrote a post about warning [...]
A Lean Guy Visits Scott & White Hospital
Hosted by Steve Hoeft, author of the book Stories from My Sensei: Two Decades of Lessons Learned Implementing Toyota-Style Systems, I had a chance to visit Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas. With his permission (but without editorial review), I am sharing some stories from my visit to their excellent health system (which is [...]
Dr. Deming’s “Role of a Manager of People”
Dr. W. Edwards Deming‘s last book was The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education. In Chapter 5, Deming writes, “Transformation in any organization will take place under a leader. It will not be spontaneous.” A leader “possesses knowledge, personality, and persuasive power.” How does a leader accomplish transformation? The leader has a theory and “understands [...]
Excellent Continuous Improvement Video from Nemours Health System
This video was uploaded to YouTube in the middle of 2012, but I just got tipped off to it. It’s an 11-minute video from Nemours, a children’s health care system. Watching this video that provides an overview of their improvement approach might be a nice way to end the week: About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is [...]
Transcript of Podcast #164 – Rachelle Schultz, CEO of Winona Health
Occasionally, I have transcripts made from podcasts – and here is the transcript from Podcast #164 with Rachelle Schultz, CEO of Winona Health. Last year, Rachelle was also part of the CEO panel at the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. I’ll be at this year’s Summit, June 5-6 in Orlando, and I hope to see you [...]
Podcast #174 – John Hunter, “Management Matters”
Please upgrade your browser MP3 File (run time 37:46) My guest for podcast #174 is John Hunter, a long-time friend and fellow blogger – at his Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog and, more recently, as a blogger for the W. Edwards Deming Institute. John has recently published a book through LeanPub.com titled “Management Matters.” In [...]
Negligent People or a Bad System?
A woman has the wrong side of her brain operated on. The headline features the hospital’s name and the surgeon’s name. It seems the “name, blame, and shame” process has begun. SSM Health Care St. Louis, Dr. Armond Levy face lawsuit after wrong-side brain surgery In complex systems, like healthcare, is it overly simplistic to [...]
Remembering the “Second Victims” of Medical Errors
This week, May 6-13, is National Nurses Week. It’s always important, but it’s especially good to thank and recognize all of the talented, caring, hard working nurses out there. Nursing is important, difficult work. Sadly, the work is made more difficult than it should be due to bad processes and waste in the healthcare system. [...]
Apple Expected 10% Bad iPhones from Foxconn?
I’d read before that Apple’s supplier (Foxconn) was having trouble assembling iPhone 5s to Apple’s standards… but this article contains some shocking stats: “Apple Returns Millions of Defective iPhone 5 Smartphones.” Millions… 5 to 8 million defective phones returned. Foxconn has only been able to achieve an 80% quality rating… suggesting 2 in 10 have [...]
“Healthcare Kaizen” Public Workshop – June 25, Dallas / Fort Worth
I first held a public registration workshop based on the book “Healthcare Kaizen” in Denver last month. I’m going to repeat the workshop in the Dallas / Fort Worth area on the afternoon of June 25. Of course, being a practitioner of Kaizen, the workshop, while well-received, will be improved. It’s a fun afternoon of education, discussion, [...]
Toyota Brings TPS to India – The Same Familiar Principles
Here’s a fascinating article: “How Toyota brought its famed manufacturing method to India.” The piece starts with a story about a classic Toyota management practice — “Genchi Genbutsu, or on-site inspection, which is at the core of the Toyota Production System (TPS). Nakagawa, who has been a TPS practitioner for four decades, doesn’t believe in [...]
Podcast #173 – Alan Gleghorn, CEO of Christie Clinic
Please upgrade your browser MP3 File (run time 29:36) My guest for podcast #173 is Alan Gleghorn, CEO of Christie Clinic in central Illinois. Alan is one of the keynote presenters at the upcoming Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, to be held June 5-6, 2013 in Orlando. Alan has been CEO for 14 years, leading Christie [...]
Notes and References from my #LKNA13 Talk on Lean Healthcare
I had a chance to attend the Lean Kanban North America conference this week. It was a different “tribe” to be a part of, as the topics focused on software and IT settings, including agile development, “kanban” project management, and broader lean management topics. I gave a talk on “lean healthcare,” which is always an [...]
“Respect for People” in Healthcare
There’s an excellent blog post on the Virginia Mason Medical Center site: “Does respecting co-workers make patients safer?” As a leader in adopting and adapting Toyota management methods to healthcare, Virginia Mason understands that “respect for people” is a core part of this philosophy (as I’ve recently blogged about). Respectful behavior is an active choice [...]
Steve Blank’s HBR Cover Story on “The Lean Startup”
It’s free online (at least for the moment), so go check out Steve Blank’s Harvard Business Review cover story on “Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything.” Blank, who teaches at Berkeley and Stanford, is author of the excellent book “The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win.” His HBR piece is [...]
A Lean Guy Watches CBC’s “Rate My Hospital”
“Approximately 8 to 10% of the individuals who walk through our doors are being hurt by us,” says David Musyj, CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital. That’s one of the first things you hear in this CBC program “Rate My Hospital,” which aired earlier this month in Canada. See also this page on the investigative report. The [...]
What I’m Reading: Good News and Bad News on Patient Safety & Government Processes
Here’s the latest in my “What I’m Reading” series, where I clear out some of the inventory of articles I’ve read, but haven’t blogged about. NY crime lab improves efficiency with ‘Lean Six Sigma’ process It’s great to see Lean used to help improve government operations – productivity AND quality. If someone said you could [...]