Tag: Audio

What We’re Looking Forward to Learning at the Toyota Plant Tour

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Tomorrow, with the entire KaiNexus team, I'm going to visit the Toyota truck plant in San Antonio, the plant referred TMMTX. The 15 of us will be there in closed toed shoes and all other required clothing to learn about the Toyota Production System, Kaizen (continuous improvement), and Lean. I've blogged about it on the KaiNexus blog. I asked the KaiNexus team to say a little bit about what they hope to learn in the visit and you can read their comments it here. In this post, I share a 24-minute tour preview webinar that I put together, links to past tour blog posts, and more.

Looking for “Champions of Change” in Healthcare Supply Chains and Beyond

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Who are the "champions of change" in your organization? Is your CEO a champion of change? How many of your front-line managers and staff...

Of Course Doctors Hate Being Excluded From Attempts to Improve

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Thanks to those of you who sent me this HBR article: Doctors Feel Excluded from Health Care Value Efforts Long story short... brought to you by...

Come Join Me to Study Lean & Kaizen for Healthcare: Japan...

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In the past year or two, it seems like I have heard more about people and organizations leading Lean study trips to Japan. This...

[Updated] Monday’s Solar Eclipse: Supply Chain Challenges and Eye Safety Considerations

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Any rare event creates a number of challenges when it comes to manufacturing and supply chains. We're seeing a pretty historic "spike" in demand for products like the inexpensive glasses that allow one to safety view the eclipse (our friends in the totality zone can look at the totally-eclipsed sun safely, but that's the only time). You could call it "supply chain challenges" or a "lack of planning on my part," but I cannot find eclipse glasses anywhere. There are MANY articles online about this widespread problem -- it's been impossible to buy "eclipse glasses" anywhere. Why is this? What could have been done?

Does Being Giddy With Knowledge About Wine or Lean Cause Problems?

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I enjoy "gemba visits" (of sorts) to wineries and vacations often focus on this walking, tasting, and learning. I usually read the wine column that's...

The Conundrum that is Dr. Deming on Metrics, Measures, and Data

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There are Dr. W. Edwards Deming quotes that get thrown around... one that sounds incredibly "pro-data" and others that say data and measures are not the only thing... which is it? How do you reconcile that?

Imitation as a Path to Innovation — If You Know What...

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At the recent Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, there were thought provoking presentations... and we had many discussions about the role of incremental improvement vs. redesign or transformation. And, lots of discussions about imitating vs. innovating... so I explore those themes in this post.

Do the Words Matter on a Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) Card?

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If we're going to practice Kaizen (continuous improvement), do the words matter? Should we call it a Kaizen Card or something else? Do we start with a "problem" or something else? Are we writing down "ideas" or "countermeasures?" Does it matter?

A Prototype For My “Two-Bin Hand Sanitizer” Concept

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Does your healthcare organization struggle with keeping hand sanitizer dispensers full? Let me know what you think of this "two-bin kanban" system prototype from a vendor that might more forward on this...

A Lesson From Toyota: Thanking Employees for Pointing Out Problems

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Thanks to Lean Frontiers for sharing a story from Mike Hoseus on LinkedIn. Mike is, of course, co-author of the excellent book Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way (written with Jeff Liker, who I just learned is retiring from the University of Michigan... more on that soon).

The Good and the Bad of the United CEO’s Follow Up...

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It's good that United's CEO has taken responsibility for system problems. It's great that they are changing some policies. But why does he say they don't have a culture problem if employees aren't empowered? That sounds like "culture" and a "problem" to me.