Lean Hospitals Survey
In support of the book I am writing, I am conducting a survey of Hospital organizations and their views and experiences with Lean. The survey will be distributed through some more formal channels, but I also wanted to post it…
Month July 2007
Bad Systems in the News: Northwest
NWA blames pilot absences: Detroit Free Press Updated: NWA calls back all its pilots as cancellations mount In another example of media/management blaming, Northwest Airlines is blaming pilots for forcing the airline into canceling flights at the end of July.…
Not Cutting Their Way to Greatness
CEO’s cost cuts feared too steep Radio Shack’s best days are long behind them, apparently (that’s not exactly breaking news). The most recent CEO, “turnaround” specialist Julian Day, has been there a year and the local paper (RS is HQ-ed…
Lean Success in Michigan
Hiring, new floor plan help spur manufacturer – MLive.com Here’s a story about a small Michigan manufacturer that is using Lean as part of their growth strategy, as opposed to those who use it strictly for cost cutting in a…
Bad Systems in the News: NBA
Last week, I saw a number of news stories that caught my eye, non-manufacturing stories about systems (or lack thereof) and blame. What do the Transportation Safety Administration, the National Basketball Association, Detroit Public Schools and Northwest Airlines have in…
Norman Bodek on the First Anniversary of the Podcast, Gantt, and the Ninth Waste
LeanBlog Podcast #28 features our friend and frequent guest, Norman Bodek, noted lean author, consultant, and President of PCS Press. This also celebrates the one-year anniversary of the Podcast, which featured Norman as our first guest. As I’ve given him…
Bad Systems in the News: Detroit Public Schools
I’ve fallen behind in my blogging the past few days, but I’ll be back on track. I saw a number of news stories that did catch my eye, non-manufacturing stories about systems (or lack thereof) and blame. What do the…
Reader Question: Role of a Company President?
Since we’ve been talking about leadership and Lean, it’s coincidence that I got this email from a reader. I’ll let the blog readers answer this Posted with permission: I am [name withheld], 25yrs old, working for a small manufacturing firm…
New Sponsor: LeanSupermarket.com
I’d like to welcome a new sponsor, the Lean Supermarket (www.leansupermarket.com). It’s a startup online store that offers a wide range of supplies for your Lean implementation efforts, run by an active lean practitioner. The owner of the site, Brent…
Let’s Try a "5 Whys" Survey
Following up on the LEI survey that was released and discussed here, I’ve been talking with a few folks offline about what the “root causes” really are for Lean struggles. Instead of pointing at “who?” what would we find if…
“No fault, just an accident”
Explosions rock downtown Dallas | Latest News | WFAA.com Working from home with this news on in the background, the massive gas cylinder explosions at a business near downtown Dallas, about 30 miles from my home. What jumped out at…
What About The Other Car Makers?
by Dan Markovitz This blog has commented (here and here) on the WSJ’s rush to predict the folly of just-in-time manufacturing in the wake of the earthquake last week that crippled Japanese auto production. (“Blame it on kanban, the just-in-time…
