Year 2007

Are YOU Looking to Get Started?

Shop Management Lean Manufacturing – The Lean Question: How Soon Can I Get Started? – 04/07 From the not-so-widely read “Moldmaking Technology” magazine (no offense to mold makers)… Here’s a good “get going” kick-in-the-butt for those who are only considering…

Standard Work for Ice Cream

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No, not for home consumption, but I ended up with a 3 gallon tub of ice cream (used for a Lean batching vs single-piece flow demonstration in a work setting). I was a bit surprised to see such specific “standard…

Reminder: Contest Ending May 18

Here’s an update on the current LeanBlog Contest on visual management. There are three outstanding entries so far, ranging from a factory, a healthcare setting, and a home setting (visual methods for error proofing a pet’s daily shots). This really…

Is There "Standard Work" for Clinical Care?

Marketplace: Better health care through better information This commentator points out some shocking waste in the healthcare system: Although cancer doctors work long hours, they still fail, frequently, to provide therapies the medical evidence says the patient needs. Sometimes the…

We Need "Creativity Before Capital" in Hospitals

RFID tracks hospital’s devices Dallas Morning News News for Dallas, Texas Business This article was in the Dallas paper a week ago. It talks about a local hospital that is implementing fancy cabinets and an RFID tracking system for inventory…

VA Pittsburgh Definition of TPS

VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Toyota Production System –> Dead Link Here is a nice succinct definition of the Veteran’s Affairs hospital production system in Pittsburgh. It draws on the work of Spear and Bowen and their “Decoding the DNA” definition…

Latest "Leading Lean" Columns

Here are the two most recent “Leading Lean” columns from Jamie Flinchbaugh: April 2007: Consistency Erodes Skepticism Here, Jamie maps out “a route through the terrain of skepticism” that we often face as Lean change agents. May 2007: Forging Your…