Want to stop disease from spreading? Open a window – Yahoo! News What works best for stopping the spread of disease in a hospital? Negative pressure rooms (expensive, hard to maintain) Opening windows (cheap!) The low-tech solution could help prevent…
Star-Telegram | 03/01/2007 | Long time, no see: Post offices hide their clocks I can only imagine the discussion behind this move by the US Postal Service: Manager 1: “Customers are complaining the lines are too long.” Manager 2: “OK,…
Winding Road » Archive » Japan Report: Toyota To Build 8th Plant In MS, But We Hear No. 9 Is Already In The Works… Rumors are already going around about the NEXT factory that Toyota will build in North America.…
Recently, I spent a few days doing some current state assessment work with a healthcare billing environment. I spent my time shadowing employees, observing the process, looking for waste, and asking them about problems they face in the course of…
WSJ Article: Faltering Family M.D.s Get Technology Lifeline While I was skeptical of Intel’s planned tablet PC for nurses, I’m much more positive in my first reaction to this WSJ article about small (or single MD) physician practices using technology…
It’s official, that Toyota has selected a site near Tupelo, Mississippi for their next U.S. factory (Google News search here). Thanks to Pete Abilla, he sent links to three NPR stories from this morning. Mississippi Wins Battle for Toyota Plant…
I was sent a nice “gemba report” essay from a UK lean healthcare consultant, Andrew Castle. Andrew consults for the UK National Health Service and came with a group to tour two American sites: Toyota Industrial Equipment (forktruck manufacturing in…
For some context, here are my complaints about UPS ads from earlier today and from last year. Thanks to the “create your own whiteboard” feature on the UPS website, I created this Lean Message. Check it out: Click this link…
tl;dr: The andon cord isn’t a tool–it’s a trust signal. Toyota’s thousands of line stops reflect psychological safety and leadership support. Ford’s rare pulls reflected fear and mistrust. Lean succeeds or fails on culture, not mechanics. In 2007, a BBC…
Toyota said to build plant in Mississippi – Feb. 27, 2007 Looks like Toyota’s rumored U.S. expansion continues. Toyota is under pressure to boost production in the region to avoid potential political fallout from a jump in the number of…
The UPS Whiteboard. What Can Brown Do For You? These “whiteboard” ads with the guy with the long hair (Mark Fields would be proud!) drawing out logistics concepts on a whiteboard are pretty ubiquitous, especially during news shows and sporting…
Mullet or not, Fields’ hair is talk of the auto industry Mullet-wearing Ford exec plans to keep it I know it’s juvenile of me to point out the Mark Fields hockey hair and I was good about not mentioning it…
