Randy Cohen – The Ethicist – New York Times The NY times ethicist column had a question about sourcing overseas: To afford to start a new business, I must use low-cost foreign manufacturers, some of whom likely maintain unsafe working…
Starbucks Gossip: Howard Schultz apparently hasn’t put the brakes on warm sandwiches Following up on last week’s post on Starbucks operations, I found an example of “gaming the numbers” in a different post. “Gaming the numbers” is a common phenomenon…
Jeffrey Liker’s new book on Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way is out. I’m getting a copy on Tuesday and hope to post a review ASAP. If anyone else is reading it, feel free to share…
I heard a great phrase, the Army liaison officer to the White House, Col. Chris Hughes, saying on cable news, “we teach our young soldiers and officers how to think, not what to think.” From a quick Google search, this…
Starbucks Gossip Blog – Open Thread Starbucks Replaces CEO with Chairman I’ve posted about Starbucks before – I believe they have people at headquarters learning about and starting with Lean, but I don’t know any details (any Starbucks employees reading…
Lean Directions: LEAN vs. LAME It’s a bit recursive to link to a post that links to me, but Mike Thelen (a frequent comment participant here) has a new online column through the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. He always has…
Just an update for those who were following the progress of my book on “Lean Hospitals.” It’s done! I have submitted the manuscript to the publisher (Productivity Press, a division of Taylor & Francis). UPDATE (7/9/08): The book is due…
“Use our minds first, not our money” | DailyKaizen I like the phrase, above, that Lee Fried used at the DailyKaizen blog. I think I like the phrase better than “creativity before capital.” Same idea, but a slightly different way…
New England Peptide Implements Lean Manufacturing Here is an article about what might seem like a very untraditional industry using Lean — biotech. It’s a favorite excuse in almost any industry to say “we’re different,” but those who want to…
Updated: Changed the title to better reflect what the comments have turned into — general ideas for improving the blog. Thanks for your feedback! Reader feedback time — I just changed this back so comments (reading and entering) are done…
The Informed Patient – WSJ.com Good column in the WSJ today, as always, from Laura Landro. She writes about the need for patients to take an active role in their care and their own safety. I’ll try to keep with…
To borrow a theme from Kevin Meyer, here’s some “fun with statistics,” or at least this kind of thing is fun to me, being a big proponent of Statistical Process Control (SPC) and the methods taught by Deming and Wheeler…
