Leadership versus Management
For a long time, we have been saying that leadership is one of the top reasons that lean efforts fail. Many have begun to figure this out. Lean is more than changing a few systems and training a few people.…
Month March 2008
Why Lean Culture Is So Hard to Copy — Jeffrey Liker on Toyota Culture (Part 2)
Jeffrey Liker explains why Lean culture is difficult to replicate and why most organizations never move beyond tools and events. Sustainable Lean requires long-term leadership commitment, stability, and deep people development–not quick fixes. Here is LeanBlog Podcast #39, once again…
Safety, Quality (Starts), Delivery (to the Plate), and Coaches
Coaches grousing over mandatory helmets : Rockies : The Rocky Mountain News Happy Opening Day to baseball fans out there. I grew up a huge Detroit Tigers fan (and a highlight was that championship 1984 season) and still like the…
Lean or ‘L.A.M.E.’ in a Hospital?
To build a better hospital, Virginia Mason takes lessons from Toyota plants A number of you emailed me about the above article that was featured in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about Virginia Mason Medical Center, a hospital that’s seen as one…
Linkedin.com Lean Networking
I don’t know how many of you are LinkedIn users, but I’ve found it to be a very helpful and professional networking tool. If you’re a member and want to connect on there, just let me know in your invite…
A Bright Green Future: Applying Lean to the Whole Planet
By Jason Turgeon: In my first post a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the tension between what I called “new” and “old” environmentalism. Not that I had expected to be the first to notice this tension, but I…
This UPS Ad Has it Backwards
Time to pick on UPS again (see the “UPS” link at the bottom of the post)… Has anyone else seen the UPS “whiteboard” ad (the ones with the annoying long-haired business-casual corporate hippie guy) that’s running during almost every NCAA…
A True Story, Best I Can Tell
I know this sounds like the stuff of urban legend, but I had someone tell me this story today, someone with no real interest in exaggerating, so I would tend to believe it. He was Canadian-born, but recently became a…
Cleaning Out the LeanBlog Backlog – March 27
Sometimes, I have a collection of news stories or links that I either don’t have time to blog about, assume you don’t have time to read about, or don’t really merit a full blog post. So my “WIP” of “draft”…
Dennis Quaid on 60 Minutes
Dennis Quaid Recounts Twins’ Drug Ordeal, Actor Tells 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft Medical Errors Kill Thousands – CBS News Did you see the actor Dennis Quaid on 60 Minutes last week? He talked about the sad case where his twin…
Kaizen and Theory of Constraints
I got a question from a reader and Theory of Constraints fan: “One of the topics that I’m struggling with is the relationship between Kaizen and TOC. When Norman Bodek talks about the savings people have gotten through Kaizen, does…
WWTD? Think!
I heard an interesting quote a while back (and I can’t remember the source!). The speaker said something to the effect of: “The more we try to copy Toyota, the less Toyota-like we are becoming.” In my Lean career, I’ve…
