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” posts or links I've set aside grows.
I'll try to do this more often — clearing out the backlog. What do you think of this type of post? Better to do a post like this on Mondays? Fridays? Saturday?
- A friend of the Lean Blog, Jean Cunningham, is giving a webinar on Lean and IS/IT systems on March 20 (via IndustryWeek)
- Following up on my surprising praise of American Airlines, they also made another improvement. You no longer have to, as the passenger, request for an upgrade TWO separate times for a given flight (in advance and then again at the airport). AA must have had some extra room in their IT budget last year to make these customer-friendly, time and motion-saving improvements.
- AA also got slapped by environmentalists for the “waste” of sending a flight across the pond with just five passengers on it. They also allegedly had empty oxygen tank on a flight that may have allegedly contributed to the death of a sick passenger. Allegedly. Major process error or greedy lawyer? Who knows.
- More companies are going Lean in Wisconsin, in the neighborhood of ThedaCare.
- A nice post from Matthew May: Elegant Solutions: Don't Pay for Grades
- GM CEO Rick Wagonner received a 33% raise after the new labor contract with the UAW was focused on slashing hourly rates. Not cool. Where is the leadership? The raise makes up for the 50% pay cut that Wagonner had taken previously in 2007, putting his salary back at $2.2M a year (plus incentive comp).
- The software company Intuit seems to be really into Lean and the Toyota Production System based on their job postings, including this one.
- Article by H. Thomas Johnson on the problems with “Lean Accounting.” “Management by Financial Targets Isn't Lean; American industry must erase lean accounting before it destroys lean management.” Wow, how do you really feel, Dr. Johnson?
- A virtual gemba walk of sorts with a retail store manager (from back before Christmas). What percentage of their time is spent on being a supervisor, manager, or leader and what percentage is just spent doing stuff or being a higher-paid “doer?”
Who can say “LeanBlog backlog” ten times fast?
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Hi Mark
I have a regular series in which I post tidbits like this. I call it “News From You” because I get a lot of tips of interest from visitors (in addition to what I find) that similarly, don’t or can’t justify a singular entry. It’s good for announcements, brief press release mentions, opportunities, related news articles and even some arcane funny things reflecting my personal interests (readers like to know more about the blogger). I usually post it on Friday, a light way to end the week; people peruse it all weekend because being lengthy, it takes awhile to go through it. It is easily my most popular series. In fact, if I go three weeks without posting it, I get email about it.
From a lean standpoint, the best way to compile it as they come up (daily), saving it to a WIP entry in ScribeFire (a firefox add on you’ll love if you’re not using it already).
Who can say Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog ten times fast?
That’s an interesting posting by Intuit, I’ve come across them looking for tangentially lean related people, but this is far more explicit.
Time to do some investigating, thanks for the post.