Monthly Archives: October 2010

Guest Post: Why is Healthcare Not Adopting Lean Fast Enough?

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Mark's note: Today's guest post is from Tony Manos (bio at the end of the post): I was talking with a hospital CEO last week...

The Article I *Wish* I Had Read about Starbucks in Yesterday’s WSJ

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For a more traditional approach to this topic, check out this alternative post, "Real Lean at Starbucks or Tayloristic Industrial Engineering?". Below is the more...

Is it “Real Lean” at Starbucks or “Tayloristic Industrial Engineering”?

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Once again, the WSJ has written about Lean at Starbucks (see my last post "Controversy over New Standardized Work at Some Starbucks Stores") in...

From Workshop Discussion at LEI – What Lean Is and What Lean Is Not

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The last two days, I've been facilitating my LEI workshop called "Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare." We had a great group and had a...

A Breath of Lean Positivity – Paul Akers and FastCap

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I had an amazing conversation on Saturday with Paul Akers (pictured at left), the founder and president of FastCap, a company in Washington, a...

Podcast #99 – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development

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For episode #99 of the podcast, I'm talking with the authors of the book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to...

The CEO as 24×7 Expeditor? That’s Not Good

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The traditional model of business leadership has the CEO as the most important decision maker. Generally, the higher up you go, leaders make more...

Tom Peters Asks Where the Radicals Are in Healthcare

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Here's a great essay from Tom Peters, a chapter from his book The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE. The email that was...

Another Annual Update on a New Zealand Emergency Department

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It seems to be an annual event to see a news story about a New Zealand emergency department, Dunedin Hospital (not pictured at left)...

A Favorite Client: “The Synthesizer”

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I had a good long chat with a former client (from my J&J days) the other day. I call him "The Synthesizer," and no...

Watching Some Bad Online Lean Training, or “L.A.M.E.” Training

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I don't often do a "cranky blog post" but Ive got a head cold (as I write this on 9/30) and I've gotten sucked...

Consulting Case Studies Need Statistical Validity

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One of the books that's had the biggest impact on my work is Donald Wheeler's Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos. It's the...