I was recently invited by SixSigmaIQ.com to participate by giving a response to the question “How to beat the mid-project blues?” – looking at Lean as a project (or looking at projects in the midst of a Lean transformation. I’m…
On Thursday, January 20 2011, I’m giving a free webinar on Lean healthcare in conjunction with the sponsor, FormFast. You can read more about the webinar and what I’ll cover here or you can go right to the registration page.…
Hat tip to regular blog reader Andrew B. for letting me know that A17 of today’s New York Times was a full page ad placed by Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center, one of the leading examples of the use of…
I blogged about this a few weeks back, but Toyota has posted an outstanding short video about their work at a food bank, applying lean/TPS principles for social good. I love particularly how they emphasize that they didn’t come in…
On weekends, I like to share videos or fun stuff that gets us thinking. Today, I’m sharing a video with the legendary Dr. Russell Ackoff where he’s speaking at a session moderated by Clare Crawford-Mason, the producer of the outstanding…
Podcast #105 is a conversation with the co-authors of the new book Simple Excellence: Organizing and Aligning the Management Team in a Lean Transformation from Productivity Press. They are Adam Zak, a regular guest blogger here on Leanblog.org and Lean-focused…
If you search the web or Twitter for common terms like Lean or thought leaders like John Shook or James P. Womack, you might shake your head a bit at what you find. No, John Shook is not an outspoken…
Here is a new reader question, shared with permission (as always). The reader, who works at a hospital and health system, was asked by a colleague to provide a short definition of Lean that could be referred to on a…
I’ve finally started reading the new book by Charles Kenney, Transforming Health Care: Virginia Mason Medical Center’s Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience, and I wanted to post a mini-review of the first three chapters. You can also buy (cheaper…
I’ve written occasionally about Lean efforts in government (see a list of posts here). There are formal Lean government efforts at varying levels of maturity and formality in a number of states, including Iowa, Jacksonville, Michigan, and Paul Akers’ LeanAmerica.org…
Here’s a video produced by Jim Handyside, embedded here with his permission. More inspirational than educational, there are still some concepts related to Lean and Dr. Deming’s PDSA cycle… Create Value from jim handyside on Vimeo.
Here’s a nice story about the Toyota Supplier Support Center helping a charitable organization with their holiday operations: “Toyota applies production know-how to roll out holiday help for needy.” That link is broken, but this blog post talks about the…