Mark Graban
A Nice Kaizen Example from the PACU
"Kaizen" is a Japanese word that means "change for the better" in the context of ongoing "continuous improvement." The so-called "kaizen event," a weeklong...
A Lean Lesson from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As we commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, this quote caught my eye from one of Dr. King's Letters from a Birmingham...
A Lean Guy Watches Moneyball
When it first came out, I was a big fan of Michael Lewis' book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game about the Oakland...
Welcome to a New Sponsor: CreativeSafetySupply.com
I always like to give a brief shout out to new sponsors when I have them. I have a brand new sponsor, starting out...
Suggestion Boxes are Disliked & Ineffective Around the World
I love employee ideas and continuous improvement, but I really dislike suggestion boxes. As I've said, they are well intended, but the whole suggestion...
Steve Jobs as a Model Leader? As a Manufacturing Leader?
As I wrote about after his death, I am appreciative of the products and services that Steve Jobs brought to the world. That said,...
An Inc. “Best Small Company Workplace” & Their Lean Culture
As I was cleaning out a pile of stuff in my office, I found an unread issue of Inc. magazine from June 2011. One...
Kaizen Videos from a Franciscan “Kaizeneer”
My Healthcare Kaizen co-author Joe Swartz works in Indianapolis in the Franciscan St. Francis Health System. They use the term "kaizeneer" to describe those...
#Lean Blog Updates: 7 Years of Blogging, eBook & Podcasts on...
Here are a few updates about my blog and my podcasts. For one, I've now been blogging for seven years now. I'll write a...
This Commercial is Not Exactly the “Five Whys”
If you're watching college football bowls or the NFL playoffs, it's hard not to see this commercial from DirecTV. It's not exactly the reverse...
Lean in Your Life – Preventing Health Problems with Technology
Continuing this first week of the year's theme of using Lean principles to improve our lives, I'm going to write about two pieces of...
Book Review: One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen...
While doing research for my upcoming book on "Healthcare Kaizen," I found two books that touched on kaizen-style continuous improvement in our everyday lives....