All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
A nurse executive posted on LinkedIn this week about what she called “assembly-line medicine.” She was describing an ambulatory surgery center where she once worked, where physicians booked roughly 80 percent of the day’s procedures into a six-hour window. Then…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
A close family member spent time in a hospital ICU recently. The clinical care, as far as I could tell, was excellent. The nurses were attentive. The physicians explained things clearly, and more than once. I’m grateful, and I don’t…
Most Lean programs treat standardized work and kaizen as opposites. Standardized work is the rigid part. Kaizen is the creative part. One constrains, the other improves. Pick whichever side you prefer and argue with the other camp at the next…
The kaizen board held a couple dozen sheets. Each one numbered, each one stamped “jisshi-zumi” — already done. A board full of carried-out improvements is a strong sign in any factory, in any country. But that wasn’t the part that…
Twenty years ago this month, I recorded the first episode of Lean Blog Interviews. My guest was Norman Bodek, who spent decades studying Toyota and introducing American audiences to the work of people, including Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo. I’m…
I’ve been pulling together a slightly updated edition of my eBook collecting the sports-related posts from this blog. The earliest post in it is from October 2005. The most recent is from January 2017. Going back through twelve years of…
Twenty years ago, on July 16, 2006, the Lean Blog Podcast began with a conversation with Norman Bodek. Norman was my friend and mentor–and the person who suggested that I start doing audio interviews in the first place. What began…
Sean Dow was on the 22nd floor of a Manhattan high-rise last week, working on the building’s sprinkler system, when he noticed something wrong with the concrete slab: cracks where cracks don’t belong. The building is Pfizer’s former headquarters on…
An executive says, after hearing about a major quality defect: “You said we solved that. Why’d the problem come back???” That might sound like an attempt at accountability. But it’s not necessarily Lean thinking. The “Study” step of the Plan-Do-Study-Adjust…
Someone walks into your office and says, “We have a problem.” Notice what your body does before your brain catches up. A small tightening. A breath you take to steady yourself. Maybe your face does something you didn’t authorize. All…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
