All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Many healthcare providers are driven by a deep commitment to the mission of healthcare. Some refer to it as a calling. The New York Times suggests that the healthcare industry exploits the goodwill and commitment…
Speaking of mistakes, the cover image I selected for today’s post reminds of traveling this past Monday. At DFW airport, a company was giving away samples of their new variety of gum. That might have been the gum (chewed by…
Hat tip to Stan Feingold from StoreSMART (a Lean Blog sponsor) for sending me this article: Bob Lutz Talks Panel Gaps, Tesla, and Why Every Detail Matters — Getting it right starts at the top. Bob Lutz is a legend…
TL;DR: Early baseball teams experimented with position-specific uniforms, quickly learned it created confusion, and abandoned the idea. It’s a classic example of Plan-Do-Study-Adjust–small tests, fast learning, and no stubborn attachment to a bad idea. As someone who grew up as…
Last week was the 10th annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. I’ve had the opportunity to take part in all ten of them, going back to my days as an employee of the Lean Enterprise Institute, who used to partner with…
TL;DR: Red-amber-green (RAG) dashboards mislead leaders by turning random variation into “red” crises that trigger overreaction and explanation-seeking. The BMJ shows that most performance data reflects normal system behavior, not meaningful change. Process Behavior Charts (control charts) help leaders distinguish…
tl;dr: Toyota’s Takaoka #2 line shows how flexibility and Kaizen go hand-in-hand. With rapid, low-cost changeovers, worker-driven improvements, and a focus on customer needs, the line adapts to demand without sacrificing quality–a reminder that agility is built into the culture,…
TL;DR: Numbers don’t make decisions–people do. Metrics that look “good” or “bad” can be dangerously misleading when leaders ignore context, system limits, and natural variation. The Chernobyl disaster shows what happens when incomplete data, fear of speaking up, and rigid…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Healthcare innovation is prone to continuous pilots of improvements that are already proven and a half-hearted embrace of meaningful change. Sachin Jain, CEO of CareMore Health provides us with a sense of urgency and duty to close…
TL;DR: Lean improvement depends on asking both “why?” and “why not?” Leaders who challenge assumptions and refuse to accept “we’ve always done it this way” unlock innovation in patient safety, flow, and quality. Asking “why not?” turns barriers into design…
My guest for Episode #343 of the podcast is Amanda Mewborn, an executive director of project management for Piedmont Health. I’ve known Amanda through the Society for Health Systems and she’s one of the very small number of people I…
tl;dr If a Process Behavior Chart shows many points outside the limits, the issue is often the data–not the chart. Plotting moving averages instead of actual data distorts variation and creates false signals. Process Behavior Charts work best with raw,…
