All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Today’s episode #259 is Part 2 of a discussion I started with Steve Bera in episode #256. Steve was one of the original 16 “NUMMI Commandos” that General Motors sent to work with Toyota in the 1980s, as discussed in the…
I’m always happy to hear current-day Toyota leaders (like Jamie Bonini) or recent Toyota leaders (like Gary Convis) share perspectives on leadership. It’s not that Toyota’s perfect, but we’re hearing about Lean concepts “straight from the source,” in a way.…
This article caught my eye at Becker’s Hospital Review: We asked 13 physicians what they really think of their hospital Even though organizations do formal physician and staff satisfaction surveys, the questions posed here is one that we should ask people frequently…
I want to preface this post by saying it’s mostly about questions, not answers. I’ve had many readers and acquaintances ask me about what’s been going on at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. The short answer is: “I don’t…
The BBC radio program “The Science Hour” recently aired a program with a segment where an unexpected person (Dr. Kevin Fong) to an unexpected place (UCLA Harbor Medical Center) to look into “Lean.” You might remember UCLA Harbor from my…
Thanks to Arena Simulation Software for asking me to write this article for their regular customer newsletter: “Testing Lean Changes, Small or Large“ The article is freely available to any reader: Two short excerpts from the article: “Lean is about teams…
Joining me for Episode #258 is a many times returning guest, Jim Huntzinger, the President and Founder of Lean Frontiers (check out Episodes 8, 15, 33, 196, and 251, his with Russ Scaffede). Jim has written two eBooks, The Roots of Lean: Training Within Industry: The…
Continuing to go through my notes, picking up from my last post… Visuals The presenter said something that’s certainly a familiar challenge with facilities here in the U.S.: ‘”Patients often get lost due to a lack of good signs.” One…
I don't get the whole Pokémon thing. But how does the wildly popular Pokémon Go game make me thing of Lean and Kaizen - leaders need to get out of their offices, go out and search for improvement opportunities! Gotta catch 'em all! ...
My guest for episode #257 is somebody I’ve known for a while in the Lean healthcare community, Tania Lyon. She’s the Director of Organizational Performance Improvement at St. Clair Hospital in Pittsburgh. She has a PhD in sociology (like Jeff Liker,…
Continuing from Part 1 of my post about my first day of my first China trip, I’d like to share more about the Lean healthcare conference and presentations that took place. In the next presentation from a Chinese hospital, the…
Reminder – I’ll be a guest for an 8- to 10-minute video interview on the show Quality Digest Live, today at 2 pm ET. Click here to watch live or watch live via YouTube (it will also be available as a recording).…
