All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
In our Healthcare Kaizen books, Joe Swartz and I have tried to make the case that the Kaizen style of continuous improvement isn’t just a nice way to treat employees… it’s smart business and it’s good for patients. It’s a practical…
My guest for episode #206 is Ed Pound, co-author of the book Factory Physics for Managers: How Leaders Improve Performance in a Post-Lean Six Sigma World that was released in April. It is, of course, a new version of the original Factory…
Hospital CEOs are busy people, to say the least, but a big part of their leadership role includes communication with employees, physicians, and the community. That’s one reason I am always excited to see CEOs reach out directly to people…
Today’s post is published over on LinkedIn, as part of the “Influencers’ program that I’m a part of. Kermit the Frog & Lean Management: How Could Something So Right Feel So Wrong? It’s a silly piece (in honor of “Muppets…
I’m an avid book buyer, book reader, and published book author. Amazon is one of my favorite places to shop, not just for books. I first bought a book from Amazon back in 1997, right before I went to MIT. There…
Many healthcare organizations are non-profits. They provide some “community benefit” in terms of charity care (as do for-profit healthcare organizations). Then, there are healthcare organizations that are very charity focused, where providing free care and social services is their primary…
Today’s post is a link to my article written for the LinkedIn “Influencers” series: Why Every Patient Deserves the Care & Caution that Surrounds the American Ebola Patients Please post a comment here or on LinkedIn (there’s likely to be…
My blog will turn 10 years old in February 2015. You’re probably either thinking, “Wow, that’s awesome!” or “Get a life, dude.” :-) Here’s a look back at some of the posts from August 6 in past years… what was…
New KaiNexus Webinar – 8/21 Dr. Greg Jacobson and I are doing another new webinar in a few weeks: “Getting Started with Continuous Improvement: Lessons and Reflections“ Click to view the recording! Greg and I will share some of our…
In case you missed it, see Saturday’s post: “Why Toyota is Eliminating the Andon Cord from its Factories.” As I occasionally do, today’s post is one where I’m going to close out some open browser tabs and post links to…
TL;DR: Toyota isn’t abandoning the Andon system–it’s evolving it. Switching from cords to buttons improves safety and usability, while keeping the core Lean principle intact: speak up, respond fast, and fix problems where they occur. Over the past decade, Toyota…
What happens when a mistake is made in your organization? How do you react when an error occurs? A lab specimen gets mislabeled. The wrong product is shipped to the wrong customer. A patient is injected with the wrong medication.…
