All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
In my last post about KaiNexus in February, I gave an update about our funding, new CEO, and other changes. We now have a newly re-designed website. We hope you’ll check it out and give us feedback, by posting a…
Regular readers of the blog will know that one of my favorite topics is “Gaming the Numbers” (or “Gaming the System“). As Brian Joiner so brilliantly wrote, as shared by the late, great Peter Scholtes , there are three things people…
I am an unabashed fan of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, as you’re probably aware. For full disclosure, I was previously an employee of the Lean Enterprise Institute, a key partner of the Center. They have a lot of…
I’ve been amused by the Hotels.com “Captain Obvious” character and TV commercials. Hotels.com is, um, a site where you book hotels. Obvious. It’s often said that Lean is “common sense.” If that’s true, I guess it goes along with the…
On this blog, I write a lot about how to create a “Lean” culture where employees and customers are happy. Engaged employees lead to happy customers — and sustainable business success. It’s often instructive, however, to see or hear about…
Even if you’re not a racing fan, this video is worth watching. Side-by-side footage of Formula 1 pit stops from the 1950s and today offers a clear lesson in process improvement. The gains didn’t come from urgency or brute force.…
Sorry to get all Katie Couric on you, but I’m going to have a colonoscopy on Friday. I turned 40 last October and I have some family history that leads my doctor to get one done now rather than at…
It’s often said that Lean is about “doing more with less.” Historically, and practically speaking, it’s true. But, it’s a phrase that we should be careful about for a number of reasons. Looking back at the origins of the term…
Thanks to Dodge Communications for interviewing me for their blog: “Improving healthcare–there’s no instant pudding.” I was, of course, citing the late great Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his “There is no instant pudding” admonition. Hospitals and health systems are…
TL;DR: GM’s “Speak Up for Safety” program targets the wrong problem. Employees spoke up about the ignition switch for more than a decade. Leaders didn’t listen. The problem at GM wasn’t that employees didn’t speak up. An engineer flagged the…
When we lament why Lean hasn’t been more widely embraced as a new management model in healthcare (or other industries, for that matter), it’s good to ask “why?” We can identify gaps and propose countermeasures that might help solve this…
In the Kaizen process, we ask everyone–regardless of role or title–to identify problems (or opportunities) in their daily work. They’re encouraged to write down an idea that might solve the problem–or at least move things in the right direction. What’s…
