All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
tl;dr: Most “Lean Six Sigma” programs teach a thin layer of Lean tools on top of a heavily Six Sigma-centric curriculum. If you want real Lean thinking, culture, and leadership, this format rarely delivers it. I had a conversation recently…
In some “Kaizen Kickoff” coaching that I’ve been doing recently, I’ve been spending time with managers and other leaders as they interact with nurses and other staff members with the goal of finding problems, opportunities for improvement, and ideas. One…
I’ve partnered up with the Ohio-based non-profit consulting group, TechSolve, over the past few years in some of their Lean healthcare promotions efforts, recently teaching some classes with them on Lean and Kaizen in healthcare. One of their team members,…
Joining me for episode #187 is Joe Swartz, my friend and esteemed co-author of our books Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements and The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen: Leadership for a Continuously Learning and Improving Organization.…
While I’d be the first to admit that my writing is not perfect and I certainly need a copy editor for my books, I have a bit of a reputation as a “grammar cop” amongst co-workers in previous jobs. I…
Mark’s Note: Today’s post is by a colleague from The Netherlands, Erwin Haas. Erwin is a leader in a Dutch consulting firm, NextChange, a formal partner of KaiNexus. I am the chief improvement officer at KaiNexus. By Erwin Haas A…
TL;DR: This post revisits the origins of lean production through John Krafcik’s 1988 article, reflecting on how lean manufacturing began as an integrated management system rooted in culture, leadership, and respect for people–and why those foundations still matter more than…
Eiji Toyoda, a key figure in the growth and expansion of Toyota and the Toyota Production System practices has passed away this week, just past his 100th birthday. His death has received fairly prominent coverage in the business press, including:…
My guest for episode #186 is my friend Jon Miller, CEO of Kaizen Institute and a long-time blogger at Gemba Panta Rei. Today, we’re talking about his upcoming book, Creating a Kaizen Culture: Align the Organization, Achieve Breakthrough Results, and…
Hi, this is Dr. Les Muda, the world’s first (and only) Lean healthcare comedian, taking over Mark’s blog today for a guest post about a new product I am very excited about – the Apple iPhone 5S. First off, I…
In the past few years, I’ve heard of the “Work-Out” process that has origins at GE. This consultant’s website gives a good overview and it squares up with what I’ve been reading in the book The GE Work-Out : How…
When I teach and coach people on the “Kaizen” style of continuous improvement, I emphasize that what I’m teaching them isn’t perfect and it’s not to be carved in stone. People can continuous improve their continuous improvement process in so…
