All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
My co-author Joe Swartz and I are happy to announce that our book Healthcare Kaizen was named a recipient of the prestigious Shingo Professional Publication and Research Award. The award will be formally presented to the co-authors in early 2014…
Listen My guest for podcast #175 is Mike Taubitz of the firm Sustainable Lean and FDR Safety. Mike is a retired GM employee (including a stint as Global Safety Director) and we met at the Michigan Lean Consortium conference in 2011.…
Mistake-proofing vs. warning signs is not a close contest. Signs rely on people paying attention in the moment. Mistake-proofing removes the chance to fail in the first place. My friend Chad Walters has contributed guest posts to my blog (and…
Hosted by Steve Hoeft, author of the book Stories from My Sensei: Two Decades of Lessons Learned Implementing Toyota-Style Systems, I had a chance to visit Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas. With his permission (but without editorial review),…
TL;DR: Deming argued that the role of a manager of people is not judging performance, ranking employees, or enforcing authority–but creating trust, understanding systems, coaching for learning, and improving conditions so people can succeed. Dr. W. Edwards Deming‘s last book…
This video was uploaded to YouTube in the middle of 2012, but I just got tipped off to it. It’s an 11-minute video from Nemours, a children’s health care system. Watching this video that provides an overview of their improvement…
Listen My guest for podcast #174 is John Hunter, a long-time friend and fellow blogger – at his Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog and, more recently, as a blogger for the W. Edwards Deming Institute. John has recently published a…
A woman has the wrong side of her brain operated on. The headline features the hospital’s name and the surgeon’s name. It seems the “name, blame, and shame” process has begun. SSM Health Care St. Louis, Dr. Armond Levy face…
This week, May 6-13, is National Nurses Week. It’s always important, but it’s especially good to thank and recognize all of the talented, caring, hard working nurses out there. Nursing is important, difficult work. Sadly, the work is made more…
I’d read before that Apple’s supplier (Foxconn) was having trouble assembling iPhone 5s to Apple’s standards… but this article contains some shocking stats: “Apple Returns Millions of Defective iPhone 5 Smartphones.” Millions… 5 to 8 million defective phones returned. Foxconn…
I first held a public registration workshop based on the book “Healthcare Kaizen” in Denver last month. I’m going to repeat the workshop in the Dallas / Fort Worth area on the afternoon of June 25. Of course, being a…
Here’s a fascinating article: “How Toyota brought its famed manufacturing method to India.” The piece starts with a story about a classic Toyota management practice — “Genchi Genbutsu, or on-site inspection, which is at the core of the Toyota Production…
