All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Following up the DirecTV service call that I blogged about this morning, there was some clear, obvious waste that could have been avoided through better training. It makes you wonder how many billions of dollars are wasted across the country…
The other day, I had a DirecTV service tech coming to the house to make a repair (their customer service has been FAR better than my recent experiences with Verizon, I’m happy to say). I received a “robo-call” the day…
Yesterday, my blog post featured a YouTube video that Everett Clinic was kind enough to share with the world, showing their Daily Huddle process (“Video of a Daily Huddle at Everett Clinic“). In that post, I alluded to there being…
TL;DR: Effective daily huddles are short, visual, two-way conversations held in the gemba–focused on safety, performance, and surfacing issues, not solving them on the spot. A key cultural aspect of Lean is the “daily huddle.” Sure, this practice isn’t exclusive…
Updated: an embedded player with the recording my appearance can be found at the bottom of this post. I appeared on Steve Wilson’s live internet radio show, where we talked about the Healthcare Value Leaders Network and what we (and…
Here’s a great article with a number of quotes from William Considine, the CEO of Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio. The article, from the Akron/Canton Smart Business publication is titled “William Considine embraces Lean Six Sigma to improve Akron Children’s…
Thanks to Jeff, author of the book Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean? for posting a 5-question Q&A with me on his blog. Check it out: Featured Lean Thinker: Mark Graban I don’t think you can post comments there,…
There are lots of places online where people can ask questions about Lean, such as the LEI forums and numerous LinkedIn groups. I saw one question in a LinkedIn group that really gave me pause… I won’t use her name…
Mark’s note: You may recognize the author of this guest post, Andrew Castle, as a previous contributor and frequent commenter on my blog. I was offered a press pass to a lean event in the UK, an invite I was…
Our guest for Episode #96 is Pascal Dennis of Lean Pathways, Inc. Pascal is a faculty member with the Lean Enterprise Institute and he’s the author of the books: Lean Production Simplified, Andy & Me: Crisis And Transformation On The…
If your goal is long wait times and frustrated customers, design your system for 100% utilization. Whether it’s airlines, call centers, or healthcare, the same predictable pattern emerges: full capacity destroys flow. Drawing on queuing theory, Factory Physics, and Lean…
One wouldn’t expect to find a depiction of a hospital setting with poor “5S” practices on the show Family Guy – of course, depending on your personality and sense of humor, you might not expect to find anything of value…
