All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Episode #46 is a chat with a good friend of the Lean Blog, Dean Bliss, a Lean Improvement Specialist with the Iowa Health System. Like myself, Dean made a transition in from manufacturing into health care a few years back,…
Johns Hopkins Gazette | June 9, 2008 From the online newsletter of William R. Brody, president of The Johns Hopkins University. He writes: First, a disclaimer: I don’t own any stock in Toyota and am not going to get any…
Grand Forks Herald | News in area business (scroll down) From a North Dakota newspaper… see if you can spot the part of the article that irritated me: “Training at Villa, Fair Meadow nursing homes A $279,483 grant from the…
Chrysler matches Toyota in efficiency – Detroit News I didn’t mean for this to become “beat up on the Detroit Three” week… this comes in waves. If you don’t like these posts, my short-term focus on the auto industry will…
Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Getting Lean in the ED Here is a story that includes examples of Lean improvements at Rockford Health System in Rockford, Illinois. “The simulation embodied the difference between a classroom lecture and a psycho-motor experience,” explains…
The Whig Standard – Ontario, CA I’m always curious when I see an article like this in the news about the late Dr. W. Edwards Deming. The article, from Kingston Ontario, Canada, doesn’t reference any local companies. What prompted the…
GM preps for new hires after buyouts This is a particularly sad story. We often debate the proper role of layoffs and headcount reductions in the Lean community. It’s “conventional wisdom” perhaps in the Lean movement that we should not…
Doctor takes pulse of Lutheran Health | The Journal Gazette: Here’s an article about Dr. Mike Schatzlein, Chief executive officer for Lutheran Health Network and Dupont Hospital, in Indiana. “Schatzlein believes “lean engineering” – like that employed by manufacturers to…
TL;DR: Toyota’s leadership philosophy isn’t about control — it’s about confirming processes, supporting people, and solving problems without blame. This quote from The Toyota Way 2001 shows how “thoughtful leaders” build quality and psychological safety into the system. A Powerful…
CJOnline / The Topeka Capital-Journal – Topeka Hallmark to absorb work Is there a Hallmark card that says, “Sorry you lost your job?” They do, sort of. When companies use Lean, it’s not uncommon to find extra capacity through efficiency…
asahi.com article – ENGLISH Interesting article from Japan… Toyota’s 40,000 factory workers in Japan are all engaged in kaizen, or continuous improvement, as a core part of the quality control (QC) activities. No surprise there… Lean and kaizen are tightly…
I’ve often done posts titled “A Lean Guy Reads the WSJ” — I would create a link to them, but I’m currently suffering a bit of an internet glitch (can anyone help?) I’m in the UK, but my hotel’s internet…
