How to Poka Yoke This?
I received an email from an MBA student in Turkey (this truly is a global lean community). The emailer asked me a question (which I posting here with permission): I am doing research for my project at school. I noticed…
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All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
News Flash: NYT Points out that GM is Slow
Jump-Start or New Battery for G.M.? – New York Times Interesting point made by the New York Times about GM and Nissan-Renault. Most everyone has focused on cost-cutting opportunities, but the writer here highlights the cultural and/or operational differences that…
New Lean Healthcare Blog
DailyKaizen I don’t know if it’s fair to call the DailyKaizen site a “lean healthcare” blog, I think we can all learn from it as another “lean blog.” This is a blog that had been private within a health system…
Business Week and Lean Myths
No One Does Lean Like The Japanese – Business Week This article has some nice case study examples of how Matsushita is using lean principles to turn their business around. But, this article compounds some of the usual lean myths.…
Spelling Equals Standard Work
Push for simpler spelling persists This idea iz stoopid. You can’t haf peepole saying “this speling works beter for mee”. Spelling properly is a form of standard work. Try reading the article I’ve linked to. The author is being cute…
What Lean Looks Like In Arabic
lean.persianblog.com Here is a blog that links to mine. Can anyone read or translate this for me? Are there Arabic equivalents of words like “muda”, “kaizen”, and “poka yoke?” Update: Thanks to Jon Miller for pointing out that the script…
"Lean and Mean" Army? Not Really
TIME.com: Lean and Mean — Jul 10, 2006 — Page 1 So the article isn’t as bad as I thought given the headline. A better headline for my posting here would have been: “Lean and Mean” Army? Lean, But Not…
"Lean and Mean?" Sir, No, Sir!
TIME.com: Lean and Mean — Jul 10, 2006 — Page 1 I haven’t had time to read this yet, but I’ll invite your comments. I’ll add comments when I have a chance to read and digest this. My first instinct…
Being Careful Isn’t Enough, Particularly in Pathology
One of the core ideas of the Toyota Production System is the recognition that people are indeed human and are therefore fallible (part of the “respect for humanity” tenet of TPS). No amount of “be careful” warnings will prevent all…
Cheaters Never Prosper?
No, this isn’t a commentary on Ken Lay’s death today, although I was surprised to hear he was a vacation home in Aspen awaiting sentencing when he died of a massive heart attack. I thought he was broke and convicted,…
More on CEO Pay
FORTUNE: The real CEO pay problem – July 10, 2006 When even FORTUNE Magazine is writing about excessive CEO pay, you know you have a problem. Although I get the impression that the CEO’s view it as more of a…
How Handoffs Can Kill
Hospitals combat errors at the ‘hand-off’ I’ve blogged before about how handoffs in a process create opportunities for errors. I wrote about a trivial situation where I got the wrong muffin and Seth Godin wrote about getting the right breakfast…
