All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
As I posted recently on LinkedIn, here are some photos and a story from years ago. Signs are not mistake-proofing. Signs are not adequate process controls. “Please do not park stretchers or carts in the hallway.” I’m quite certain that…
At the recent Healthcare Systems Process Improvement conference, David B. Reid, P.E. from Chick-fil-A Restaurants brought up a very interesting point about the batch size for their pressure cookers. They don’t cook one piece of chicken at a time that…
Jeff Liker explains how Toyota leaders at every level are expected to respond when something goes wrong — and why most other companies default to blame instead. We also dig into the real story behind Ford’s failed andon cord rollout…
The following material was cut from my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. It just didn’t fit the flow of how the book turned out. You’ll hear a story from one of…
2024 Preface: I’m re-posting this blog post from 2012 about Lean at Boeing. The WSJ headline emphasizes “speed up,” but that could be the fault of their editors not realizing that Lean means quality and flow go hand in hand.…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make…
TL;DR: Continuous improvement only takes root when psychological safety and problem-solving exist together. Leaders who replace blame with learning unlock better performance, innovation, and results. “At least two of the major things that are required for continuous improvement to take…
I loved a recent New York Times article about Chef Gordon Ramsay, including this part: “Ramsay said that when he makes a mistake, he owns up to it. He has been candid about the misjudgments that led to the closure…
As a previous keynote speaker at this event, and as a friend and colleague of KaiNexus CEO Dr. Greg Jacobson, I was very excited to learn that he will be one of the keynote speakers at next week’s event. It’s…
As I recently shared on LinkedIn, I really appreciated the annual shareholder letter that was published and shared by Larry Culp, who has been CEO of General Electric for just over five years now (the first-ever outsider CEO in their…
TL;DR: Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun wants to close the company’s “shadow factories” – the rework operations where planes get repaired, upgraded, and checked before final delivery. The phrase echoes the older Lean idea of the “hidden factory.” Closing it is…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #497 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Tobias Gilk, the founder of Gilk Radiology Consulting (GRC). He is an architect by training, but has spent 20+…
