Category Audio

Mark Graban’s newer Lean Blog Audio podcast series with “audiobook” style readings of selected blog posts. Learn how to subscribe.

Lean Enterprise Institute Announces New CEO

The Lean Enterprise Institute (a former employer of mine from 2009 to 2011) has announced a new CEO, the third in their history following founder James P. Womack and his successor, John Shook.

Their press release:

Lean Enterprise Institute Names Eric Buehrens New CEO

The start of the release:

"The nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, a global leader in lean thinking and practice, today announced the appointment of Eric Buehrens as its new CEO. The appointment took effect October 1, 2017.

A proven lean thinker and leader, Buehrens led lean transformations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he served as COO and Interim CEO, and at Reliant Medical Group, a Massachusetts group medical practice, where he was COO."

This Organization Chose Not to “Deploy Lean” Because a Leader Thought it is Not Customer Focused?

I posted an article on LinkedIn last week as a companion article and summary of my podcast with Dean Gruner, MD, the recently retired CEO of ThedaCare.

That article:

"A Retired Hospital CEO Shares the Employee Feedback That was 'A Bucket of Cold Water to the Face.'"

There have been over 125 comments so far... but one has me scratching my head.

It read:

"I looked at deploying Lean within our PNO, and ultimately decided against it, in part for two reasons:

because Lean is about doing the same thing, albeit better and
it is not as much customer/outwardly focused as we need in healthcare."
Lean is not customer/outwardly focused? I hope this isn't a widespread perception or belief out there. I hope I'm overreacting to something that's not really a problem... but I wrote the post anyway.

How NOT to Improve Patient Flow: Laws, Targets, Blame, and Threats

Let's start by stating the obvious: it sucks to wait 24 hours or more on a stretcher in an emergency department hallway waiting for a real hospital bed. It's sad and frustrating to have a couple of blog readers from Canada send me this story from Quebec:

Quebec wants 24-hour cap for patients waiting on stretchers in ERs
Barrette says there would be consequences for hospital staff, doctors who don't comply

I think there's agreement that waiting 24 hours, 12 hours, or four hours for a bed after an admission is a problem. That's a problem worth working on.

Solar Eclipse: Supply Chain Challenges and Eye Safety Considerations

Any rare event creates a number of challenges when it comes to manufacturing and supply chains. We're seeing a pretty historic "spike" in demand for products like the inexpensive glasses that allow one to safety view the eclipse (our friends in the totality zone can look at the totally-eclipsed sun safely, but that's the only time).

You could call it "supply chain challenges" or a "lack of planning on my part," but I cannot find eclipse glasses anywhere. There are MANY articles online about this widespread problem -- it's been impossible to buy "eclipse glasses" anywhere. Why is this? What could have been done?

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