Mark Graban’s newer Lean Blog Audio podcast series with “audiobook” style readings of selected blog posts. Learn how to subscribe.
In my travels, I often meet people or visit organizations that say something like: "We're doing Lean... we just call it Process Improvement." They have a "Process Improvement" (PI) department...
StoreSMART, a Rochester, New York-based manufacturer and retailer, has been an advertiser on this blog for over six months now. I also very much appreciate that they are trying to learn how to better serve those who are practicing Lean...
Hear Mark read the post (subscribe to the podcast series): I don’t normally pay too much attention to TV commercials, but I was working out the other day and had TV streaming through my iPhone. Appropriately enough, a Nutrisystem ad with…
My favorite book, as I've written about before, is not a "Lean book" -- it's Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by Donald J. Wheeler, PhD. It might look like a book about statistics...
I'm extremely honored that The W. Edwards Deming Institute published my first blog post in a series of three that I've written for them, to be published over the next month or so.
Domonique Foxworth, who earned an MBA from Harvard Business School after his NFL playing days, says, "... there are competitive advantages to be gained in the way that organizations are run.”
I had a chance to visit one of their community hospitals, Hillcrest Hospital, as well as the main campus. It was a very stimulating visit and it was great to see the progress they were making in building a “culture of improvement.”
I saw this quote the other day and tweeted it. It seemed like food for thought and something to reflect on for a new year. A Google search doesn't lead to a clear creator of this quote... it's a common thought that has been around a long time, I guess.
I first blogged about this article back in 2009 and it’s still online: “Keen to Be Lean“ The sub headline talks about hospitals being “desperate to cut costs.” Has that changed? I wish the motivation was more often about hospitals…
I get annoyed by corporate euphemisms, such as referring to people as “resources,” the term “right-sizing” for layoffs, and the type of jargon and babble parodied in the Weird Al song “Mission Statement.” Using unclear language can intentionally mask and hide…
Dr. W. Edwards Deming used to warn against replacing intrinsic motivation with extrinsic rewards and incentives. Brian Joiner (author of Fourth Generation Management), who worked with Deming, warned that setting targets and quotas can lead to three things: improving the…
TL;DR: Lean isn’t about “idiot-proofing” work–it’s about respecting people. True Lean focuses on improving systems (through mistake-proofing and better design), not blaming or deceiving workers. When leaders treat people as capable professionals and fix processes instead of people, quality, learning,…
