Mark Graban’s newer Lean Blog Audio podcast series with “audiobook” style readings of selected blog posts. Learn how to subscribe.
Ah, whiskey. I like whiskey. I’m not afraid to say that. I’ve blogged about whiskey (or whisky) once before: Why Kaizen is an Important Differentiator for Japanese Whisky. I also have a personal Kaizen story that I need to write about...
Previously on LinkedIn, I've written about Kaizen in a wine bar and the need for restaurants to not blame employees for problems. Yesterday, I published my 50th post for their Influencers program: This Restaurant Server Sadly Explains a Widespread Management Problem...
I've written before about the subject of hospitals "flexing" nurses and employees. I've criticized flexing (or the practice of sending employees home early because patient census is low) and I've pointed out that it's not keeping with "Lean" principles to "save money" by sending people home early.
As is often the case, I have too many open browser tabs full of articles that I was going to potentially blog about. This slows down my Mac (thanks, Chrome!). So, it’s time for me to clear out my backlog and…
You might remember the hubbub (and my earlier blog post) about this article that somehow appeared in the NEJM: “Medical Taylorism.” It’s sad and frustrating that people so often talk past each other in these different “debates” about Lean. Drs. Groopman and Hartzband…
I’m always happy to see success stories where healthcare organizations solve problems that matter through Lean concepts, practices, and principles. Today, I’m blogging about two articles I saw about this recently. One of the problems that needs to be solved…
In the previous editions of my book Lean Hospitals, I’ve included case examples from Avera McKennan Hospital and Avera Health. Fred Slunecka is the former president of Avera McKennan and he is now chief operating officer for the Avera system. I talked…
After the previous CEO of JC Penney, Ron Johnson, was fired (see my post “Lack of PDSA made JCP CEO SOL?“), it seems that new CEO Marvin Ellison might be taking a different approach. See this article from FORTUNE: “The CEO…
The revised, updated, and expanded third edition of my book Lean Hospitals has been sent to the printer and copies should start shipping by mid June. I’m happy to now be offering a free PDF of the revised first chapter. You…
As a guy who started his career in manufacturing before moving to healthcare in 2005, I don’t get many opportunities to visit the “Gemba” at a factory very often anymore. I get to occasionally visit a Toyota plant (in the…
Today’s post is an addendum from Saturday’s post on the apparent death of a health system Lean program: “Why Would a New Healthcare CEO Kill a Lean Program?“ If you read that post, there’s an interesting comment from a Presence…
Back in September 2015, I wrote a post (“Learning to be Lean” – An Inside Look at a Rapid Improvement Event“) that linked to a Modern Healthcare article about a Rapid Improvement Event at Presence Health in Illinois. The piece…
