I get asked a lot, “How do you know if a hospital is truly ‘Lean?'” Nobody is ever perfect or “fully Lean,” but you could ask, “How do you know if somebody is on a legitimate Lean transformation journey?” If you could only ask one question...
As we start easing into the holidays, I wanted to share a few throwback posts from this day or this week from previous years: From this date in 2009: The Emperor’s Sacred Cow’s New Clothes – “Flexing” Hospital Staff I’d…
TL;DR (2026 update): So-called “just-in-time” retail scheduling that relies on on-call shifts, last-minute cutbacks, or sending people home early is not Lean–it’s cost cutting disguised as efficiency. Real Lean, as practiced by Toyota, is built on Respect for People: stable…
TL;DR: Sending nurses and other hospital staff home early when census dips may reduce short-term labor costs, but it undermines continuous improvement, morale, and patient flow. Lean organizations invest downtime in learning and improvement–because respect for people and better systems…
Neatness Counts at Kyocera and at Others in the 5S Club – WSJ.com I’m going to violate a rule I have to try not to blog when I’m frustrated or angry. Here goes… Today’s front page (argh, front page) article…
By Jason Turgeon: Introductions: I’m Jason Turgeon, the newest addition to the Lean Blog team. Mark and I have had an email dialog going for a few months about the intersection of green and lean, and he’s invited me to…
