Operational Excellence Mixtape: February 15, 2019
Healthcare - Creating Value for Patients
Daily safety huddles are simple, inexpensive, and effective…
Operational Excellence Mixtape: October 26, 2018
Healthcare - Creating Value for Patient
A lot can be done to optimize flow in hospitals without…
Off to Japan for a Week…
Today, I'm off to Japan for a week, so I might be away from the blog. I do have a podcast scheduled for release on…
Operational Excellence Mixtape: September 28, 2018
Healthcare - Creating Value for Patient
Creating value for patients isn't a "project". Lean thinking…
Toyota Helps a Young Inventor; Look at His Dad’s Toyota Desk
it's great to see an 11 year old thinking like an engineer and an entrepreneur. He's the son of a Toyota…
The 2017 Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit (#HCSummit17) Begins
This week, I'm in Palm Springs for the annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. Follow along on…
Personal Kaizen: How I Reduced Effort & Time in Scheduling Phone Calls
In today's post, I write about how Kaizen starts with you. I share some examples of "personal Kaizen," including…
How Lean Thinkers Shop? Plus the Lean Blog Holiday Gift Guide 2016
I'm guessing most "Lean thinkers" stayed home the other day on the "Black Friday" shopping day. Why might…
GM’s CEO Roger Smith Thought Toyota Had Magic, But This Was the…
Thanks to this post by Bruce Hamilton (aka "Toast Guy" or "Old Lean Dude"), I was reminded of the old General…
More Notes on Dr. Deming & “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?”…
Hopefully you've already seen the famed 1980 NBC documentary "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?" that featured Dr. W.…
Donald Trump’s Red Hat (and Other Politicians’ Hats) Brought to You by…
These Donald Trump hats (and hats for other candidates including Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush) are made by a Newark…
Great Lean Leader Interview Series at Shmula.com
My friend Pete Abilla has started a nice series of "Lean Leadership Interviews" on his site, shmula.com.
I…
Guest Post: Reports of Kaizen’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated
Mark's note: Today's vacation post is from my good friend Dan Markovitz, who normally blogs here. Listen to my…
Reducing Waste & Saving Time in the New Year
1/3 update: Welcome back to work to many of you. No new post today, but the rest of the week continues on the…
Paul O’Neill on Lean Leadership for Healthcare
Hat tip to Dan Markovitz for pointing out this excellent post on John Toussaint's blog: "The Key Leadership…
Best Buy Gets It
by Dan MarkovitzBest Buy is generally not talked about as an exemplar of lean. (It's best known for its Results…
Management "Moonshots." Really?
by Dan MarkovitzGary Hamel's Management 2.0 blog at WSJ.com features his ideas for "Management Moonshots" -- 25…
Toyota Keeps its Eyes on the Customer
by Dan MarkovitzIn a refreshing change of pace for the auto industry, Akio Toyoda, who was just named as the new…