TL;DR: In 1987, GM accurately documented why NUMMI worked–and it wasn’t tools, techniques, or discipline. This internal report reveals a management system built on trust, learning, and problem-solving, and exposes how hard it is to act on insight when it…
This post is built around excerpts from the book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. Read more about Toyota, including stories and key lessons learned in the book. Download a free preview of the book…
One exciting feature of the Amazon Kindle format is the ability for readers to see what other readers have frequently highlighted. It’s also fascinating, as the author, to see this. It’s a form of feedback about what seems to resonate…
For Episode 22, Mark Graban is joined by Darril Wilburn and Sammy Obara, two former Toyota employees who are colleagues at the firm Honsha. They are two of the authors of the excellent book Toyota by Toyota. The three talk…
When productivity metrics are poorly designed, they can punish good people for system failures. Real improvement comes from redesigning the work–not pressuring individuals to work faster. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is the oldest children’s hospital in the United States.…
Yesterday, I blogged about a CNO who was changing the culture at a hospital away from blaming individual nurses for system problems. The HealthLeaders article I wrote about didn’t talk about “Lean” per se. But, that single idea about moving…
Dr. W. Edwards Deming was explicit about where responsibility for hospital performance really sits: with the CEO. This post focuses on one overlooked conclusion from Deming’s 1987 hospital notes–what they imply about executive leadership, system ownership, and why improvement efforts…
Last year, I wrote about my conveyor belt sushi misadventures in Japan: I’ve only been to a few of these “revolving sushi” restaurants (as they are sometimes called) in the United States. Upon the recommendation of my friend Katie Anderson,…
I had a great time and learned so much as a guest of Honsha and their Executive Development Mission trip to Japan in October. The formal site visits to factories and companies were great, but a lot of the learning…
When surgeons have no better options than complaining about process problems on LinkedIn, are their leaders and organizations really properly supporting them? In this post, we'll explore questions of blame, accountability, and engaging people in process improvement... being of better service to them.
Over the years, many people have asked me some variation of the question:
"Why are my employees not embracing Lean?"
More often than not, the tone of the question is of blame... blaming the employees for not embracing Lean.
In this post, I share something I originally wrote on LinkedIn and I'll elaborate a bit and share some of the LinkedIn comments...
Not all Japanese companies are the same. "Lean isn't easy" if you're a Japanese company. Toyota has created something special, since "Toyota culture" is not exactly the same as "Japanese culture."
The WSJ says the "model is cracking."
Do scandals involving quality and ethical lapses involving companies including those and Nissan tarnish Lean and the Toyota Production System? No. That's as silly as thinking the Wells Fargo banking scandal tarnishes Silicon Valley (although the Valley does enough to tarnish itself).
