=Following up on posts from Monday and Wednesday, we see this headline today: “Shinseki resigns after VA scandal.” As I wrote about on LinkedIn, instead of blaming “bad managers” or a “lack of integrity” at local VA sites, like Phoenix,…
TL;DR: Automakers often overproduce because incentives reward shipping cars to dealers, not matching real demand. Excess capacity, revenue rules, and “channel stuffing” drive inventory waste–and healthcare faces similar pressures that create overutilization and distorted metrics. “Where the World’s Unsold Cars…
Limes are a very big deal here in San Antonio, between the cuisine and, of course, margaritas. Hint: life is too short to drink “margaritas” with some corn-syrupy pre-made mix. All you need is tequila, lime juice, and agave nectar.…
As a former GM employee and a GM customer, I’m really fascinated by the reaction of the public, the media, and Congress to the recalls and scandal over ignition switch problems in some GM small cars from recent years. The…
The Philadelphia Eagles are playing in an NFL playoff matchup tonight against the New Orleans Saints. I’d admired Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and his somewhat unlikely rise through the coaching ranks. He’s well known from his successful stint at…
I was able to tour the NUMMI factory in 2005, which I really enjoyed (see my series of blog posts here). NUMMI was, of course, a joint venture between Toyota and GM (as John Shook talked about recently at the…
Eiji Toyoda, a key figure in the growth and expansion of Toyota and the Toyota Production System practices has passed away this week, just past his 100th birthday. His death has received fairly prominent coverage in the business press, including:…
I was fortunate to have the chance to speak and visit at a few hospitals in Sweden back in February, 2010 (see my blog post from that year). One of those hospitals, St. Göran (in Stockholm), was recently featured in…
There’s a great piece, currently available for free on the HBR website, about continuous improvement: The Culture to Cultivate The author, George Halvorson, is the recently retired CEO of Kaiser Permanente and it’s really helpful that he is writing about…
An old friend of mine (whose name and company remains confidential) recently saw me reference an old blog post on Facebook. I had posted a link to this old post about Kyocera’s “Lean Office” initiative that focused on neatness and,…
Last week at the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, I really enjoyed the presentation by Jamie Bonini, General Manager of the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC). Jamie started his career at Chrysler (where he knew Jamie Flinchbaugh, a good friend…
My mom is a retired public school elementary teacher, so I’ve heard plenty of stories about bad management decisions within a school system and other craziness that runs the risk of crushing souls… but thankfully my mom (and so many…
