I heard a great line from an Emergency Department doc and physician leader yesterday. Talking about his hospital’s Lean efforts, he said, simply: “Data should create light, not heat.” Brilliant. Simply brilliant. What he meant was that data should be…
Saturday morning, as part of my preparation to cook for a brunch gathering (I really enjoy cooking as a hobby, for those who don’t know me), I took a trip to a Boston Whole Foods location. One ingredient I needed…
I’m a bit hesitant to blog about a bad experience with a doctor’s office and waiting time. There are multiple “draft” posts I’ve started to write, left saved out there without being published, as it seems a bit like a…
Note: I edited the post title on April 3 to make it clear this was an April Fool’s Joke. Comments posted by readers on 4/1 and 4/2 may have been “fooled” – thanks for taking the joke in good spirits.…
Episode #85 is a conversation with David Meier, a former Toyota Georgetown Group Leader and the co-author of the books The Toyota Way Fieldbook and Toyota Talent: Developing Your People the Toyota Way. With Toyota facing widespread attention during the 2010…
Here are links to posts by Lean Blog authors and contributors (see all Guest Blog posts here). Founder and Main Contributor: Mark Graban | Intro video Active and Recently Active: Christina Kach Dan Markovitz Andy Wagner Chad Walters Past Contributors:…
TL;DR: Data is what gets recorded. Facts are what’s actually happening. Confusing the two is how leaders get fooled by faked reports, broken sensors, and decorated dashboards. Deming and Ohno both warned about this in different ways. The fix is…
TL;DR: Decades of outsourcing and dismissing manufacturing as “old economy” thinking have hollowed out cities like Detroit and weakened the broader U.S. economy. Manufacturing still matters — not as nostalgia or protectionism, but as a foundation for sustainable growth. Lean…
Lean Blog Founder: Mark Graban See all guest posts Past Contributors: Natalie J. Sayer | Posts Chad Walters | Posts Christina Kach | Posts Jamie Flinchbaugh | Posts Liz Guthridge | Posts | Intro Video Dan Markovitz | Posts Ankit…
Article: How Toyota Defies Gravity While researching an upcoming presentation, I found this FORTUNE article from 1997. I was looking for a reference to Toyota letting its competitors (yes, Ford, GM, and Chrysler) tour its factories. Why Would Toyota Let…
While in Boston, I’m getting the chance to sit in on some sessions of an MIT Seminar in Healthcare Systems Innovation. Today, the session that focused a lot of Lean as a means to improve quality and cost. Lean is…
I had an interesting encounter at the Kendall Square Au Bon Pain yesterday morning. Not a bad customer experience, but something I noticed in the checkout process that might be worth discussing. I had a bagel sandwich (wasbai salmon on…
