Today’s post is a throwback to an essay that I originally wrote for the excellent book Lean-Led Hospital Design: Creating the Efficient Hospital of the Future, where it appears in an appendix with some other contributed essays. You can listen to…
In manufacturing, the term Lean has far too often been synonymous with layoffs. Doing so is more L.A.M.E. than Lean. People get anxious and throw around an acronym LEAN – Less Employees Are Needed. Ironically, Toyota (the inspiration or model for Lean)…
tl;dr: The blog examines the pitfalls of poorly executed Lean methodologies, using an analogy of a cheeseburger to discuss unhealthy implementations. It argues for a nuanced approach to Lean, acknowledging its limitations and ‘horror stories’ in order to effectively achieve…
Lean provides a philosophy and a management model that should be nothing but good for staff and patients. The idea of “respect for people” might sound nice in principle, but what does it mean in a practical sense...
People often say Lean is pretty simple (or that it’s just “common sense“). Yeah, some of the concepts are simple… but sometimes deceptively so. Or, we find that it’s easier to describe Lean (as a management system, a set of…
There have been plenty of headlines and updates since I first blogged about the controversy over Lean healthcare in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan (see my previous posts here). From my outside perspective, there are some good things happening. I…
Today’s post is published over on LinkedIn, as part of the “Influencers’ program that I’m a part of. Kermit the Frog & Lean Management: How Could Something So Right Feel So Wrong? It’s a silly piece (in honor of “Muppets…
Here’s a great post from Pascal Dennis on Lean and PDCA (or PDSA): PDCA – the Pounding Heart Muscle of Life Everybody should read Pascal’s post… twice. Honestly, go read it a few times before returning here. I was fortunate…
My guest for episode #193 is Mark Jaben, MD, talking about our brains, Lean, and change. Mark has been a guest blogger for me before and it’s great to talk to him today about his research and experiences. In our conversation,…
I have a warm place in my heart for Dayton, Ohio considering I was born there and lived in the area through kindergarten. My dad got his MBA from the University of Dayton. I was happy to get an email…
Here’s a fascinating article: “How Toyota brought its famed manufacturing method to India.” The piece starts with a story about a classic Toyota management practice — “Genchi Genbutsu, or on-site inspection, which is at the core of the Toyota Production…
Today I’m linking to a guest post that I wrote for my friend Marc Rouppe van der Voort who works at St. Elisabeth Hospital (Tilburg, Netherlands) and has a blog in Dutch (with auto Google translation). Marc used to maintain a…