My guest for Episode #409 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Ritsuo Shingo. I first met Mr. Shingo at the Shingo Institute Annual Conference in 2009 when my book Lean Hospitals received the publication prize that’s named after his father, Shigeo…
Scroll down for video, how to subscribe, video, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #408 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Katie Labedz, the author of the new book How to Improve Absolutely Anything: Continuous Improvement in Your…
My guest for Episode #400 is Jeffrey Liker, the retired University of Michigan professor who has recently released the second updated and revised version of his seminal book The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. The new edition…
In Episode 23, Mark and Jamie return to finish out 2020, this time joined by Kentucky native Deondra Wardelle, so naturally Kentucky bourbon is our whiskey category of choice. Bourbons selected include Brough Brothers, Willett, and Barton 1792. After introducing…
Thanks everybody for reading my blog here in 2020. When I posted the top 10 most-read posts from the first half of the year, things were very Covid heavy. I’ve blogged less about that (but more about issues like #RootCauseRacism).…
My guest for Episode #390 is Keith Ingels, the TPS (Toyota Production System) Manager for Raymond Corporation — Raymond is part of Toyota Material Handling North America, which is part of Toyota Industries. Wait, so a Toyota company needs a…
Steve Spear shares lessons from Hajime Oba, who founded Toyota’s Supplier Support Center (TSSC) and became one of the most influential teachers of the Toyota Production System in North America. In this episode, Spear describes how Mr. Oba looked at…
Thanks to Professor Peter Hines and the Enterprise Excellence Network for inviting me to present this webinar. Mine was the first in a series of free webinars that they are hosting in the coming weeks, presented by Chris Butterworth, Torbjorn…
TL;DR: Most organizations say continuous improvement matters, but treat it as optional–while performance reviews are non-negotiable. That choice reveals more about leadership priorities than any strategy statement. There’s a very well-known cartoon that you might have seen where a caveman…
You might remember my blog post from May about the Shohei Ohtani, a Japanese player for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (that's not a very "lean" team name, is it").
I suggested that Norman Bodek contact baseball or sports writers at publications like ESPN or The Wall Street Journal. The Journal wrote about Ohtani and Harada last week:
How Shohei Ohtani Visualized His Baseball Success
The Japanese two-way sensation turned to a personal-growth technique called the Harada Method to help him achieve his goals
Joining me for Episode #285 is my friend and colleague, Karen Martin. She was previously a guest on Episode #151 where we discussed her book The Outstanding Organization and #190 we discussed her book Value Stream Mapping book. We'll be doing another podcast later this year about her next book, which is titled Clarity First: How Wise Leaders and Organizations Achieve Outstanding Performance.
Karen reached out with a provocative question that's easy to discuss, but hard to answer: "Is Lean Dead?" The reason she asked is that she's heard murmuring and read articles that ask "is it time for something new?" or if we're somehow in a "post-Lean" world.
One thing I like about Facebook is the way it reminds you about things that happened on this date in previous years. Facebook is reminding me these days about different milestones related to the publication of the book Healthcare Kaizen that…
