I recently invited questions for Michael Balle, the author of the Shingo Prize winning book The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround. He has a new book (published by LEI, my employer), recently published, called “The Lean Manager.” Here…
As I had alluded to the other day, there was a huge investigative piece that ran across the country Sunday in the Hearst Newspapers. The main URL for the series is www.DeadByMistake.com. You can read all of the articles at…
… or if it’s too easy to make mistakes. One of my favorite books of all time is Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. Not strictly a Lean book… even if you’re not a product designer, the book teaches…
Why ‘Quality’ Care Is Dangerous – WSJ.com Yesterday’s WSJ opinion piece by Dr. Jerome Goopman (author of How Doctors Think) and Pamela Hartzband caught my eye. Thanks to the four or five of you who also emailed me the link…
As a frequent flyer, I really try to turn off the process thinking part of my brain, for sanity’s sake. However, one thing that constantly amazes me is the failure of American Airlines to effectively manage the boarding process and…
Device Alerts Doctors To Items Left Behind After Surgery – Indiana News Story – WRTV Indianapolis Healthcare is often stuck in the mindset that’s considered outdated in lean manufacturing settings — the old idea that better quality must inherently cost…
Plane that crashed near Buffalo was on autopilot After “Sully” and his crew were lauded as heroes for following checklists, keeping calm, and landing that plane in the Hudson River, it’s sad and interesting that the pilot of the commuter…
Not Jack Handey’s “Deep Thoughts” … more like Larry King’s old USA Today column… it’s Lean Thoughts for Feb 12, 2009… the byproduct of a three-hour drive and too much time listening to cable news on XM… Hello, caller from…
Biden Takes Shot at Roberts for Flubbing Presidential Oath – First 100 Days of Presidency – Politics FOXNews.com On Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to flub his giving of the presidential oath of office, leaving out the word “faithfully”…
TRANSCRIPT: Obama’s Inaugural Address: I guess this is a “mashup” of sorts… between Dr. W. Edwards Deming and President Obama… The President said yesterday, in his inauguration speech: “We will … wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and…
I’ve blogged before about the “20 things supervisors shouldn’t say.” I’ll throw out, for discussion, two phrases that are awful to hear in the context of any change management situation, such as Lean in a hospital or a factory. When…
The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare: Improving Patient Care Using Toyota Based Methods Below is a guest post from fellow author and Lean Healthcare practitioner, Naida Grunden. Her book (linked above) is an outstanding collection of principles and case examples…