We’re halfway through the year. What reflections do you have on how the first half of the year is going for you, your team, and your organization? Is it time to “Adjust” as part of the PDSA cycle? Do you…
On this blog, I write a lot about how to create a “Lean” culture where employees and customers are happy. Engaged employees lead to happy customers — and sustainable business success. It’s often instructive, however, to see or hear about…
Thanks everybody for reading my blog in 2013! I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to read and participate in the discussion and I h0pe you’ll continue visiting the site in 2014… in what will be my…
I nearly drove off the road when I heard this NPR story yesterday: “Allowance Economics: Candy, Taxes And Potty Training.” Please take a listen or a read. In the piece, an Australia economics professor who is “an expert in incentives”…
I had long given up on Newsweek as a source of news (hey, at least it’s published weekly unlike IndustryWeek). But this cover caught my eye at the airport on Friday, I had to buy it instead of waiting to…
Three airlines drop self-reporting safety program – USATODAY.com Dropping this program has got to be one of those “process indicators” of airline safety. I can’t believe that flying will be as safe without this program where pilots could report problems…
Neatness Counts at Kyocera and at Others in the 5S Club – WSJ.com I’m going to violate a rule I have to try not to blog when I’m frustrated or angry. Here goes… Today’s front page (argh, front page) article…
I’ve done this before with the WSJ… since I was in Seattle, I saw the Sunday Seattle Times, which had many articles that had some inadvertent (and unsaid) Lean angle (or so I thought). Article 1: Snap goes deadline at…
Running a hospital: Our Joint Commission Report The headline is my modification of a Deming expression, that management’s job is prediction. Statistical process control was one way of predicting future outcomes of a process (if you have a statistically stable…
Here are some updates on the “Bad Systems” I featured last week, Northwest Airlines and the NBA. I know I promised more positive posts, but let me follow up on these stories… First, the NBA. I don’t have a link…
In this Lean Blog Podcast episode, Jim Womack reflects on GM, Ford, and Toyota through the lens of Lean thinking–past, present, and future. He explains how Lean was coined at MIT, why it became misunderstood, and what leaders still get…
So after getting such strong recommendations about the book from Norman Bodek and, then today, from Dwight Bowen, I finally started reading “Getting the Right Things Done” by Pascal Dennis. A line in the introduction struck me: “Strategy deployment is…