I wrote a new piece for LinkedIn that I hope would be of interest to you even if you’re in healthcare. Why? It’s a story about what an organization does when you don’t have enough (or any) direct work for your front-line staff to do. Toyota would continue paying employees and would put them to...
If you follow the auto industry, you might have seen headlines this week about how Toyota is being forced to shut down production in its Japanese factories next week (see one article, via Bloomberg). If you’re a devotee of the Toyota Production…
I get asked a lot, “How do you know if a hospital is truly ‘Lean?'” Nobody is ever perfect or “fully Lean,” but you could ask, “How do you know if somebody is on a legitimate Lean transformation journey?” If you could only ask one question...
TL;DR (2026 update): So-called “just-in-time” retail scheduling that relies on on-call shifts, last-minute cutbacks, or sending people home early is not Lean–it’s cost cutting disguised as efficiency. Real Lean, as practiced by Toyota, is built on Respect for People: stable…
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…
By Jason Turgeon: Introductions: I’m Jason Turgeon, the newest addition to the Lean Blog team. Mark and I have had an email dialog going for a few months about the intersection of green and lean, and he’s invited me to…