Listen My guest for podcast #175 is Mike Taubitz of the firm Sustainable Lean and FDR Safety. Mike is a retired GM employee (including a stint as Global Safety Director) and we met at the Michigan Lean Consortium conference in 2011.…
Mistake-proofing vs. warning signs is not a close contest. Signs rely on people paying attention in the moment. Mistake-proofing removes the chance to fail in the first place. My friend Chad Walters has contributed guest posts to my blog (and…
Hat tip to Kevin Meyer for sending me a link to this ridiculous post from the website of Minitab, the maker of statistical software that’s used by Six Sigma belts: “Lean, Six Sigma, or Lean Six Sigma?“ I’m sure my…
I’ve re-read this article a number of times: “Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester.” It’s a sad situation – the federal government, via Medicare, has cut the reimbursement to cancer clinics for chemotherapy treatment…
Listen: My guest for episode #171 is Chad Walters, a friend and a Lean consultant. He is owner of Lean Blitz Consulting in Augusta, Georgia, a firm focused on continuous improvement for small businesses and sports organizations. I’m a big…
After the nice response to Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, I often get asked, “So, what’s your next book going to be?” (other than the upcoming Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen, that is). I’ve had people suggest writing something about…
My guest for episode #168 is Carolyn McCulley, from CityGate Films, and she is a co-director and producer of the upcoming documentary called “Breaking the Wall of Silence,” which sheds light on patient safety challenges in healthcare — but more…
Producer Clare Crawford-Mason shares behind-the-scenes stories of W. Edwards Deming and the 1980 NBC documentary If Japan Can Do It, Why Can’t We?–and reflects on Deming’s lasting impact on management, healthcare, and leadership. Listen: My guest for episode #167 is…
Reminder: Please take my reader survey and enter to win some Lean prizes. My friends at LEI have a new book out by Judy Worth, Tom Shuker, and Beau Keyte: “Perfecting Patient Journeys.” The book appears to focus on Lean…
It’s been eight years since I launched my blog… January 2005. Then it was “Lean Manufacturing Blog” at the kanban.blogspot.com address… it’s now “LeanBlog.org” as things have evolved in both the site’s design and content. My primary interests have shifted…
As part of my occasional “A Lean Guy Reads…” series, I found some ideas related to Lean in the current issue of Fast Company magazine. Click on any of the images for a larger view or what I was reading.…
I know many of you aren’t into the whole Twitter thing, but I’m using my account (@MarkGraban) to share some photos and small batches of ideas that I come across during my trip to Japan. I’ll also share them here…