Once again, the WSJ has written about Lean at Starbucks (see my last post “Controversy over New Standardized Work at Some Starbucks Stores“) in Wednesday’s paper. The newest article is called “At Starbucks, Baristas Told No More Than Two Drinks“,…
I had a good long chat with a former client (from my J&J days) the other day. I call him “The Synthesizer,” and no he’s not an electronic keyboard. We’re working together on a business journal article about their Lean…
I don’t often do a “cranky blog post,” but I’ve got a head cold (as I write this on 9/30) and I’ve gotten sucked into watching some free online “lean healthcare white belt” training that just makes me want to…
One of the books that’s had the biggest impact on my work is Donald Wheeler’s Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos. It’s the best guide for applying simple and powerful “statistical process control” (or SPC) practices to management data…
Again, I’m very happy to host the Carnival for John Hunter and his Curious Cat blog. My job here is to share some noteworthy and thought provoking posts from the past few weeks from the blogs I try to keep…
As a regular Starbucks customer (especially so when I lived in Boston, a few stories directly above a Starbucks store), I try to follow the company closely, including reading the “Starbucks Gossip” blog from time to time. I’ve posted before…
One of the things I get frustrated with is people who want to take shortcuts with Lean. There are some who are only interested in copying and taking the easy path to yummy Lean goodness. You see this in the…
Recently, I posted a video of a “daily huddle” meeting at Everett Clinic (not exactly the type of huddle pictured at left). Yesterday, in honor of the Labor Day holiday, I had a post about employee safety and how that…
Today is a federal holiday in the United States, Labor Day. I know that’s obvious to the 70% of you reading from the U.S., but it seemed worth pointing out to the international readers. Labor Day became a holiday in…
Episode #97 is a discussion with Bob Sutton, a Stanford University Professor of Management Science and Engineering and the best-selling author of The No A-hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. Other books by Bob include The…
There are lots of places online where people can ask questions about Lean, such as the LEI forums and numerous LinkedIn groups. I saw one question in a LinkedIn group that really gave me pause… I won’t use her name…
Lean thinkers and TPS advocates sometimes get a bad rap as being Luddites. That’s not true, I’d say it’s more that Lean thinkers have a healthy skepticism toward technology being a “silver bullet.” You typically need good process in addition…