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…
Mark’s Note: Here’s part 4 of a series by our guest blogger, Andy Wagner. Start reading with Part 1 here. “What lies behind us and what lies in front of us pales in comparison to what lies within us.” —…
TL;DR: The New York Times showed that Lean healthcare isn’t about “factory medicine,” but about removing waste so clinicians can focus on patients. When grounded in respect for people and strong leadership, Lean improves quality, access, and cost–while misapplied versions…
Mark’s Note: Here’s part 3 of a series by our guest blogger, Andy Wagner – a series that started here. Many of us work in an environment that our host, Mark Graban, would characterize as “non-Deming”: LAME more often than…
While I was on vacation, the news (the BBC World Service, mainly) focused quite a lot on the BP oil spill in the gulf, including the world’s reactions to the problem. While it seems a bit uncouth to criticize our…
Mark’s note: Today, I’m happy to welcome back an old Lean Blog contributor, Andy Wagner. He takes a more personal turn here than most of my guest bloggers for the next two weeks, writing about the application of Lean thinking…
Mark’s note: Today’s vacation guest post is from D. Mark Jackson, a lawyer who has been studying and embracing Lean principles in a California law firm. He normally writes in his very interesting Lean Law blog and I’ve been following…
About a week ago, I was flying, and the passenger beside me knocked his water over right into my lap. Argh! I sent a Tweet posing a “contest with no prize” (as I didn’t want to stifle creativity with an…
I’ve been really intrigued recently by the innovations in the “Lean Startup” movement. I’ve been reading Steve Blank’s book The Four Steps to the Epiphany about his “Customer Development” model (a process to parallel the traditional product development model). I’ll…
