CURRENTS / ‘Toyota way’ inspires lean practices From a Japanese newspaper, an article about the impact the Toyota Production System is having on organizations around the world. The first example is the U.S. military, the Air Force more specifically: Since…
JS Online: Tending to improvements in health care Here’s a nice overview article about the Lean efforts of the ThedaCare health system in Wisconsin. Some highlights: ThedaCare estimates that its work to improve efficiency in 2005 and 2006 cut costs…
I got a question from a reader and Theory of Constraints fan: “One of the topics that I’m struggling with is the relationship between Kaizen and TOC. When Norman Bodek talks about the savings people have gotten through Kaizen, does…
Hospital’s shake-up gives nurses more time Here’s a nice news article about the use of Lean in a hospital in New Zealand (hat tip to Michael for sending it to me). Middlemore Hospital is the first in the country to…
A few short thoughts from today’s WSJ:‘Headwind’ Blows As Top Executives Navigate Trouble – WSJ.com As I was reading the first article, above, about executives blaming “headwinds” and macroeconomic problems for business woes, I thought, “Sure, there are economic problems,…
Memphis Daily News – Le Bonheur’s New Treatment-Speeding System Ups Productivity by 54 Percent – 12/11/2007 Here’s a news story about a hospital I know people from, LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. I am have some examples of their in…
Implementing LEAN in our IT Office – IT Project Guy – FindTech Blogs Here is a blog post written by an IT project manager, Gary Rosenfeld, who is in a workplace that is starting to implement Lean. Or, at least…
General Dynamics workers laid off – SWVAToday.com It’s been a while since a Lean As Mistakenly Executed (L.A.M.E.) sighting. Or, in other words, stuff that gives Lean a bad name: About 45 General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products employees in…
Political Affairs Magazine – High-tech Capitalism and the Class Struggle: You might not want to click on the above link if you don’t want to risk a “cookie” on your computer from a communist publication. I’m not throwing the word…
CIO Magazine Article Hat tip to Curious Cat for finding this and blogging about it first. I couldn’t resist chiming in. The author brings up the old Deming philosophy approach that you can’t really motivate people, you can only demotivate…
Case of the Vanishing Airport Lines – WSJ.com This article made me think of Lean in the sense that Alaska Air radically rethought the passenger check in process and achieved some dramatic results: In Anchorage, the airline expected a 20%…
Green Bay Press-Gazette – Tufco growing operations while keeping safety in focus: Another story from a small company in Wisconsin: “”It is easy to downsize. Growth is difficult,” LeCalsey said. “There are so many draw-offs of profitability in growth.” The…
