If you’re watching college football bowls or the NFL playoffs, it’s hard not to see this commercial from DirecTV. It’s not exactly the reverse of the “5 Whys” (as popularized in Lean and the Lean Startup methods), but it made…
TL;DR — GM vs. Toyota After the Japan Earthquake General Motors (GM) Toyota Bottom line:This wasn’t a failure of JIT or Lean. It was a leadership choice. Toyota showed that real Lean is about how you treat people when work…
Thanks to FierceHealthcare.com for publishing my guest article on the front page of their site: “How lean management helped hospitals avoid layoffs.” The article features quotes from two of our Healthcare Value Network organizations, ThedaCare and Akron Children’s Hospital, and…
Back in July, e-Patient Dave deBronkart noticed an article in the Health Leaders publication called “Taking On the Cost Drivers.” It inspired him to reach out to me and Alice Lee, from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to write…
I had long given up on Newsweek as a source of news (hey, at least it’s published weekly unlike IndustryWeek). But this cover caught my eye at the airport on Friday, I had to buy it instead of waiting to…
What an invigorating and exciting time at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement‘s 21st National Forum. Highlights from Day 2 included a talk on Lean at the MemorialCare system in California and a talk on social media and healthcare quality…
TL;DR: At GM, fear and poor leadership blocked bad news from flowing both up and down the organization. Executives were shielded from reality, frontline workers weren’t told the truth, and trust eroded as a result. Without leaders going to the…
Report: Toyota considers cutting 1,000 jobs – USATODAY.com With the down economy, there had been much discussion about whether Toyota could continue it’s “no layoffs (of permanent employees)” streak going. That may end soon, sadly: Toyota is considering cutting more…
It seems like all we’re hearing now is layoffs, layoffs, layoffs. This article reports that Danaher, considered by many to be the best Lean company outside of Toyota (with its famed Danaher Business System), is laying off employees. Danaher Corp (DHR,…
Running a hospital: It’s the economy You might have seen in the news that hospitals showed record profits in 2007, according to Modern Healthcare. U.S. community hospitals enjoyed record profits in 2007, posting $43 billion more in revenue than expenses…
leanblog.org | Lean Blog: Bad Lean/5S Hits the UK Media I presented yesterday and had a great day (meeting people and learning) with the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative and their annual Lean conference. I’ll write more about their story later and…
The Associated Press: Toyota lays off 800 line workers at Japan plant I’m starting to cut Toyota less slack for their claims of not having laid off employees in over 50 years. Japanese automaker Toyota has laid off 800 people…
