I recently saw an article about Avera Medical Group and Sanford Clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota: “Health systems learn to be lean.” Avera McKennan Hospital, in Sioux Falls, was featured in the 2nd edition of my book Lean Hospitals. A physician…
It’s often said that Lean is about “doing more with less.” Historically, and practically speaking, it’s true. But, it’s a phrase that we should be careful about for a number of reasons. Looking back at the origins of the term…
It’s easy for an organization to say they are “doing Lean” or they have “started a Lean transformation.” They might hire a consultant or put out a press release. Maybe there’s an optimistic (but premature) news article about how the…
There’s a great piece, currently available for free on the HBR website, about continuous improvement: The Culture to Cultivate The author, George Halvorson, is the recently retired CEO of Kaiser Permanente and it’s really helpful that he is writing about…
Saturday at the Society for Health Systems conference, included an excellent keynote address from Roger Gerard, from the ThedaCare health system, co-author with Dr. John Toussaint of the book On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the…
Don’t forget my reader survey – share your feedback and have a chance at some great prizes. In November, I blogged about a panel at the Lab Quality Confab that included Dr. Richard Zarbo from Henry Ford Health System (see…
Former Wiremold CEO Art Byrne explains why Lean must be led directly by the CEO and treated as a core business strategy–not a set of tools. Drawing on his experience at GE, Danaher, and The Wiremold Company, Byrne shares how…
I received some really good questions from a reader, Nick, who has recently crossed industries to bring his Lean Manufacturing experience into healthcare. Since I thought the questions might lead to a good blog post, I’m going to address them…
Thanks to Dean Bliss for sending an article to me about some of the great Lean healthcare work taking place in Iowa. I’ve visited Iowa a number of times to give talks and visit hospitals and I know many of…
Some of you might be familiar with the internet meme, spreading on Facebook especially, about “what people think of my profession” (as described in this Washington Post blog post). For example, see “what a contemporary artist does.” It’s all a…
Last week, I posted a podcast with Mike George, founder of Strong America Now, an organization that is promoting Lean and Six Sigma methods to our political leaders and government. Much of the discussion, maybe unfortunately, was focused on Mr.…
It has been a while since I’ve collaborated with artist Ed Butler on a “Doofus and Leanie” cartoon (Ed was also the artist for Wii Lean and the satirical “Lean Sensei” app. The recent reactions of GM (layoffs) and Toyota…
