A waiting room sign that says “tell us if you have waited more than 30 minutes” gives patients a way to ask for help. But reducing patient waiting times also requires a process for responding and learning from recurring delays.…
tl;dr: Most “Lean Six Sigma” programs teach a thin layer of Lean tools on top of a heavily Six Sigma-centric curriculum. If you want real Lean thinking, culture, and leadership, this format rarely delivers it. I had a conversation recently…
Eiji Toyoda, a key figure in the growth and expansion of Toyota and the Toyota Production System practices has passed away this week, just past his 100th birthday. His death has received fairly prominent coverage in the business press, including:…
My guest for episode #186 is my friend Jon Miller, CEO of Kaizen Institute and a long-time blogger at Gemba Panta Rei. Today, we’re talking about his upcoming book, Creating a Kaizen Culture: Align the Organization, Achieve Breakthrough Results, and…
Hi, this is Dr. Les Muda, the world’s first (and only) Lean healthcare comedian, taking over Mark’s blog today for a guest post about a new product I am very excited about – the Apple iPhone 5S. First off, I…
I recently read an article (a case study) about “Lean Six Sigma” in a publication. It’s not online, so I can’t link to it, nor do I really want to call them out by name. I didn’t like the article,…
Thursday night, we saw the type of error that happens every few years in the NFL… a player, Danny Trevathan, of the Denver Broncos, was about to score an easy touchdown, yet he dropped the ball, celebrating early, before crossing…
The year is 1981. A Major League Baseball strike interrupts the season. We’re in the midst of the Cold War. President Reagan is shot. Kim Carnes’ (not to be confused with ThedaCare’s Kim Barnas) tops the charts for the year…
Following up on my previous posts (here and here) on a recent visit to the Northern California Wine Country, I’m going to share a few more ideas and thoughts based on what I saw during the trip (when I wasn’t…
Growing grapes and making wine is certainly an art… but when you look into it there’s a lot of process involved. As I wrote about a bit last week, my wife and I recently spent two days in Sonoma County…
My wife and I just got back from four days in Napa and Sonoma counties doing, ahem, “gemba walks” at a number of wineries, both large and small. As tourists, we like doing winery visits where you get to walk…
Last Wednesday, Dr. Greg Jacobson and I gave a webinar for Gemba Academy titled Leadership Behaviors that Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement. You can view the recording via GembaAcademy.com. Greg and I came up with a list of 25…
