TL;DR: This post revisits the origins of lean production through John Krafcik’s 1988 article, reflecting on how lean manufacturing began as an integrated management system rooted in culture, leadership, and respect for people–and why those foundations still matter more than…
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…
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…
I had a speaking engagement yesterday for a large system, with the audience consisting mainly of hospital CEOs and CFOs. I was able to be around for the entire morning, which included a really outstanding kickoff talk by the system…
This week, May 6-13, is National Nurses Week. It’s always important, but it’s especially good to thank and recognize all of the talented, caring, hard working nurses out there. Nursing is important, difficult work. Sadly, the work is made more…
Listen: My guest for episode #171 is Chad Walters, a friend and a Lean consultant. He is owner of Lean Blitz Consulting in Augusta, Georgia, a firm focused on continuous improvement for small businesses and sports organizations. I’m a big…
From today’s news: “Backup presidential limo on its way for Obama in Israel after fuel filling failure.” U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip to Israel was tripped up by a preventable error – the Presidential limousine was mistakenly filled with diesel fuel…
I saw this at an office supply store today (but didn’t buy it). For all of the coffee-making problems I have, tipping mugs over isn’t one of them (knock on wood). This mug is advertised as having a clever mechanism…
tl;dr: A simple coffee mishap–placing a mug upside down under a Keurig–illustrates a core Lean lesson: human error is inevitable, so blaming people doesn’t help. Instead, good systems are designed to anticipate mistakes and prevent harm, reflecting Lean’s principle of…
Reflecting more on my recent Japan tour (see previous posts) one word came up in my notes: artifacts. One dictionary definition of that term is straightforward: “any object made by human beings, especially with a view to subsequent use.” Another…
Here’s an interesting story from this week: “Google early earnings release stuns traders.” Reportedly, the Google financial report for Wall Street was mistakenly released EARLY. Instead of releasing after the close of trading, it was sent out by R.R. Donnelly,…