Today’s post doesn’t throw back too far… it looks back at a post from just last month: “Doctors Get Upset With Being Pushed, Bad Leadership, Clumsy Incentives; Try to Unionize.” What’s a bit more of a throwback is receiving a comment on…
Editor’s note (2026): This post remains highly relevant as organizations increasingly rely on algorithmic scheduling, utilization targets, and AI-driven workforce planning. TL;DR: Zeynep Ton’s Good Jobs Strategy shows that cutting labor costs creates a vicious cycle of poor performance. In…
My wife and I were in Boston over the weekend, as it was her fifth reunion from her MIT master’s program. I’m also an alum, but was considered a “guest” since I graduated 16 years ago from my program and…
Mark’s Note: Today’s post is by a regular guest contributor, Christina Kach. I was disappointed that I couldn’t attend this year’s event in Massachusetts, but I was happy that Christina put together this summary. Last week I had the…
I hope you’ll join me and a lot of Lean friends at the 2012 Northeast Shingo Prize Conference, to be held in Worcester, MA September 25 and 26. I’m honored to be part of a great program (PDF), with keynote…
Listen: Episode #110 is a chat with Dr. Jack Billi from the University of Michigan Health System and Medical School. Here, we talk about their lean work and how Dr. Billi works with physicians to engage them in lean, tying…
It’s time for another in my Reader Questions series, this question comes from Brian via email. If you have a question or topic that you’d like me to address, you can contact me via the web or by leaving a…
If your goal is long wait times and frustrated customers, design your system for 100% utilization. Whether it’s airlines, call centers, or healthcare, the same predictable pattern emerges: full capacity destroys flow. Drawing on queuing theory, Factory Physics, and Lean…
Episode #86 is a conversation with David Lawrence Sundahl, PhD, Managing Director of Rule 4 Consulting. They are a firm that works with healthcare providers to drive improvements using Lean and what they call “Adaptive Design” methodologies. Sundahl was a…
One of my goals for the next few weeks is to catch up on blogging about some great speakers I’ve seen recently. Coming soon, a post about seeing Dr. Atul Gawande (The Checklist Manifesto) and Daniel Pink (Drive) in the…
Toyota model transforms St. Clair Hospital ER – Manufacturing principles meet medical care Here’s a nice overview of a Pittsburgh area hospital’s Lean efforts in the emergency department. What were their results? The average wait to get into the emergency…
It’s a not-so-regular feature, but it’s time to clean up the Lean Blog Backlog (say that 10 times fast), the stories that I’ve tucked aside but haven’t gotten the full blog post treatment. Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of…
