I bet the company that services my pool was surprised that I had a checklist-related process improvement suggestion for them after a mistake was made instead of being angry and wanting somebody punished or talked to...
There’s a fun game you can play online in your browser… and it’s free. Start typing a phrase into the Google search box (or into the top bar of your Chrome browser, as I tend to do). The “autocomplete” suggestions…
Questions for a baseball game, a hospital or any workplace: What happens when we have rules that are confusing to people? What happens when those rules aren't being enforced? And what if the rule is a solution to a problem that's not really a problem?
Mistake proofing is a core Lean / TPS concept that makes it harder for people to do the wrong thing. Ideally, we make it impossible for errors to occur. This might be easier in physical settings, but can also be done in the digital realm.
We don't have money for improvement initiatives, but we do have money to burn on a daily basis due to poor quality and bad systems?
In this post, I describe an idea (or a suggestion?) that led to a Kaizen improvement through Catalysis (formerly known as the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value).
The BBC radio program “The Science Hour” recently aired a program with a segment where an unexpected person (Dr. Kevin Fong) to an unexpected place (UCLA Harbor Medical Center) to look into “Lean.” You might remember UCLA Harbor from my…
Originally published May 4, 2016. Updated in 2026 “Patients are not cars.” I’ve heard that objection for twenty years now. It usually arrives as a conversation ender rather than a conversation starter. And the thing is, it’s true. Patients are…
Today, I'm sharing a link to some free "Lean 101" material that the AMA has created for physicians. I'm not sure when this initiative launched, but I just learned about it... the AMA is offering some online education about Lean in healthcare...
The W. Edwards Deming Institute posted a video of Kevin Cahill, a grandson of Dr. Deming, welcoming people to the event and talking about innovation, or the desire that people have for it. But, they don't know what to do...
My guest for episode #220 is somebody I’ve wanted to interview for a long time, Dr. Robert Wachter, one of the leading voices in the modern patient safety movement. He’s most recently author of a brand-new book The Digital Doctor:…
I do my best to “practice what I preach” in terms of Lean and Kaizen principles and spirit. No, I don’t have tape outlines around the items on my home office desk (which would be, at best, a superficial copying…