According to this article (link has been misplaced), ThedaCare has been modeling the Toyota Production System to implement lean for the last 2 years. There is some explanation of what ThedaCare terms ‘Rapid Improvement Events’ where a cross functional team…
Somebody says it in the comments of nearly every post about Lean, usually with a few exclamation points. “Toyota doesn’t call it Lean!” It gets offered as if it settles the matter. I’ve said a version of it myself. Talking…
A close family member spent time in a hospital ICU recently. The clinical care, as far as I could tell, was excellent. The nurses were attentive. The physicians explained things clearly, and more than once. I’m grateful, and I don’t…
No. The claim that “Lean is for speed and Six Sigma is for quality” misrepresents both methodologies. Lean — based on the Toyota Production System — improves safety, quality, delivery, cost, and morale (SQDCM) together, with built-in quality (jidoka) as…
In March 2007, Jim Womack told me about his biggest disappointment. The Machine That Changed the World had been out for more than sixteen years, sold around a million copies, and was about to be reissued with an updated subtitle:…
I was saddened to learn that Kim Barnas passed away on January 3, 2026. She was 69. My deepest condolences go out to her family and the many colleagues and friends she influenced over the course of a remarkable career.…
TL;DR: Lean daily management is the system that makes improvement happen between the projects — visual boards, huddles, gemba walks, leader standard work, and strategy alignment working together. The boards don’t do the work. The leadership behaviors do. Most Lean…
I ran an experiment recently. I gave ChatGPT and the Lean Coach AI I built the exact same opening statement about a real problem. Then I asked each one for help with creating an A3. The difference in how they…
In strategy deployment — also known as hoshin kanri — there’s a practice called “catch ball.” The metaphor is pretty straightforward. Goals and priorities flow down from senior leadership. Ideas and feedback flow up from frontline staff and managers. Both…
The Problem Nobody Talks About Here is a scenario that plays out in hospitals and factories every day. An organization decides to “do Lean.” They hire one person — or reassign someone from operations — to lead the effort. That…
AI tools are showing up everywhere in healthcare — for clinical decision support, operational analytics, and now for learning and coaching around improvement methodologies. If you’re a healthcare leader exploring AI, you’ve probably already been pitched a few. Most evaluation…
TL;DR: Dr. John Toussaint says healthcare culture won’t change until leaders do–moving from “white coat leadership” (all-knowing, autocratic, blaming) to Lean leadership as facilitator, teacher, and student who learns improvement by doing it. Mark’s note (2026): I originally shared this…
