This week starts the celebration of International Nurses Week, which leads up to Nurses Day on May 12, which is the birthday of the legendary Florence Nightingale. Hug a nurse today. Or do whatever you can to help. Nurses are…
Since the healthcare improvement work I do is apolitical and non-partisan, I’m generally not one to butt into the political affairs of Canada or other countries. But, when I hear complaints about Lean or when it’s being called a “scam”…
As we move into the Labor Day weekend, I need to close some browser tabs that are full of things that I was maybe going to write about, but don’t merit a full post. So, the latest in my “What…
Toyota UK published a two-minute Toyota Production System video that does something most TPS explainers fail at. It leads with people, not tools. As the video explains, “every team member has the right to stop the line if he sees…
An andon cord lets a team member signal a problem and call for help. In the Toyota assembly process I observed in 2012, the signal brought a team leader to the work. If the issue could not be resolved before…
I know many of you aren’t into the whole Twitter thing, but I’m using my account (@MarkGraban) to share some photos and small batches of ideas that I come across during my trip to Japan. I’ll also share them here…
In the news yesterday, a General Motors recall over what could be just one isolated steering wheel problem in an Ohio-built Chevrolet (don’t call it Chevy) Cruze. Most news stories, like this one, about the recall just mention that one…
tl;dr: The andon cord isn’t a tool–it’s a trust signal. Toyota’s thousands of line stops reflect psychological safety and leadership support. Ford’s rare pulls reflected fear and mistrust. Lean succeeds or fails on culture, not mechanics. In 2007, a BBC…
