It’s sort of cliche’ to complain about long lines at the U.S. Post Office , along with generally surly or disinterested employees. My buddy John sent me an email about a recent experience where the postal employee WANTED to help,…
The other day, I had a DirecTV service tech coming to the house to make a repair (their customer service has been FAR better than my recent experiences with Verizon, I’m happy to say). I received a “robo-call” the day…
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…
Article Link: “Shorter hospital stays through better coordination” Is Lean a global phenomenon, or what? Here is a story from a Korean news website (in English) about a German consulting firm that’s an offshoot of a manufacturer (Porsche) helping hospitals…
Sunday, I read this New York Times article about Apple’s “App Store” for the iPhone and iPod Touch (I’ve been a pretty happy iPhone user for the past three months after switching over from BlackBerry). I’m going to try to…
Episode #73 is a conversation with Doug Burgess, Senior VP of Corporate Lean Six Sigma for Xerox. We talk about the Lean Six Sigma approach at Xerox, how they’ve used it internally and how they have used it to help…
Afternoon post planned for today — initial reflections on my reader survey. Thanks to those of you who gave your feedback. Come back or check it out tomorrow. Now this morning’s post: TOYOTA: Company; Message from Top Management New CEO…
Companies Strive Harder to Please Customers – WSJ.com Lean is a customer-focused business and organizational strategy. Many companies, unfortunately, use a downturn as an excuse to cut costs, a move that often hurts quality or customer service. Traditional companies might…
Lean Leap to Health Care #7 (click for Part #6) by Scott McDuffee “Where is the main entrance? Why do I follow the signs to HERE? Now you are telling me to go all the way down THERE! How far…
I’m not one, generally, to worry about consumer privacy with stores and them tracking my purchases. I like that amazon.com keeps a record of my purchases, as they can make recommendations for related items and my shopping history is available…
by Dan Markovitz In a refreshing change of pace for the auto industry, Akio Toyoda, who was just named as the new president of Toyota, did not ask for government loans. Nor, in his first public statements, did he express…
I walked into my hotel room after three nights of complaining about the internet and found a stuffed bear on the bed. “Beary Sorry,” it said. Hampton Inn logo on the chest. Next to it, a handwritten apology note. I’d…
