Any process should make defects visible when it can’t prevent them outright. A Krispy Kreme donut line shows the principle better than most factory floors. Here’s a photo I took a few years ago. What jumps out at you? For…
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...
Why the sign on the Apple Store door reminded me of their poor problem solving and inelegant solutions to my broken MacBook Pro. This might be my last blog post for the week unless that gets sorted out (or if I get better at doing work like this on my iPad). It might be my last Mac. How the mighty have fallen?
Thanks to Lean Frontiers for sharing a story from Mike Hoseus on LinkedIn. Mike is, of course, co-author of the excellent book Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way (written with Jeff Liker, who I just learned is retiring from the University of Michigan... more on that soon).
As I mentioned on Monday, I’m working on a 3rd revised edition of my book Lean Hospitals. Traditional book publishing is a funny (and sometimes frustrating) value stream, in a lot of ways. There are many batches and many queues along…
I’ve never been a big fan of the TSA or any form of visual inspection. I wasn’t a fan, either, of the automated x-ray technology that was used in (and then removed from) American airports while being banned in Europe…
Did you hear about the fireworks mishap in San Diego on the 4th? Instead of a planned 20-minute show, there was a “glitch” that led to ALL of the fireworks being set off in a 15-second explosion-azanga. I don’t know…
Back by popular demand, here are links to some more articles I’ve read recently that might be of interest on a number of Lean related topics: Potent Medicine Delivers a Treatment Plan for U.S. Health Care (new book from Dr.…
Why inspection alone does not prevent defects TL;DR: Even with multiple editors and spell checks, publishing errors still occur. This post uses real examples to illustrate why 100% inspection is not 100% effective, a lesson that matters even more in…
On last Thursday’s episode of The Office, Dwight Schrute installed a software system that he called an “accountability booster,” aka the “doomsday device,” as it was referred to by the rest of the office staff. There had been a number…
Today, I’m linking to a fantastic interview and discussion between two luminaries in the patient safety world – Dr. Robert Wachter (read his blog) and Dr. Richard Shannon (who is featured, among other places, in the “Good News: How Hospitals…
