I used to like the slogan, “Lean and Green are two sides of the same coin.” I even used it as a tagline in presentations in which I was arguing that there is a potential for significant synergy between the Lean and sustainability programs in my company.
I’m in my home town of Livonia, Michigan this week, having arrived to the snow and cold yesterday, staying through Thursday. Boy, my blood has really “thinned out” from 15 years of mostly living in Texas or Arizona. I made…
Mark’s note: What follows is a guest post by Keivan Zokaei about the necessary and unsurprisingly overlap between Lean principles and environmental stewardship. I wrote about this dynamic in a 2010 blog post: “Lean Leads to Green, Which Supports Lean,”…
I know about 35% of you are reading from outside of the United States, but it is a national holiday here today, Memorial Day. It is a day to remember those who gave their lives in service to their country…
My city in Texas signed a contract with a new trash/waste company that starts on September 1st. The new bin is green (pictured at left). I already had two blue bins from the old company. The bins work just fine.…
Forgive me if some Texas pride comes through in this post, as well as some former-client pride. The clinical laboratory team at Children’s Medical Center Dallas was featured in the peer-reviewed Medical Laboratory Observer for their combination of Lean and…
Today, July 7, is the birthday of Frank Gilbreth, born this day in 1868. While some of his methods arguably ranked low on the “respect for people” scale (calling doctors “boobs” for doing things wastefully), he was an innovator in…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Tim McMahon, who normally blogs at his called “A Lean Journey: The Quest for True North.” Tim has been a good friend of my blog and has been a frequently contributor to our…
One of my colleagues from across the Pond, James Marsh at Sheffield Hallam University, is currently researching his PhD exploring Lean Six Sigma and its environmental benefits and/or tradeoffs. For his thesis, James is analyzing the key differences among different…
I am at the Ontario Hospital Association ‘HealthAchieve’ meeting (giving a talk on Lean Healthcare later on). I saw Dr. Sanjay Gupta present this morning and will post a few notes about his talk – not about “Lean” but there…
Channeling my inner Andy Rooney… I try to be a lean thinker and a lean guy. I’m all for reducing and eliminating waste. Where that lines up with the “Green” movement, that’s great. “Lean & Green” often line up in…
I’ve complained about this before, it hardly fazes me any more when the media say that GM is going to be “leaner” in the future. Of course, Lean Thinkers realize they mean “smaller” not “more lean” in the sense of…
