TL;DR: A look back at Lean manufacturing training from 2002 reveals a familiar lesson: Lean succeeds when customers treat suppliers fairly, production schedules are stable, and improvement goes beyond tools to include respect, trust, and Kaizen thinking. Toyota’s approach–then and…
TL;DR: Automakers often overproduce because incentives reward shipping cars to dealers, not matching real demand. Excess capacity, revenue rules, and “channel stuffing” drive inventory waste–and healthcare faces similar pressures that create overutilization and distorted metrics. “Where the World’s Unsold Cars…
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: Here’s another great vacation guest post by Jeff Hajek: By Jeff Hajek Despite having been fairly main stream for going on three decades now, there are a surprising number of misconceptions about Lean. Here is a list of…
Ah, the perks of subscribing to the GBMP’s YouTube channel… this might be basically a world premiere, breaking news video release. I *never* thought I’d see and hear Bruce “Toast” Hamilton singing Devo. And wearing the hat. And cracking a…
While the hurdles to systemic Lean healthcare transformation are high (see the payment system challenges discussed in John Toussaint’s new book), I am generally optimistic that we can significantly improve healthcare. I am, however, very cynical about attempts to apply…
Over the weekend, I went to a local Texas Target store to buy a Christmas-themed gift card. I checked a few registers and all I could find were for new babies, birthdays, or “LOVE.” Not a single Christmas, winter, or…
Short post today, but a simple message, I think. One of the best lessons I’ve learned about Lean management is about the need to ask “why?” Don’t assume, don’t blame – ask why. It’s a very common situation in a…
Today’s post is an interview I conducted via email with Justin Holland, Managing Principal of GE Healthcare Americas. Before joining GE, he was most recently Vice President of Business Performance at Cleveland Clinic. In this interview we cover topics including…
OK, so I’ll admit I had a case of “rabbit ears” when I took the WSJ to task for calling the doomed BP Deepwater Horizon rig a “lean” operation. They were using the colloquial everyday use of “lean,” a term…
Mark’s note: Yes, I’m still on vacation. I’m very thankful for my cadre of guest bloggers, including today’s guest, Jeff Hajek. Jeff is an active blogger at his site “Gotta Go Lean” and he is the author of the book…
Ten Common Misconceptions About Toyota | Quality Digest I found this interesting column from Quality Digest, by Stewart Anderson, a guy who says he has first hand experience with Toyota people and suppliers. The website bio page requires registration to…
