Kaizen is often misunderstood as small ideas or isolated improvement events. In practice, Kaizen is a daily, people-centered approach to learning and improving work—supported by leadership, good systems, and psychological safety. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and real-world examples of Kaizen in action, across healthcare and other industries, with a consistent focus on leadership behaviors, respect for people, and learning from problems rather than hiding them.
No, this is not a program of Kaizen, or continuous improvement, for babies. Babies naturally grow, try new things, and gain new capabilities. But, we tend to lose that as adults. As Dr. Deming would say the “forces of destruction”…
As we enter the new year, it’s a great time to reflect back on 2012 – what worked and what didn’t work… what do we plan to do differently in 2013? Those are some of the core questions found on…
On Friday, I had a great opportunity to teach a class of healthcare professionals at the Master of Business Operational Excellence (MBOE) program at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. I saw some of their capstone project presentations and…
Note: Not sure why my blog plugin thinks the links are bad (crossed out), but they work if you click on them: Back in June, I was interviewed on Robbin Block‘s small business show (“Minding Your Business“) that appears online…
Reflecting more on my recent Japan tour (see previous posts) one word came up in my notes: artifacts. One dictionary definition of that term is straightforward: “any object made by human beings, especially with a view to subsequent use.” Another…
Here is a nice story that’s been in my blog’s “to write about” inventory since late October: “Participation in Lean events has renewed my faith in health care.” The piece is written by Heather Thiessen and she was able to…
Here is video #8 in our series of short, simple Kaizen education videos from KaiNexus, a software startup where I am on the management team (see the whole series here). We’re also making the videos available on our YouTube Channel and our education videos playlist.…
Here’s a great clip from Thursday’s episode of The Office. One of the new employees shows how he enters customer complaints into the computer and THEN has to fill out green comment cards. He asks why he has to fill…
Yesterday, our tour group had a chance to visit an outstanding factory. They manufacture gas meters and they do everything from casting aluminum, creating printed circuit boards, stamping, painting, assembly – all in a single site. It reminded me a…
A hospital CEO who turned around a near-bankrupt organization over two decades credits one thing above all else: the steady accumulation of small improvements. Not a grand strategy. Not a consultancy-led transformation. Just the ongoing discipline of kaizen — and…
Our Kaizen Institute guide, Brad Schmidt (pictured above) talked to us on Monday about standardized work. He said, of the practice at Toyota, that it’s “voluntary standardization.” This is revolutionary thinking, I believe, for much of the Lean community and…
TL;DR: An andon cord is not primarily a line-stopping device. At Toyota, it’s a signaling system that allows workers to call for help immediately. Most problems are resolved before production stops. Its deeper purpose is to protect quality and create…
