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.
This might seem like a random topic, but what the heck, it’s a Friday. I arrived in Orlando yesterday for the Society for Health Systems and HIMSS conferences and I picked up a rental gar from the garage. It’s a…
Toyota has produced a series of videos that show how their innovations, technology and otherwise, have benefitted people outside of automobiles. One video that caught my eye was their 80-second video about the use of Lean and the Toyota Production…
I’m really thankful for an attendee in a training workshop for sharing this video as an example of traditional “non-Lean” attitudes and practices that she saw in her hospital. It’s a clip from the movie “Babar – King Of The…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post is from Dr. Mark Jaben, an American doctor who worked in New Zealand, leading to this blog post. I have talked with Mark about Lean quite a bit over the past few years and we…
I got a question via Twitter yesterday from somebody who asked how to help production operators make the case to supervisors that their kaizen ideas should be implemented. My response was that the supervisors are the ones you need to…
I’m finally blogging about a Wall Street Journal article from just before Christmas – it’s still a generally interesting topic, I think. The article was “Holiday Help: People vs. Robots” It compares the labor and productivity strategies of two retailers…
Just before the new year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured the Lean efforts at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (“St. Louis hospital among handful using efficiency to aid patients“). I think it’s more than a “handful” of hospitals around the world using Lean…
Here is a new reader question from Steve Palmreuter in Michigan. He raises a topic that I’ve been thinking about lately, so I’m happy to share it with you (with his permission). You might remember Steve as I blogged about…
Dan Pink joins me to discuss his book Drive and the science behind what actually motivates people — ideas deeply aligned with Lean thinking and Deming. We explore why “if-then” rewards backfire for complex work, the dysfunctions of incentive schemes…
There was a short blurb in the Institute of Industrial Engineers IIE magazine this month that caught my eye. It read: “The vast majority of manufacturers (89 percent) plan to undertake process improvements during the next 12 months, according to…
For episode #106, we have a returning guest, Jim Baran of the firm Career Kaizen, formerly of “Value Stream Leadership.” Jim was previously a guest on episodes #16, 27, and 88 talking about careers in Lean. Today, Jim talks about…
I blogged about this a few weeks back, but Toyota has posted an outstanding short video about their work at a food bank, applying lean/TPS principles for social good. I love particularly how they emphasize that they didn’t come in…
