There’s a long-standing argument that I’ve been dragged into with a group that calls itself “new systems thinkers.” They loudly criticize Lean as being altogether awful (with the alternative, predictably, being their services). One of them wrote a blog post…
The last two days, I’ve been facilitating my LEI workshop called “Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare.” We had a great group and had a number of people who had a good amount of Lean healthcare experience. To help baseline…
When I was traveling last week, a magazine caught my eye, one I don’t normally read: Scientific American Mind and the article “Cubicle, Sweet Cubicle: The Best Ways to Make Office Spaces Not So Bad ( Preview )“. The whole…
Today is a federal holiday in the United States, Labor Day. I know that’s obvious to the 70% of you reading from the U.S., but it seemed worth pointing out to the international readers. Labor Day became a holiday in…
Via Google Alerts, I try to regularly scan and see where hospitals are posting jobs related to Lean. I found (OK, Google found) one posting last week that I shared on my “Move to Healthcare” networking site (free registration required…
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: Here’s part 4 of a series by our guest blogger, Andy Wagner. Start reading with Part 1 here. “What lies behind us and what lies in front of us pales in comparison to what lies within us.” —…
TL;DR: The New York Times showed that Lean healthcare isn’t about “factory medicine,” but about removing waste so clinicians can focus on patients. When grounded in respect for people and strong leadership, Lean improves quality, access, and cost–while misapplied versions…
This is going to seem like a political rant, but I promise this is mainly a post about Lean and healthcare, or at least it’s about dysfunctional parallels in both settings. It was said that President Ronald Reagan and Speaker…
Mark’s Note: Here’s part 3 of a series by our guest blogger, Andy Wagner – a series that started here. Many of us work in an environment that our host, Mark Graban, would characterize as “non-Deming”: LAME more often than…
I guess I have a burr in my saddle this week, being Independence Day and all, since I’m commenting on something from the UK again today. I don’t mean to come across as anti-Brit, as I love the UK. I…
Mark’s note: Today, I’m happy to welcome back an old Lean Blog contributor, Andy Wagner. He takes a more personal turn here than most of my guest bloggers for the next two weeks, writing about the application of Lean thinking…
