Mistake-proofing is not about blaming people or demanding perfection. It’s about designing systems that make errors less likely and make problems visible when they occur. This archive explores mistake-proofing as a leadership and system responsibility—across healthcare, aviation, manufacturing, and everyday work.
Through real-world examples, these posts show why signs, reminders, and “be careful” messages fail—and how better process design, learning, and respect for people lead to safer, more reliable outcomes.
Society of Manufacturing Engineers Catching up on some old links and articles I never did get around to publishing… here’s a good overview of error proofing (not “fool proofing” or “dummy proofing”) from the SME and their magazine. Please check…
This is an incredibly sad, and completely preventable, situation. Three babies are dead, and three more injured, because the wrong drug was administered to them at an Indianapolis hospital. Let’s keep in mind, first, this quote from the World Health…
Welcome to the main summary page for Everyday Lean entries on the Lean Blog. If you want to share Everyday Lean ideas, here is the main page to send them to. Click here for the direct link. Or, you can…
This Is Broken – Hotel room warning I saw a large ad in the paper Friday that reminded me of this blog posting (link above). Be sure to click on the link to see a picture of what I’m talking…
