Tag: Quality

Quality: Leadership, Systems Thinking, and Continuous Improvement

Quality doesn’t come from inspection, pressure, or choosing between speed and accuracy. It comes from well-designed systems, capable processes, and leaders who focus on learning instead of blame. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on quality through a Lean and Deming lens—covering psychological safety, metrics, variation, leadership behavior, healthcare quality, and why sustainable improvement depends on fixing systems rather than managing people harder.

Staff Had Concerns: What a Surgeon’s Manslaughter Charge Tells Us About...

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A Florida surgeon, Thomas Shaknovsky, was indicted on a second-degree manslaughter charge on April 13. The charge followed the death of William Bryan, a...

Toyota vs. Tesla: What Manufacturing Mindsets Reveal About Quality and Culture

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Tesla builds cars in what used to be the NUMMI factory, a joint venture between Toyota and GM (which meant it was run as a Toyota plant with "Lean" practices). Before that, it was a dysfunctional GM plant. Now that it's a Tesla plant, did they learn from Toyota or does it seem more like "the old GM?"

What a Brandi Carlile Concert Teaches About Practicing Continuous Improvement

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TL;DR: A sound check, live song requests, and a naming regret -- what watching Brandi Carlile perform taught me about specific problem-solving, vulnerability, and...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: February 20, 2026

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This week's Operational Excellence Mixtape tackles the challenge of sustaining improvement amidst turbulence and change fatigue. We explore why values must act as your...

Lean Is for Speed, Six Sigma Is for Quality? That’s a...

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TL;DR: "Lean is for speed, Six Sigma is for quality" is a false trade-off. Lean improves flow by removing obstacles like waiting and rework--and...

Why Psychological Safety Is Essential to Quality and Continuous Improvement

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In this special bonus episode, Mark Graban and C.J. Kaufman preview the ASQ Cincinnati-Dayton 2025 conference and explore why quality, leadership, and psychological safety...

Healthcare Cost Pressures Are Real — But the Cost of Patient...

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TL;DR: Healthcare cost pressures are real, but the cost of patient harm in healthcare is far higher. Preventable events like wrong-site surgery drive massive...

Gaming the System: What a USPS Smiley Face Reveals About Bad...

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TL;DR: A USPS clerk tapping the green smiley face on a customer feedback screen is a small but telling example of gaming the system....

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: June 13, 2025

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This edition of Ryan McCormack's Operational Excellence Mixtape explores why real improvement depends on disciplined thinking, leadership habits, and cultural integrity--not slogans or shortcuts....

Transforming Operations with Lean Leadership: Bill Remy, CEO of TBM Consulting,...

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Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #520 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Bill Remy, CEO of...

Achieving Healthcare Excellence: Insights from Jarvis Gray on Lean Six Sigma...

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Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #519 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jarvis Gray, the Managing...

Coming Soon: A Livestreamed Podcast Episode with Jarvis Gray

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I'm happy to announce a live-streamed recording of my Lean podcast with my guest Jarvis Gray. You can join us Live on Linkedin on Wednesday,...
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