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.
In a recurring feature, here are links to some more articles I’ve read recently that might be of interest: Luxury car program brings cancer patients to treatment in style (KVUE-TV, Austin) – a great non-profit effort started by a former…
Episode #144 is a discussion with Dean Gruner, MD, the president & CEO of ThedaCare, talking about Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and how ThedaCare is using this approach, along with Lean methods, to improve the coordination of care for patients.
Back by popular demand, here are links to some more articles I’ve read recently that might be of interest on a number of Lean related topics: Potent Medicine Delivers a Treatment Plan for U.S. Health Care (new book from Dr.…
Here’s a great video of Paul O’Neill, former CEO of Alcoa and former U.S. Treasury Secretary, talking to healthcare leaders about their leadership role in improving quality and patient safety. You can listen to my earlier podcast with him here.…
Here are links to some articles I’ve read recently that might be of interest: Can Hospital CEOs Be Team Players? (H&HN News) Preventing Hospital Blunders (Science 2.0) Rise of the Medical Expertocracy (WSJ) At Weschester Medical Center, executives get raises,…
My friend Mike Thelen, who works in the dairy industry, has a guest post I’m going to publish next week talking about the seemingly unfounded hysteria over so-called “pink slime” that has been in the news recently. I was nauseated…
In this month’s “ASQ Influential Voices” series, ASQ President Paul Borawski asked, “How Do You “Sell” Quality?,” particularly to senior execs and CEOs. Paul asks how we convince senior leaders that quality is essential to long term performance. Through my…
Since the webinar I’m doing later today for Gemba Academy (Using SPC to Make Better Management Decisions) allows me to cite the late great Dr. W. Edwards Deming when talking about variation in systems, I thought I’d share this silly…
Here is an hour-long lecture given by John Toussaint, MD – shared by the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. There isn’t a lot of context given on the YouTube page for the video, but it seems like a video from…
It was a very pleasant surprise that ASQ chose Ari Weizweig, a founder and CEO of Zingerman’s Deli (and other businesses) in Ann Arbor, to be the opening keynote speaker at the recent ASQ Lean & Six Sigma Conference in…
I was driving the other day, listening to the 1980s music channel on XM Radio. The DJ announced a song by Duran Duran and it really sounded like “Juran Juran,” reminding me of the quality legend Joseph M. Juran. It…
One of my favorite newspaper writers is Ed Wallace of my local Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Wallace appears in the Sunday automotive section and usually writes about broader business issues beyond cars. His most recent column (“The Fall and Rise of…
