Tag: Respect for People

I was really happy to see this publication by Toyota, from Japan but in English: "Akio Toyoda's View on Toyota Production System" There are seven sections: 1....

"Respect for people" is, of course, a core tenet of Lean and the Toyota Production System. It's an important idea in the workplace and...

The past few months have been an anxious and contemplative time. I've been worried about the coronavirus / Covid-19 and the possible impact on...

It's great to see examples of manufacturing companies being flexible and adaptive in these challenging times. Lean methods are often providing a huge boost...

Monday was the first day of my fifth Lean study trip to Japan. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to once again visit a Toyota...

Last month, I had an opportunity to visit the Toyota North American Headquarters that's now near me in Plano, Texas. Thanks to the MIT...

This article made me smile the other day -- especially the comments about Lean, front-line staff, and systems: Q & A with Art Gianelli, president...

Quite often, I used the famed "Red Bead Game" (a.k.a. the "Red Bead Experiment") that was made famous by W. Edwards Deming. Here are my...

Last week, I had the chance to teach and facilitate a Lean education session for a group of health system executives and physician leaders...

The first part of this post is a pretty long introduction before sharing quotes and views from an article that raises concerns about Lean...

A retired labor leader from the automotive industry (who reads this blog) sent me a link to this article: #RedforMed: 1,800 Vermont Nurses Are On Strike Demanding Their Hospital Put Patients Over Profits The article isn't from a newspaper; it's from a site that provides "independent and incisive coverage of the labor movement and the struggles of workers to obtain safe, healthy and just workplaces." Again, for the record, I'm all in favor of "safety, healthy, and just workplaces." That's what Lean management aims to deliver.

Today, I'm giving a talk at the International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT) conference in Toronto. I was invited by the company Quotient to participate in a panel presentation and discussion with some laboratory professionals from the U.S. and the U.K. The others are presenting examples of how they have improved flow, productivity, and quality in blood collection and hospital blood bank settings. Lean often gets portrayed as just being about efficiency or flow, when Toyota's definition of the Toyota Production System talks about how flow and quality go hand in hand. I was specifically asked to give a short talk titled, "What Do Cars Have to Do With Healthcare? How to Adopt and Adapt Lessons From Manufacturing."