What’s Going on at Whole Foods? It Doesn’t Sound Like #Lean But…
The chain Whole Foods is reportedly having inventory shortages and morale problems. It sounds like a real mess, but…
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Retail
A Look Back at “The Good Jobs Strategy” – For Retail and Beyond
Today, I'm looking back at at podcast from two years ago, sharing this written summary that hopefully better…
Information Deficits, Visual Indicators, Error Proofing, and Payment Terminals
Gwendolyn Galsworth is a leading thinker and author on Lean and various aspects of "visuality." One thing she talks…
J.C. Penney’s CEO on Listening to Front-Line Employees
After the previous CEO of JC Penney, Ron Johnson, was fired (see my post "Lack of PDSA made JCP CEO SOL?"), it…
Podcast #228 – Zeynep Ton, “The Good Jobs Strategy”
Labor Day is Monday, so maybe it's appropriate that my guest for episode #228 of the podcast is Zeynep Ton, an…
So-Called “Just in Time” Retail Staff Scheduling is not #Lean At All
Stories like this have been in the news before, but this was circulating the past few days: "Why erratic schedules…
Visiting MIT, Learning about “The Good Jobs Strategy” for Retail (and…
Last week was an amazing week of learning and networking. I was in Dallas for the Lean Healthcare Transformation…
This Newbie Has a Good Grasp of Lean
I get a lot of emails from regular readers or people who have just stumbled across my blog. I try to be as helpful…
Lack of PDSA made JCP CEO SOL?
It's been interesting to follow the rise and fall of former Apple retailing executive Ron Johnson during his…
Visual Management in a Prepared Foods Counter
As my wife and I are in the process of moving to San Antonio, we've visited the local Central Market grocery store…
What can Golf Cart do for you?
Readers outside the U.S. might not know the UPS advertising slogan of "What Can Brown Do For You?" This often…
Missing the Inventory Target at Target & Lessons Learned
Over the weekend, I went to a local Texas Target store to buy a Christmas-themed gift card. I checked a few…
Automation is Not Always the Answer, in Retail or Healthcare
Lately, there have been many stories in the news about supermarkets ripping out self-service checkout scanner,…
Invest in Robots or in People? Amazon Makes the Lean Decision
I'm finally blogging about a Wall Street Journal article from just before Christmas - it's still a generally…
Customer Intimacy = Safety from Salmonella?
I'm not one, generally, to worry about consumer privacy with stores and them tracking my purchases. I like that…
Starbucks Tests "Lean" Operations In Some Stores
Starbucks Gossip: Starbucks tests "lean" operations in Ohio and Kentucky stores
We've known for some time that…
Sunday Brunch Thoughts
So it's Sunday morning, I have a cup of coffee at the ready... nice quiet, peaceful, sunny Sunday morning (you can…
Best Buy Gets It
by Dan MarkovitzBest Buy is generally not talked about as an exemplar of lean. (It's best known for its Results…