Tag: Standardized Work

Standardized Work: The Foundation for Learning and Improvement

Standardized work is often misunderstood as rigidity or control. In Lean thinking, it’s the opposite: a shared baseline that makes problems visible, supports learning, and enables continuous improvement. This archive explores standardized work as a living system—one that evolves through observation, experimentation, and respect for people.

Examples range from healthcare and service work to manufacturing and everyday systems, showing how clear standards reduce frustration, improve quality, and make meaningful improvement possible.

Fujio Cho on Standardized Work: The Foundation for Improvement, Not Control

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TL;DR: Fujio Cho explained that standardized work is not about control or compliance--it's the foundation for learning, quality, and continuous improvement. When used as...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: October 18, 2024

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Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly...

Starbucks Mobile Order Problems: Why Pickup Delays and Inconsistency Frustrate Customers

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TL;DR: Starbucks' mobile ordering problems aren't about the app or the baristas--they're about inconsistent processes. Store-to-store variation in pickup layouts, visual cues, and drink...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: September 22nd, 2023

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Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this... there's always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: February 10th, 2023

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Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this... there's always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get...

A Bartending Mistake That Stuck: The Story of the Negroni Sbagliato

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TL;DR: The Negroni shows how clear standards make variation visible--and how unnamed variation shuts down learning. The Negroni Sbagliato proves that when mistakes aren't...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: September 23, 2022

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Thanks as always to Ryan McCormick for this... there's always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Insights about improvement, innovation,...

Why People Drive Around the Gate: A Lean Lesson on Standardized...

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TL;DR: Workarounds are not a sign of employee resistance. They are signals that standardized work or supporting systems make the "right way" harder than...

If Mistakes Are Expected, We Can React Appropriately and Constructively (and...

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Recently, I re-shared a LinkedIn post by Maryam Najafi PhD, a clinical scientist from Germany. I re-posted it and that drove even more visibility...

Retired RAF Pilot Peter Docker, on Leadership From the Jumpseat

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Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #437 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Peter Docker. He is...

Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape: Best of 2021

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Thanks as always to Ryan McCormick for this... there's always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! News, blogs, articles, resources,...

When the WSJ Gets Lean Right: Larry Culp, GE, and Real...

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tl;dr: The WSJ usually oversimplifies Lean, but this GE/Larry Culp article offers a surprisingly accurate look at flow, kaizen, and the culture behind real...
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