Tag: Standardized Work

Here's a blog post written by three physicians: Can the auto industry improve spinal fusion surgery? It's interesting that they so closely associate Lean with the auto industry when, at this point, Lean is used in virtually every industry and setting. That's why I used the word "Lean" in the title of my blog post here. They are also authors of a journal article titled "Application of Lean Principles to Neurosurgical Procedures: The Case of Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery, a Literature Review and Pilot Series," published in Operative Neurosurgery. In my post, I comment on their work...

Back in 2014, I wrote an article for The Lean Post: "Standardization is a Countermeasure, Never the Goal" I'm a big fan of Taiichi Ohno's advice to "start from need." I cringe when I hear people say that we should standardize the way work is done "because Lean says so." There's no substitute for judgment in the grey areas related to standardized work. What should we standardize? For what purpose? How standardized should the work be? Baseball is struggling with questions like this... how standardized should the balls be... and for what purpose?

Last week, I got back from my third trip to Japan and we visited three hospitals, Toyota, another manufacturer, and heard from a cafeteria services company leader about their Lean and continuous improvement journeys. As I've blogged about before, some of these organizations have been practicing TQM for 30 years and are adding elements of Lean methods on top of that foundation. I'm hardly an expert on Japan. I still feel like I view the country with fresh eyes. Standards and Standardized Work... at Work During this trip, I heard a number of people talk about the cultural imperative about following rules and laws. In the workplace, we might call these rules "standardized work"...

I've blogged about football before - I should say "American football," since I have many international readers. I should say I've blogged about events on the football field and the approaches of football coaches that remind me of Lean thinking. Here are a few of those thoughts from last weekend -- topics include "lack of urgency," "that's not my job," and "the process."

Today's blog post is about airplane food. It's not about the quality of airplane food... it's not an SNL Seinfeld-ish "what's the deal with...

Today at 3 PM, I'm doing a webinar at the invitation of the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council, as part of their "Quality Café" series. Thanks for the invitation! It's open to the public and it's titled: "Standardize What Makes Sense... Then Engage Everybody in Improving What You Standardized" I hope you can join us...

Update: See the end of the post with some photos I took at the game yesterday where Beltre got his 3000th career hit -...

I'm at the 8th annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit in Palm Springs, California. Follow on Twitter using the hashtag #HCSummit2017. If you're here at the event,...

Questions for a baseball game, a hospital or any workplace: What happens when we have rules that are confusing to people? What happens when those rules aren't being enforced? And what if the rule is a solution to a problem that's not really a problem?

It's good that United's CEO has taken responsibility for system problems. It's great that they are changing some policies. But why does he say they don't have a culture problem if employees aren't empowered? That sounds like "culture" and a "problem" to me.

Last week, I received a few questions from somebody at a hospital system and I thought I'd address one of them here: "Can you suggest any "quick wins" to get staff engaged in a Lean culture?"

As I'm documenting in the comments here, the collaborative eBook Practicing Lean has now generated more than $1000 in donations to the Louise Batz Patient Safety Foundation....