Sugar-coated messages are in bad taste. In survey after survey, people ask for straight talk on all issues. They don’t want artificially-sweetened words that supposedly will help the medicine—that is, the tough messages–go down. Sugar-coated messages are still a…
As I’ve been re-reading Dr. Deming’s Out of the Crisis, stuff like this jumps out at me more and more. I saw similar signs at Heathrow Airport last month bragging about the airport exceeding targets for customer service. This is,…
Update (1/7/10): Turns out the TSA agent walked away from his post. I’d certainly hold someone accountable for that, since it was a conscious choice, unless there were VERY extenuating circumstances. After seeing the news on CNN last night (video…
Housekeepers’ Giant “Hope Quilt” Puts Hotel Job Injuries in Spotlight | Labor Notes Articles like this are incredibly frustrating to see. It makes me think of a variation of the famous Bon Jovi song that would go something like “You…
Ah, what a day yesterday. You’d think getting from Boston to Philadelphia would be easy. I’m here, teaching my “Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare” workshop for the first time for LEI. I got to Logan a little before 1…
This sign and picture might be a bit rude, so I saved this for a Saturday. To me, a very powerful and often unknown principle of the Toyota Production System and Lean is the idea that managers must “explain why”…
In-flight food: Heaven or hell on a tray? – CNN.com Thanks to Pierre-Yves for pointing this out… I don’t understand how Lean even came up in this article about bad airline food. Austrian catering company DO & CO has transformed…
I had my Lean goggles on at the airport last week and took two pictures of some Lean concepts in action. First off is a typical FedEx drop box. I’ve seen this before, but I love the simple visual control…
Three airlines drop self-reporting safety program – USATODAY.com Dropping this program has got to be one of those “process indicators” of airline safety. I can’t believe that flying will be as safe without this program where pilots could report problems…
Sorry, not trying to turn this into a travel blog, but I tried the mobile boarding pass again (my earlier post). There’s some glitch in the system when pulling up the boarding pass at the gate. Luckily, I had printed…
TSA: Why? The Reasons Behind TSA Security As much as I complain about the TSA, they do some things well. You might remember my blog post from 2006 about a sign put up by the Transportation Security Administration what explained…
Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes. (Rule 8 of The Toyota Way) Being the geek that I am, I took advantage of the chance to try the new American Airlines mobile flight check-in process.…
