By Jason Turgeon: Burt’s Bees started out making natural beeswax lip balm back in the ’80’s and ended up making hundreds of other similar body-care products before the company was sold to Clorox last year. I keep a tin of…
By Jason Turgeon: It seems that with oil nearing $140 a barrel, everyone is suddenly excited about improving efficiencies across the board in the world of transportation and fuels. Applying Lean to a process, whether it’s the manufacturing of cars…
My Way News – Airlines slow down flights to save on fuel I’m just thrilled anytime I see an example of an airline making a process improvement (a “kaizen” if you will) instead of their usual game plan of whining,…
By Jason Turgeon: This week is National Drinking Water Week! If that doesn’t excite you, think about the Lean implications of this dreadful story about the deaths of 80 children last month in South Africa resulting from a breakdown in…
Slowdown’s Side Effect: More Nurses – WSJ.com: Not a Lean article, but a major issue for hospitals is a shortage of nurses. With the economy in its current condition, more nurses are returning to work. There’s still a need for…
Star-Telegram.com: | 05/06/2008 | LETTERS OK, so we’re piling on JPS Hospital at this point.. but this letter to the editor caught my eye today: One glaring omission in your series was failure to critique the pharmacy. It’s one of…
Star-Telegram.com: | 04/28/2008 | Trapped in a waiting game at JPS Update: For those who didn’t catch the update to Monday’s post, it was announced that the CEO will be leaving, with somewhat of a sliver parachute, I guess. The…
JPS patients get shortchanged as cash surpluses keep growing This linked article is a preview of what I’ll be blogging about next. I’m trying an experiment in posting an article first… what comments do you have? Don’t worry, I’m not…
Nurse + Blog = PixelRN: 16% of the US economy runs on scrawly, handwritten notes. PixelRN is a blog written by a nurse (who is unfortunately considering leaving the field). She writes about the problems involved with handwritten orders, charts,…
By Jason Turgeon: Introductions: I’m Jason Turgeon, the newest addition to the Lean Blog team. Mark and I have had an email dialog going for a few months about the intersection of green and lean, and he’s invited me to…
Here’s a photo of something I bought at SuperTarget last week, this box of whole-grain Quinoa (snicker if you must… I’m trying to eat somewhat healthy). The box is next to a wine bottle (um, also for “heart health?”) for…
“Help Wanted” highlights skills drain in U.S – Yahoo! News Here’s an interesting story about the shortage of machinists: While millions of jobs making everything from textiles to steel have moved to new powerhouses like China in recent years, precision…