In China, Preventive Medicine Pits Doctor Against System – WSJ.com: Continuing the discussion from Evolving Excellence, today’s WSJ has a well timed article. This isn’t just an American problem…. seems like human nature, this conflict: “Dr. Hu Weimin has attracted…
A Novel Plan Helps Hospital Wean Itself Off Pricey Tests – WSJ.com Kevin, over at Evolving Excellence, raised a similar issue about misaligned incentives and misleading metrics in healthcare (thanks for the mention, Kevin). This article, linked above, from the…
Tom LaSorda Plebeian Prince (WSJ) Here is a new interview with Chrysler’s Tom LaSorda, a lean leader who has been featured often here on the Lean Blog (some earlier posts here). LaSorda is spending a lot of his time at…
Why Clean Up Your Desk? Delight in Disorder Instead (WSJ $$)What does a clean desk have to do with 5S? It depends. Do you have your own desk or do you share a workspace with others? Can you find any…
WSJ: At GM, Curbing Inventories Calls For Juggling Act From the article: At the end of December, GM had more than one million vehicles in stock in the U.S. That’s equivalent to about 41,000 vehicles for every point of its…
TL;DR: Matching staffing to customer demand can make sense from a Lean perspective — but when scheduling systems create unpredictable hours and treat workers as variable costs, they undermine respect for people and ultimately harm both employees and customers. Wal-Mart…
A few articles in the news today about bad bosses. Hopefully, more than a few have 2007 resolutions to get better. Chances are though, the bad bosses think they are great. If your boss has resolutions for becoming a better…
In conjunction with their new paper design, the Wall St. Journal has opened up its website for free, just for today. If there were articles you previously sawed linked to on the Lean Blog, today is your chance to read…
How Financiers Pursue Profit At Skidding Auto-Parts Maker Here’s another article in the WSJ’s “Wow, we still build stuff here” series (my unofficial title). This article talks about how private equity firms (including Wilbur Ross) are putting money into auto…
Honey, You Shouldn’t Have – WSJ.com Update: I was probably wrong on this one (see here). You see the ads for Lexus with the cars with red bows on top, the ultimate Christmas gift, right? It’s really the result of…
Personal Technology – WSJ.com The Wall Street Journal has an article today about two automated online backup systems, Mozy and Carbonite. Each costs about $50 a year to automatically, in the background, backup your files to a remote online server.…
As Rivals Catch Up, Toyota CEO Spurs Big Efficiency Drive – WSJ.com Not sure if there will be a free version online (if so, I’ll try find it or someone post a link). Welcome, WSJ readers who found me via…