What is mistake proofing? Well, mistake-proofing to me (poka-yoke is the japanese term generally associated with this) is to make it impossible for someone to make a mistake. Let’s talk about whatRead More…
Last week, I attended the #SHS2015 conference (Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference). It was great, just as I expected. This event continues to improve year after year. This was my first yearRead More…
These days of Healthcare reform are requiring organizations to look at their existing processes and improve them. We sometimes hear words like “efficiency” or “productivity” following the “improve” piece. In my interactionsRead More…
Today’s post is not my average post talking about lean concepts and examples of how I see these concepts used in industries ranging from manufacturing to healthcare, nonprofits and government. Today I want toRead More…
What are the three foundational elements of successful change? Communication, communication, communication. In any continuous improvement culture, there is change, and hopefully a lot of it. In fact, kaizen, in Japanese means “goodRead More…
I am a big proponent of standardization. In fact, I often call it “my one-string banjo”. When I made the move from the aerospace industry to healthcare, I was appalled at theRead More…
This is the second part of the post I started last week about Adding Value. Last week we talked about how to recognize waste and the seven (or nine) waste categories. IfRead More…
This is Part 1 of a two-part post about how to identify value, and its nemesis: waste. If you want to jump ahead and find out how you can determine value, readRead More…
“gemba”, like many terms used in the Lean philosophy, is a Japanese word. gemba noun : the real place; the place where the action is; used in business to refer to theRead More…
Here I am watching the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Minneapolis and as they interviewed Commissioner Bud Selig about his legacy (he is set to retire in January 2015), he said:Read More…