Cleaning out the Blog Backlog

Sometimes, I have a collection of news stories or links that I
either don’t have time to blog about, assume you don’t have time to
read about, or don’t really merit a full blog post. So my “WIP” of
“draft” posts or links I’ve set aside grows.

• Following up on my surprising
  praise of American Airlines, they also made another
  improvement. You no longer have to, as the passenger, request for
  an upgrade TWO separate times for a given flight (in advance and
  then again at the airport). AA must have had some extra room in
  their IT budget last year to make these customer-friendly, time and
  motion-saving improvements.
• AA also got slapped by environmentalists for the “waste” of
  
  sending a flight across the pond with just five passengers on
  it. They also allegedly had
  empty oxygen tank on a flight that may have allegedly contributed
  to the death of a sick passenger. Allegedly. Major process
  error or greedy lawyer? Who knows.
• More companies are
  going Lean in Wisconsin, in the neighborhood of ThedaCare.
• A nice post from Matthew May:
  Elegant Solutions: Don’t Pay for Grades

• GM CEO Rick Wagonner
  received a 33% raise after the new labor contract with the UAW
  was focused on slashing hourly rates. Not cool. Where is the
  leadership? The raise makes up for
  the 50% pay cut that Wagonner had taken previously in 2007,
  putting his salary back at $2.2M a year (plus incentive
  comp).

• The software company Intuit seems to be really into Lean and
  the Toyota Production System based on their job postings,
  including this one.
• Article by H. Thomas Johnson on the
  problems with “Lean Accounting.” “Management by Financial Targets Isn’t Lean;
  American industry must erase lean accounting before it destroys
  lean management.” Wow, how do you really feel, Dr.
  Johnson?
• A
  virtual gemba walk of sorts with a retail store manager (from
  back before Christmas). What percentage of their time is spent on
  being a supervisor, manager, or leader and what percentage is just
  spent doing stuff or being a higher-paid “doer?”

Who can say “blog backlog” ten times fast?