Get Lean and Prosper
"Get Lean and Prosper" features news, commentary, case studies, and instructions on Lean manufacturing methodologies and Lean transformation.
Book Review - The Myth of Multitasking
The Myth of Multitasking - Dave Crenshaw I am long overdue on a review of this book, which I feel bad about because I really enjoyed it. Maybe I didn’t get to it because I was too busy multitasking… First off, this is written as a business novel. Lately, I have been really weary about business novels. For one, I’m not a novel reader and, since The Goal, the only business novel ...... Read More
Comments (0)My Daily Workaround: Deleting Commercial Emails
I had an epiphany the other day. It was one of those moments where I was pretty ashamed and was ready to turn in my Lean credentials. I spent too much time each day deleting the same emails from companies that I don’t read. Delete. Delete. Delete. I cringe to think about adding the time spent deleting emails from the Yahoo account that I’ve had and used as my primary email for 12 yea ...... Read More
Comments (3)NPR Does a Great Job of Covering Toyota
Following The Toyota Way, For Better Or Worse : NPR (listen or read) I’ll hand it to NPR, they generally do a much better job understanding and covering Toyota than the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, or Reuters. Tuesday, there was a piece that explored The Toyota Way and Toyota’s management system, much more accurately than the other media. The piece wasn’t a total Toyota love ...... Read More
Comments (0)Jim Collins on Leadership - "Like Lean"?
How the Mighty Fall: A Primer on the Warning Signs - BusinessWeek Jim Collins, of Good to Great fame, has a new book out called How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In. Excerpts were printed in a recent BusinessWeek (a magazine that’s printed weekly, unlike IndustryWeek, but I digress). Collins raises some interesting points about how a company’s success can breed a ...... Read More
Comments (0)"Worst Mistake" This Restauranteur Ever Made
Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine is an outstanding local restaurant in Fort Worth TX that focuses on local food and wild game. Chef Jon Bonnell is highly rated and is written up in many publications. One article posted on the restaurant wall listed this tidbit: Worst business decision “Too many times, I’ve gone with the lowest bidder.” It seems that the chef has learned, ...... Read More
Comments (0)Song Parody: "My Work Would Suck Without Lean"
With extreme apologies to Kelly Clarkson, a parody of the song “My Life Would Suck Without You” (original lyrics and YouTube video). Hardly the artistic highpoint in American songwriting, but a catchy popular tune… I’ve re-tooled it as a bit of a duet between employee and boss… My Work Would Suck Without LeanBy Mark Graban (Employee) Guess this means you’r ...... Read More
Comments (0)My SHS Article About Early I.E.s and Healthcare
Highlights from the History of Industrial Engineering and Healthcare: Part 1 Wanted to share a link to an article I wrote recently for the Society for Health Systems newsletter. The article begins: For those who are new to the fields of industrial engineering or management engineering (as the field is often called in health care), the use of engineering methods may seem like a recent innovation in ...... Read More
Comments (0)Japanese CEOs and Leadership
Toyota Posts Big Loss, Signals More to Come - WSJ.com I saw this article on Saturday and it reminded me to go ahead and blog about a few other articles I’ve seen about Japanese CEOs lately. The big news about Toyota is that they formally posted a loss for the financial year (this was anticipated a while back). Toyota is also anticipating losing MORE money this year. Overexpansion and other ...... Read More
Comments (0)Old Model T Production Line Video
YouTube - Ford Model T - 100 Years Later A bit of manufacturing and Lean history here…. since Henry Ford’s writings and practices helped influence Toyota and the development of the Toyota Production System. Many of Henry Ford’s methods seem “Lean” although the company got away from those practices over time (as Jim Womack mentioned in the BBC audio I posted on Mo ...... Read More
Comments (0)NY Times Says Toyota To Get Leaner, Um, More Lean? Super Lean?
Toyota Is Tightening Its Belt - NYTimes.com The words don’t appear directly in the article, but the RSS blurb for this article (repeated in many “Tweets” and RSS feed news sources) reads: “Toyota Tightens Its Belt - In a soft market for autos, the carmaker’s already-lean manufacturing practices are not good enough…” Of course Toyota is tightening it ...... Read More
Comments (0)Leadership Thoughts from Late Great Detroit Pistons
NBA, Olympic coach Chuck Daly dies at 78 I grew up outside of Detroit during the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” era so I spent a lot of time watching Chuck Daly, who just passed away yesterday. Daly had a reputation for being a coach and leader who could get strong personalities to get along for a common goal — sounds like the traits you’d want in a real leader in any typ ...... Read More
Comments (0)You Observe A Lot Just By Watching - Then What?
Learned 2 things from this pic:men are taller than women; wh… on Twitpic Scott McDuffee referenced the “Yogi-ism” the other day, that you see a lot just by watching or observing. When we teach people Lean in hospitals, half of thebattle is “Learningto See“the waste that surrounds them in their processes and work. There’s a good reason that the famous book ...... Read More
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