For a long time, it’s bothered me that organizations typically react to a mistake with punishment. This is even more annoying when the phrase “hold people accountable” is used as a polite or passive-aggressive way to say “blame and punish people.” This happens a lot in healthcare, unfortunately. As I’ve been editing the manuscript for […]

What ChatGPT says about me is generally flattering but inaccurate and inconsistent. Ask multiple times and you get different wrong answers. I find it disturbing that it credits me for things I didn’t do. It also omits some I have done, which makes me wonder to whom ChatGPT attributes them. Here are a few mistakes […]

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of February 2022.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.     When You’re Convinced You’re Right, You’ve Lost Your Ability to Learn – Pascal Dennis says we need to cultivate debate, dissent, and a healthy skepticism but first we have to […]

The Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) is used in the automotive industry to establish confidence in component suppliers and their production processes. Developed by the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), the PPAP process has become the de facto standard for automotive suppliers. The PPAP process involves five key steps: Design and Development Approval: The supplier […]

We have known for decades that people who participate in decision-making that affects their work feel a higher degree of ownership and commitment to that work. We also know that where more people are involved in a joint process of common interest, the quality of output is higher.  The same is true of strategic planning.  […]

Quick Intro As some of you know, Henrik Kniberg in (I think) about 2014 “wrote down” the then-existing “Spotify Model”.  How they worked then. It dealt with Scaling, but also with how a Team was organized.  And a bunch of other things. First, the way (the model) that Spotify was working then was in continuous […]

Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. Insights about improvement, innovation, and leadership… Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation From the Archives: The Lean Mail-Order Food Company Lean only applies when demand is […]

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on […]

Planned Maintenance Definition Planned maintenance is the planning, documenting, and scheduling of any maintenance activity. Essentially, it is a maintenance approach that aims to reduce unplanned equipment downtime and instead, promotes planned downtime. So, scheduling this kind of maintenance extends the lifespans of your assets and keeps them in working order. Two Types of Planned […]

The Aim of Effective (Planned) Maintenance Effective Maintenance aims to raise the company’s productivity by lowering the total cost of its equipment over every stage, from design and fabrication to operation and maintenance (including the initial cost of the equipment itself, maintenance and other running costs, and losses due to equipment deterioration). The goals of […]

This article caught my eye today, and it’s a change of pace to think about and write about mistakes other than my own (and I made more today — but healthcare mistakes are more important). Penn Medicine hospital cited over wrong-site surgery It’s a mistake to perform surgery on the wrong leg. Not an “unintended […]

How to promote risk awareness and prevention The influence of culture significantly impacts employee behaviors and attitudes about workplace safety and health. Like all other aspects of culture, success depends on leadership from the top. For ideas and actions that support safety to be widespread, they need to be embraced and practiced from the C-suite […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #469 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Matt May and Pablo Dominguez, the authors of the new book What a Unicorn Knows: How Leading Entrepreneurs Use Lean Principles to Drive Sustainable Growth. It’s available now! Matt has been before, in episodes […]

The Lean methodology is an evolution of the Toyota Production System that the Japanese automaker implemented following World War II to improve the efficiency and flexibility of its manufacturing. Two important books, The Machine That Changed the World (1990) by James P. Womack, Daniel Roos, and Daniel T. Jone and Lean Thinking (1996) by James […]

We all make mistakes. I feel like I’ve made more mistakes than usual this week — including a series of mistakes related to my Lean podcast that I released this morning. 1) I think I had the release date jotted down wrong for the new book by Matthew May & 🦄Pablo Dominguez, so I was […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #470 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gary Michel. He was Chairman and CEO of Jeld-Wen, Inc. until August 2022 and, just after that, I saw him give an outstanding keynote talk at the AME annual conference in Dallas. Gary was […]

I learned from my time at Wiremold, originating from Art Byrne, the fundamentals of trystorming. This method consists of, “Rapid cycles of real-time experimentation, used to test and adjust improvement ideas before establishing standard work or implementing processes broadly.” In plain language this means – try it out! Try Storming incorporates physical actions that can […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #469 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Matt May and Pablo Dominguez, the authors of the new book What a Unicorn Knows: How Leading Entrepreneurs Use Lean Principles to Drive Sustainable Growth. It’s available now! Matt has been before, in episodes […]

“Good Change” Begins with a New Paradigm Working with organizations of all sizes and in all industries, we’ve learned that transforming a business to adopt a culture of continuous improvement takes more than a few new policies and a series of meetings. Instead, what’s required is a new way of thinking and approaching problems that […]

Somewhat surprising to industry insiders, the CEO of Toyota Motor, Akio Toyoda, announced on January 26 his resignation, and he will step down as CEO on April 1, 2023, to become the chairman of the board. Hence, I will have a look at his impact on Toyota. However, just to be warned, if you expect […]

Do you have a hard time understanding what CaPex or OpEx is? CapEx CapEx, or capital expenditure, is a financial term that describes the cost of acquiring, maintaining, or improving fixed assets such as property, plant, and equipment (PP&E). In simple terms, CapEx refers to the money that a company invests in its infrastructure or […]

On Thursday, I’m happy to be hosting the latest webinar in the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinar Series: Introducing the Connections Between Habit Science and Continuous Improvement It will be presented by Dr. Greg Jacobson and Morgan Wright from KaiNexus. Greg and Morgan have been studying three books on the science of habits: They’re synthesizing the […]

The very first Commander in Chief of the United States of America set the standard for leadership in the new country not only for his tactical prowess but especially for his character and trustworthiness. George Washington’s administrative and organizational skills in conjunction with his merit, passion for country before himself, and the mutual trust he […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) A deep bow to the late great psychologist, John Bradshaw, for the title. Dr Bradshaw, a genuine healer, recognized the corrosive effect of parental self-righteousness on children and families. [Bradshaw On: The Family: A New Way of Creating Solid Self-Esteem] The philosopher, Eric Hoffer saw self-righteousness as the driving force behind […]

Testing audits and inspections are all examples of quality control techniques used to assess the effectiveness and compliance of a system, product, or process. Inspections are the visual evaluation of a process or product to ensure it complies with rules or requirements. This can be carried out either manually or with the use of automated […]

So your leadership training is a great commercial success. You have made a lot of money, but the overall impact is nearly zero. Sure, you get a call from someone every now and then who tells you how much you helped them. While the training was technically accurate, perfectly presented, engaging, and informative, you never […]

Perhaps you’ve been wondering where I’ve been going with posts like Your organisation in 5 networks and Start where you are. Well, just in the last few days the Systemic Agility community have given me the perfect opportunity for the big reveal. I’ll be speaking at their meetup at 17:30 GMT on Thursday, March 9th: Between spaces, […]

Process capability Process Capability (Cp) is a statistical analysis of a process’s capacity to manufacture parts reliably within predetermined parameters. Depending on the stage of the process and the method used to calculate the standard deviation or sigma value, we can calculate Cp (Process Capability), Cpk (Process Capability Index), or Pp (Preliminary Process Capability), and […]

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on […]

So your leadership training is a commercial success, but its overall impact is nearly zero. Sure, you get a call from someone every now and then who tells you how much your training helped them. While the training was technically accurate, perfectly presented, engaging, and informative, you never hear from the hundreds or thousands of […]

To make the product best-selling and the most wanted among the targeted customer, the product has to be as flawless as possible. This perfection is only achievable by evaluating the measurement system. Measurement systems evaluation is a high-priority step that every company should follow before the product is dispatched from the warehouse. The development and […]

FEATURE – A senior executive of a Spanish hotel chain shares an example of how the organization’s management system and visual tools have changed over time. Words: Jordi Estalella As an organization develops its ability to identify and solve problems and becomes more mature in its understanding of Lean Thinking, it is only natural that […]

Before we get into detailing the 7 steps of autonomous maintenance, let’s first get into what autonomous maintenance is and the benefits of putting it into practice. What is Autonomous Maintenance? Autonomous maintenance (AM) is a maintenance strategy that gives machine operators responsibility for basic upkeep tasks of their equipment and machinery. For example, this […]

What is quality control? Quality control refers to the processing that ensures the product quality is maintained and upgraded. To do so, the company designed a chain of command that includes the chief operating officer to the end level of employees who ensure the product quality is up to the mark and will satisfy the […]