Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership (Mark Graban)

Joining me for Episode #267 is Stephen M. Shortell PhD, MPH, MBA. He is Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professorship, HPM and is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. He is the director of the Center for Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research (CHOIR). Today, we are talking about Lean healthcare and a new initiative that's part of CHOIR called CLEAR: the Center for Lean Engagement & Research in Healthcare. You can read a release about CLEAR, which highlights funding coming from the Lean Enterprise Institute, the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, and Rona Consulting Group. In this episode, we talk about the Center, their planned research, and some reasons why there is variation in what organizations would describe as "Lean" - variation in methods and approach as well as variation in results.

My guest for podcast episode #223 is Christian Wolcott, a senior advisor and director of Kaizen Institute North America and their director for Japan tours. Christian was an integral part of the team for the Japan Lean Healthcare Tour that I participated in last November as an instructor. Christian taught Lean concepts and facilitated discussions with me and the global attendees. In this podcast, we talk about our reflections on Japan and the tour, lessons learned, and reasons to go (which include wonderful camaraderie, fine cuisine, and evening discussions with the attendees). You can learn the difference between sushi, shabu shabu, and shōchū, in addition to learning about Lean and Kaizen. We're planning another tour in September, so please contact me if you'd like to be sent more information and check out the website I've set up about the tours. See past posts I've written about the tours --- http://www.japanleantrip.com. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/223. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com

Today's podcast, #232, is presented with a heavy heart, after the recent passing of my friend Dr. Michel Téatrault, the CEO of St. Boniface General Hospital and a great Lean leader. He was a friend to many in the Healthcare Value Network and the broader Lean healthcare community. As I was remembering Michel, it occurred to me that I had recorded a podcast with him, back in 2010, as part of a series that I was doing for the Healthcare Value Network. I never shared that audio as part of my main podcast series, so I'm doing so today. In the episode, we talk about "Lean from the CEO perspective." I hope Michel's words and experiences at St. Boniface continue to help and inspire people. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/232.

My guest for Episode #293 of the podcast is a dynamic speaker and manufacturing leader, Billy R. Taylor. I saw him speak a few years ago at a Shingo Prize Conference and I've wanted to get him on the podcast ever since. He's currently the Director of Commercial, Off Highway, and Support Manufacturing North America for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Over the past 20 years, he has risen from "the lowest level of the organization," up through the manufacturing leadership ranks at Goodyear, including time as a Plant Director at facilities in Oklahoma and North Carolina. He's been "engaged in Lean" for over 15 years and he is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Billy has a BS in in Electrical Engineering from Prairie View A&M University and an MBA from Baker University. Billy was very giving of his time and we talked for over 75 minutes, so I'm breaking this up into two parts, with Part 2 coming soon. Today, we talk about how he got started with Lean, the shift from tools- and event-based Lean to a culture focus, how to build a sense of ownership, servant leadership, strategy deployment, employee recognition and more.

Episode #250... a big round number. 250 podcasts in just under 10 years. Thanks again to Norman Bodek (my first guest and frequent guest) for the idea back in 2006. My goal with the podcasts has always been to showcase my guests. Occasionally, I take the stage or share the stage with audio of me. Today is one of those episodes. Earlier in May, I had the chance to co-present a webinar with Dr. Jack Billi from the University of Michigan (archived here). The webinar was hosted by the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, which is being spun off by the American Medical Association. Before the formal webinar, Jack and I recorded some informal Q&A with the host, Stephen Davidow. This audio, shared with the permission of the PCPI also includes the Q&A that was done after the webinar presentation. I hope you enjoy our discussion about how we each got started with Lean in healthcare and more.

Episode #56 of the podcast is a discussion with John Shook, one of my absolute favorite people in the Lean world.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/56 

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Episode #56 of the podcast is a discussion with John Shook, one of my absolute favorite people in the Lean world.

The few times I've seen John present or had the chance to chat in person, I've learned more in that amount of time than from anyone else, so I'm thrilled to have him here. John has a new book, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute, about the “A3” problem solving process called Managing to Learn: Using the A3 Management Process to Solve Problems, Gain Agreement, Mentor, and Lead. John also has a new blog on the LEI website, which is exciting to see. In the podcast, we discuss the story behind the book and some thoughts on how to get started with A3 thinking from scratch in your organization.

Episode #56 Key Words and Links:

• About A3s (via John's blog)
• Lean Enterprise Institute
• John Shook's Lean Management Column (blog)
• Problem solving, kaizen, A3 thinking, A3 reports

Episode Page

Podcast #98 brings us Pat Bergin, President of Aerofil Technology, a manufacturer based in Missouri with 400 employees. Aerofil has been on its Lean journey since 2007 under Pat's leadership – first as a consultant and now as President.

With more than 30 years of operations, finance, sales and marketing experience, Pat has brought both a broad and deep understanding of continuous improvement to Aerofil as President. His mission is the relentless pursuit of excellence through the total elimination of waste.

Pat was previously at Esselte, under the direction of Art Byrne (formerly of Wiremold), that Pat learned and developed his Lean (kaizen) management skills under the coaching of Shingijutsu Co LTD (Chihiro Nakao) of Japan, an original architect of the Toyota Production System.

In this podcast, we talk about how he drives Lean as the company President, how Lean fits into their overall strategy, and what challenges they have worked through. Here is a recent news story about their Lean achievements and business results.

To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/98.

Pat Bergin Bio

Pat first began working with Aerofil in 2007 as a consultant and taught Lean Manufacturing to the Senior Leadership Team.  Lean Manufacturing encompasses the continuous improvement philosophies and real world applications of the Toyota Production System.  Through his natural teaching abilities and results-driven leadership, Pat quickly earned the trust and respect of both Aerofil's ownership and management staff, and joined the company full-time as the Vice President of Operations / COO in early 2009.

With more than 30 years of operations, finance, sales and marketing experience, Pat has brought both a broad and deep understanding of continuous improvement to Aerofil as President. His mission is the relentless pursuit of excellence through the total elimination of waste. 

Prior to joining Aerofil, Pat was a Senior Lean Management Consultant with Simpler North America where he worked with several multibillion-dollar corporations such as Owens Corning, Novelis and MTD, successfully guiding their senior leadership and plant management teams in the Lean transformation process. It was here that he both personally met and benefitted from the many learnings of George Koenigsaeker (formerly Danaher, Hon), who sits on Simpler's Board of Directors.

Earlier in Pat's career, he led and participated in hundreds of enterprise-wide Lean conversion events across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe at Esselte Corporation, a billion-dollar global office products manufacturer.

It was at Esselte, under the direction of Art Byrne (formerly Wiremold), that Pat learned and developed his Lean (kaizen) management skills under the coaching of Shingijutsu Co LTD (Chihiro Nakao) of Japan, an original architect of the Toyota Production System. He was later certified as an internal sensei by Shingijutsu where he conducted multiple kaizen blast events in the area's shop floor manufacturing, distribution, finance, office administration and corporate policy deployment. He also helped introduce Lean throughout Esselte's global supply chain by leading multiple kaizen events for several key vendors within their preferred supplier program.

Pat has a Bachelor's of Science in Business Management from the University of Phoenix and enjoys spending time with his family, walleye fishing, swimming and the St. Louis Cardinals.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

 

Joining me for episode #219 is Tristan Kromer, a professional "Lean Startup" coach who works with startups around the world and volunteers for the non-profit Lean Startup Circle. In this episode, we discuss topics including how he got involved in the Lean Startup movement, the difference between a coach and a consultant, and lessons from various startups. When are you "pivoting" versus just giving up on an idea? Tristan also talks about why being data driven and scientific "is the aspiration" and why somebody who "starts from a profound state of ignorance" can be helpful by asking the right questions. You can find Tristan on Twitter @trikro and via his blog. Read his bio here. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/219. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Joining me for episode #219 is Tristan Kromer, a professional "Lean Startup" coach who works with startups around the world and volunteers for the non-profit Lean Startup Circle. In this episode, we discuss topics including how he got involved in the Lean Startup movement, the difference between a coach and a consultant, and lessons from various startups. When are you "pivoting" versus just giving up on an idea? Tristan also talks about why being data driven and scientific "is the aspiration" and why somebody who "starts from a profound state of ignorance" can be helpful by asking the right questions. You can find Tristan on Twitter @trikro and via his blog. Read his bio here.

Why do people fear change? Why are adults afraid of talking about their fears? My guest today is eminently qualified to answer such questions and to provide advice that can help us. My guest for Episode #315 is Robert Maurer, Ph.D., author of the outstanding book Mastering Fear. Bob was previously my guest for Episode #153, where we discussed one of his earlier books on Kaizen, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. By the way, earlier this year I noticed that his other book The Spirit of Kaizen was one of the few books by an American author that Toyota was selling at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya (see photo below). I hope you enjoy today's discussion on Mastering Fear. As the subtitle says, can we "harness emotion to achieve excellence in health, work, and relationships"?

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/19

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Episode #19 of the Lean Blog Podcast brings the return of Jim Womack. Jim was sitting in Melbourne Australia, where he had been speaking about lean healthcare, a topic that we will discuss in a future podcast.

In this podcast, we talk about Jim's reflections on the book The Machine That Changed the World and its recent reissuing by the publisher (with updates). In the podcast, Jim not only talks about Toyota's success, but ways in which Toyota could fail or falter in the future. This is the first part of our discussion, I will release the second part in the upcoming weeks.

If you enjoy this podcast, I hope you'll check out the rest of the series by visiting the LeanBlog Podcast main page. Earlier podcasts with Jim can be found here (#12) and here (#13).

Show Notes and Approximate Time, Episode #19

• 1:30 Jim's thoughts on “Machine,” written about “why the teams [GM, Ford, Chrysler] can't win the away games”
• 1:55 The book before “Machine” was “The Future of the Automobile” (1984)
• 2:15 The job of “Machine” was to describe a complete business system… “the biggest disappointment… was to have people tell me it was a great book about factories.”
• 3:00 “You get the feeling that a lot of people read the book, but just that one chapter [on manufacturing].”

• 3:50 Probably about a million copies sold so far
• 4:00 The publisher said that 2007 is the year when Toyota is probably going to pass GM, so why don't we re-issue it?
• 4:20 The new subtitle is “Why Toyota Won”
• 4:45 “We've learned a lot since then… some of what we told you in the book is not exactly right, so we're thinking of it not exactly as a product recall, but as a model line enhancement. This is what might have been the 1991 model if we had done annual model changes.”
• 5:30 Is there risk of a backlash with Toyota becoming #1? Jim talks about “ways in which Toyota could lose,” starting with manufacturing
• 10:50 “They could go native”
• 10:05 How Toyota could lose with the product development system (book by Al Ward)
• 10:40 The Jeff Liker book on product development (“they are complements to each other,” Jim says): The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process And Technology
• 14:30 How Toyota could fail with their dealer system

• 15:45 Jim's essay on farmers and hunters
• 22:40 GM and the X-cars (info here and here)
• 24:10 Jim asks, “Can Toyota screw up? For the short term, the answer is no, for the long term, absolutely!”
• 24:30 “Most any other company would be fat, dumb, and happy.”
• 24:50 What about the excuses the Big 3 make about currency factors, etc.?
• 25:30 How the Big 3 are like the Detroit Lions

My guests for Episode #295 are Sarah Steinberg of Atrius Health and Ted Toussaint, a healthcare innovation strategist, formerly of Atrius Health. Ted is also a faculty member for Catalysis.  Today, we're talking about some innovative work that they led at Atrius, using a variety of modern product development and innovation methods, including Lean, Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and more to create a new "Care in Place" model for home-based patient care that helps reduce trips to a clinic or hospital. Their work was featured in this HBR article: "How Atrius Health Is Making the Shift from Volume to Value."

A returning guest for episode #132, we are joined by author and professor Bob Emiliani. Today, we are chatting about some videos he recently posted to his website… 10-year-old videos that document executives from Virginia Mason Medical Center, now considered a leader in Lean healthcare, visiting a Lean manufacturing company, Wiremold. You can view the videos on Bob's site or read some summaries via this blog post of mine.

In the podcast, Bob reflects on those videos and we talk about some of the lessons learned – what healthcare executives can learn about Lean leadership from manufacturing leaders.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/132.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

My guest for episode #193 is Mark Jaben, MD, talking about our brains, Lean, and change. Mark has been a guest blogger for me before and it's great to talk to him today about his research and experiences. In our conversation, Mark talks about "the troublesome features of our brain's operating system" (such as our "hidden brain"), how the A3 problem solving process fits with the way our brains work, and how to deal with "resistance" to change. Mark has also helped talk to some healthcare organizations about KaiNexus and we both presented at a conference last year. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/193 -- go there for some links and material that Mark wrote to share with the listeners (and he'll have a guest post soon that expands on the thoughts in the podcast). Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblog If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for episode #277 of the podcast is Kay Kendall (@KayAKendall), co-author (with Glenn Bodinson) of the excellent book "Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way: How World-Class Leaders Align Their Organizations to Deliver Exceptional Results." Kay is CEO & Principal at BaldrigeCoach (see her bio there). Since 1989, BaldrigeCoach has worked with organizations across every sector, large and small, to use the Baldrige framework to create focus, align empowered employees, provide high quality products and services, deliver exceptional customer experience, and achieve enviable results. In this episode, we discuss topics including her background in manufacturing and quality, her experience with the Baldrige approach, and the ways that Lean and Baldrige are complementary.

Epsiode #92 brings a returning guest, the always entertaining and thought-provoking Mike Micklewright. He is the author of a batch of two new books: Out of Another @#&*% Crisis! Motivation through Humiliation and Lean ISO 9001: Adding Spark to your ISO 9001 QMS and Sustainability to your Lean Efforts. In this podcast, we talk about his "Crisis" book and why it's important to revisit the teachings of W. Edwards Deming. How are companies and CEOs performing against the famous 14 Points? You can find Mike online at www.mikemick.com. You might remember Mike from Podcast #43, "What Would Deming Say?" - www.leanblog.org/43 You can read about or comment on this podcast at www.leanblog.org/92 For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

See http://www.leanblog.org/260 My guest for Episode #260 of the podcast is Brad White, author of the recently-released book Lean Daily Management for Healthcare: A Strategic Guide to Implementing Lean for Hospital Leaders. He is currently a Senior Process Improvement Advisor at Grady Health System in Atlanta, but I first met Brad a few years back when we were both in San Antonio and he was working for a health system there. In San Antonio, Brad helped spread these "Lean Daily Management" practices at the Baptist system and University Health System. I was able to come visit and see how this process was engaging leaders and staff at UHS (see photos below). You can learn more about Brad's book at his website, which includes a two-page PDF on how these methods can improve patient flow. http://leandailymanagement.com/

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/95 

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Episode #95 features Norman Bodek talking about some of the ideas in his most recent book, How to do Kaizen: A new path to innovation – Empowering everyone to be a problem solver. Late in the podcast, Norman asks and answers an interesting question: what if an employee suggests “we should blow up the factory”?? This was recorded in March 2010, with Norman appearing from his office in Portland, OR. You can read about or comment on this podcast at www.leanblog.org/95. You can also see Norman speak, as this was also published as Video Podcast #11 -- go to www.leanblog.org/v11 For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.ort, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/6

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Here is LeanBlog Podcast #6, the second part of my discussion with Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean. You can find the first part of the podcast here.

In this Podcast, we talk about how leadership needs to apply the ideas of waste to reduction to their own jobs and how leaders really “lead” rather than being merely “behind” lean efforts.

• 0:50 How do you teach people how to see waste? What is the role of leaders in eliminating waste?
• 1:10 More about the “language of waste” and specific waste terminology, why is that important?
• 2:10 How leaders can eliminate waste from their own role and your own work
• 4:20 How can leaders get people to move to action? Does fear get in the way?

• 4:55 “Be visible” – being visible versus being a “showman”
• 5:10 “Great leaders ask great questions” but it's also important to make suggestions as a leader, to help drive action
• 5:30 “The management support myth” — being “behind” lean versus being a leader
• 6:35 Asking questions versus pointing out things to do
• 8:30 Doing lean “with” someone versus “for” them
• Jamie's most recent column in Assembly Magazine can be found here. Click here for an archive of Jamie's columns.

Joining me for episode #248 of the podcast is Drew Locher, an author, consultant, speaker, and, also like me, a faculty member for the Lean Enterprise Institute and the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. You can read his bio via his consulting website, Change Management Associates. Drew's books include Value Stream Mapping for Lean Development: A How-To Guide for Streamlining Time to Market, Lean Office and Service Simplified: The Definitive How-To Guide, and Unleashing the Power of 3P: The Key to Breakthrough Improvement. He also, most recently, released a second edition of The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping for Office and Services, a recipient of the Shingo Research Award. You can also read his two guest posts that I've published on this blog. In this episode, we talk about his books, how Lean is about more than just tools, and the need to focus on "the critical few things" instead of falling victim to a "scattershot" approach to reducing waste. "We learn more by doing than talking about it," says Drew about Lean.

Episode page

This episode is a discussion with Joan Wellman, of the consulting firm Joan Wellman & Associates.

Joan is a real pioneer in the lean healthcare arena, having started her initial work with a hospital in 1995 — I haven't found anybody who started this work earlier than her. We first met in Seattle a few months back and I'm thrilled to bring you this discussion about the early days of lean healthcare and her thoughts on the potential for the future.

 

 

Today's episode is a chat with Jody Crane, MD, MBA and Chuck Noon, PhD. They are talking about their outstanding book The Definitive Guide to Emergency Department Operational Improvement: Employing Lean Principles with Current ED Best Practices to Create the “No Wait” Department.

Dr. Crane is an Emergency Physician practicing at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia. From 2002 to 2009, he served as the Business Director of his group, Fredericksburg Emergency Medical Alliance. He currently serves as a faculty member in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and is also faculty at the University of Tennessee's College of Business.

Dr.  Noon is a Professor of the Management Science Program in the Department of Management. He joined the faculty in the fall of 1987 after completing his Ph.D. in Industrial & Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is also a founding member of the UT Physician Executive MBA Program.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/120.

For earlier episodes, visit the  main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

Episode page

Back on the podcast for the fifth time is my friend David Meier, a Lean / TPS consultant who is a former Toyota leader at their plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. He's gotten into what's, perhaps, the most Kentucky of industries… distilling bourbon (and more).

You can also listen to another, much longer episode where David and I talk about bourbon, whiskey, and continuous improvement for almost 90 minutes total there.

Today is a shorter episode, where we catch up and hear more about what David has been doing since his last podcast appearance in 2010 when we talked about the challenges Toyota was facing then. In this episode, David drops a lot of knowledge and wisdom in a very short time — thoughts on problem solving and how Lean thinking isn't easy for anybody, even if you're Japanese.

He's co-author, with Jeff Liker, of the books The Toyota Way Fieldbook and Toyota Talent.

My guests for Podcast #179 are my friends Judy Worth and Tom Shuker, two of the co-authors of the book Perfecting Patient Journeys, which was published earlier this year by the Lean Enterprise Institute.

About the book: “Perfecting Patient Journeys” is a guide for leaders of healthcare organizations who want to implement lean thinking. Readers will learn how to identify and select a problem, define a project scope, and create a shared understanding of what's occurring in the value stream. Readers will also learn to develop a shared vision of an improved future, and how to work together to make that vision a reality.”

We'll talk about their book, what types of value streams and “extended value streams” are being worked on in healthcare (including “end-to-end” flows), breaking down silos, improving quality and cost as a result of taking time out of the value stream, and more.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/179.

Other links and info:

• Downloads and templates from the book (see the “downloads” tab)
• A review of the book by John Miller at the Gemba Panta Rei blog
• A review by Tim McMahon on his blog

Conflict of interest disclosure: I received a free copy of the physical book and e-Book from the Lean Enterprise Institute and I am formerly an employee of LEI.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

You can also listen via Stitcher.

Podcasts Sponsored by KaiNexus

Steve Shortell, The Impact of #Lean on Healthcare Quality http://leanblog.org/310

Joining me again for Episode 310 is Stephen M. Shortell Ph.D., MPH, MBA. He is Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professorship, HPM and is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health.  He was previously a guest on Episode 267 talking about the establishment of the Center for Lean Engagement and Research (CLEAR) at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is the director.  In this episode, we talk about some initial research that they released in a paper that was published in The Joint Commision Journal on Quality and Patient Safety: "Use of Lean and Related Transformational Performance Improvement Systems in Hospitals in the United States: Results From a National Survey"

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Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/7 

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #7, a new discussion with our friend Norman Bodek, President of PCS Press and the author of many books, including Kaikaku: The Power and Magic of Lean. In this Podcast, we discuss Toyota's response to recent quality problems and recalls along with other Lean leadership topics.

LeanBlog Podcast #7 Show Notes and Approximate Timeline

• 1:40 What are Norman's thoughts on Toyota's recalls and their response of adding time back into the product development process to build in quality?
• 2:08 “When your model is being attacked, it's unnerving. Very often, people are looking for an excuse to not do something.”
• 2:50 Yes, Norman buys Toyota
• 2:57 The book 40 Years, 20 Million Ideas: The Toyota Suggestion System
• 3:50 How Toyota invests in people, their training and development and how “lifetime employment was a brilliant concept” because that investment in people is an investment in the company.
• 5:45 A few years ago, Norman visited Toyota Georgetown, why was the number of suggestions dropping? Employees had been getting $20 per suggestion, no matter how small and so employees “played the game and played it well.” So, Toyota stopped the program.
• 7:55 “The greatest respect you can show somebody is asking their opinion and listening to their ideas.”
• 8:10 Norman suggests that Toyota should have just changed their system to pay $20 for an idea “if it was worth $20.”

• 8:40 “Lifetime employment” or “lifetime improvement?”
• 9:10 As employees, do we learn and improve for the sake of “me” and “my career” or for “the company?” Norman says it's “sad” that I don't want to improve for the company's sake.
• 10:00 Although Toyota Georgetown does not have “lifetime improvement,” they have never laid off a worker.
• 10:10 Are Toyota “temp” workers treated differently? Do they get a similar sense of commitment for ideas and suggestions?
• 11:15 How “Quick and Easy Kaizen” focuses on what's good for the worker? How do you make your work more interesting and easier? Norman says, “The result will be better quality, safety, customer service, productivity…”
• 12:30 Back to Toyota's product development and quality
• 13:10 Motorola and product development engineers improving the process
• 14:00 “How can you ask employees to be innovative rather than needing to have everything controlled by management, as we do in America?”
• 14:55 Norman says, “Management is not trained extensively, as they should be”
• 16:10 Working every day to improve, as employee, in a highly competitive world
• 16:30 Sending work to China for cheaper labor to do non-value added work versus eliminating waste? Why?
• 17:40 What about Toyota describing product development problems as “bonehead mistakes?” Is that not showing “respect for people?”
• 18:00Toyota tries to take waste development out of the development process without working them too hard.
• 20:20 Why Norman likes the theme of “respect for people”

My guest for Podcast #181 is a good friend, Ron Pereira of Gemba Academy, an outstanding provider of online Lean (and now Six Sigma) education.

Ron's blog posts can now be found at the Gemba Academy blog.

I was recently a guest on episode #8 of his podcast series. Ron was also the guest host for episode #143 of my podcast, where he interviewed me with follow up questions from a webinar I did for Gemba Academy on SPC.

Before I moved to San Antonio, Ron and used to live just about five miles apart in Keller, Texas and would meet for coffee regularly… but, today, we are talking via Skype. We're talking about his background with both Six Sigma and Lean and about how these methods can be used together. Ron tells a story about a time he used statistical methods to solve something that might have been difficult with standard Lean approaches.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/181.

Conflict of interest disclosure: Gemba Academy is a formal partner of KaiNexus, a technology company I work with and have an ownership stake in. I have received a free subscription to the Gemba Academy training classes.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to  subscribe via RSS  or  via Apple Podcasts.

Joining me for episode #195 is my friend Steve Montague from LifeWings. Steve and I met initially through our shared interest in Lean and, like Ron Pereira, we discovered we both lived in Keller, Texas (I've since moved to San Antonio). Steve is a retired Navy pilot and currently flies for a major commercial airline. He's also been involved, through LifeWings, in the movement to bring aviation safety practices (and culture) to healthcare via "Crew Resource Management" or "TeamSTEPPS." He's also been on the forefront of combining Lean and TeamSTEPPS, something we both agree is a great idea. In honor of National Patient Safety Awareness Week, we talk about topics including: - Steve's background with CRM in aviation and healthcare - Why CRM isn't just about checklists, but also learning how to "communicate more assertively" in the cockpit or operating room... - How Lean and CRM / TeamSTEPPS fit together conceptually - How standardization and iterative improvement fit together There's so much we could talk about, so we barely scratched the surface on this topic. If you have questions, we can do another podcast. Please post them as comments on this post. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/195 -- go there for some links and material that Mark wrote to share with the listeners (and he'll have a guest post soon that expands on the thoughts in the podcast). Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblog If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

A returning guest (episodes #30, #38, and #48), Bob Emiliani is again featured in episode #77 of the LeanBlog Podcast. Bob is the President of The Center for Lean Business Management, LLC. He is a leading authority on Lean management, who since 1995 has focused his efforts on de-mystifying the "black art" of Lean leadership through his "Real Lean" series of books. Today, we talk about his most recent work - the republication (with additional material and commentary from Bob) of a book by Frank Wollard called Principles of Mass and Flow Production. You can read more about the book here on Bob's web site: www.theclbm.com. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

LeanBlog Podcast #65 is a discussion with Kevin Frieswick, a Lean Process Manager, with MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, MA. I found Kevin earlier this year when I discovered their YouTube video about innovations at MWMC, which included a unique error proofing device to help encourage handwashing by staff and physicians before entering patient rooms. I recommend you first watch the video here (http://www.leanblog.org/2009/02/error-proofing-handwashing.html) before listening to the podcast. In this podcast, Kevin gives us more details behind the invention of the device and how it has been received in the hospital. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #167 is Clare Crawford-Mason, the producer of the landmark 1980 NBC documentary that featured W. Edwards Deming,  “If Japan Can Do It, Why Can't We?” You can view the documentary here.

I was fortunate to meet Clare and her husband Bob back in 2007 or so when I was teaching a Lean healthcare seminar near their home in Washington, DC. Clare and Bob led the efforts to create the “Deming Library” video series. They also created the PBS special “Good News: How Hospitals Heal Themselves” and the companion book The Nun and the Bureaucrat.

We've talked for years about doing this podcast and I'm glad to finally being able to share this with you. Early in the podcast, Clare talks about meeting Dr. Deming and the production of documentary, which is a fascinating story and glimpse into his personality and work.

Show notes and links:

• Atul Gawande MD article: “Testing, Testing”
• Deming Institute
• Time piece on “Why Healthcare Costs are Killing Us”
• The Nun and the Bureaucrat/Good News…How Hospitals Heal Themselves Book/DVD Set via Amazon

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/167.

Episode #147 is a part two of a conversation with  Scott Patten and Peter Armstrong from  LeanPub.com (listen to part one in episode #140). They want to be THE website for publishing “in-progress books”. In this episode, we are talking  about how they are applying the concepts of the Lean Startup methodology to their service and their business. We'll talk about some of my own experiences as an early adopter and later as an actual user — what have they learned along the way and how do they use lean methods to be innovative?

Conflict of interest disclosure:  I have published two blog compilations via their service, a Best of Lean Blog 2011 book and a Best of 2012 book that is being published incrementally throughout the year. I'm a huge raving fan of their service…

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/147.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

Episode #88 is a conversation with a returning guest, Jim Baran of the firm Value Stream Leadership (he is @leanVSL on Twitter, also). His sites include the Lean Career Compass and his Lean Career Guide blog. In this podcast, Jim talks about a shift in his firm's business model away from traditional recruiting and placement to helping companies manage Lean talent within their organization. We've structured the discussion to follow somewhat of a "Verbal A3" format, so I hope that helps. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. You can also hear Jim in episodes #16 and #27. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

* Remastered audio June 2021

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/69 

This is an interview with Dr. Sami Bahri, D.D.S., a dentist from Jacksonville, Florida. He is a pioneer in using Lean methods in the management of his dental practice. The book documents his learning journey for himself and his office staff as they learned how to apply Lean in a very non-traditional setting.

His book, Follow the Learner, is available from the Lean Enterprise Institute. You can also watch a webinar that he presented (archive here), along with some text Q&A follow ups that were recently posted.

There is also a video podcast version of this discussion available as episode #5 of my video podcast series.

   

Podcast Episode #51 is the first part of a two-parter with retired Lt. Randy Russell of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, an innovator in the use of Lean methods for improving law enforcement. Starting in 2004, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office began using Lean as a continuous improvement program. In the podcast, Randy describes their journey and the improvements that have greatly contributed to providing more time and resources for the officers to use in protecting the community. As in healthcare, the real opportunity for Lean is not using isolated tools in a trivial way, but rather in ways that save lives and provide more time for officers to be out on the streets adding value, instead of dealing with waste. It sounds like a nearly direct parallel to using Lean in hospitals to free up time for nurses to care for patients. Randy’s company, Hyperformance Enterprises, LLC, operates a Lean consulting and training division that can be found online at www.improvementors.com. Randy's interests include waste identification and elimination, process improvement, transactional systems, and strategic alignment. His hands-on experience with Lean in a broad array of settings as the former Chairman of the (47+ member) Jacksonville Lean Consortium and his two decade career as a law enforcement commander and lead security planner for a Super Bowl provides valuable added experience and insights when it comes to dealing with sensitive and complex projects. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

It's great to have Dr. John Toussaint back for episode #184 of the podcast (see links to previous episodes below). He is, of course, CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and the author of two Shingo Award-winning books, On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry and Potent Medicine: The Collaborative Cure for Healthcare.

In this podcast, we start by hearing John's thoughts on some of the top issues that healthcare CEOs are facing today, such as changes in payment structures and Accountable Care Organizations. We also talk about the “Enduring Excellence” program that Paul O'Neill and John are leading to teach healthcare senior leaders about Lean culture change and their important role.

This podcast was produced in conjunction with the  Healthcare Value Network as a continuation of their previous podcast series.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/184.

Past episodes with Dr. Toussaint:

• #159: (10/16/12)  John Toussaint, MD  on the new IOM report
• #146: (5/2/12)  John Toussaint MD, on his new book Potent Medicine
• #72: (8/12/09) John Toussaint, MD, Lean and Health Reform
• #62: (2/23/09) John Toussaint, MD,  ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value
• #54: (12/2/08) John Toussaint, MD, ThedaCare's Lean Journey

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS  or via Apple Podcasts.

Podcasts Sponsored by KaiNexus

Remastered January 2022

Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/274 

My guest for Episode #274 of the podcast is Jay Arthur, author of Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals: Improving Patient Safety, Patient Flow and the Bottom Line, Second Edition.

Jay is owner and founder of his company KnowWare International, based on Denver. Before founding that company in 1995, Jay was in a number of quality roles at US West / Qwest from 1973 to 1995. He has a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona.

Lean and Quality and Six Sigma

To me, “Lean Sigma” is often a controversial topic… not because anything is wrong with Six Sigma. Six Sigma methods can be very compatible with a Lean culture. But, “Lean Sigma” books and trainers (including Jay), paint a picture that says Lean is only about speed or efficiency and that Six Sigma is the method to improve quality.

He says pretty directly in his book that Lean helps fix all of the types of waste… except for the waste of defects. He says Six Sigma is used to address defects. That's silly.

The Podcast Discussion

I challenge Jay a bit about this in the podcast, and I'd like to remind the listeners that Lean and the Toyota Production System are about flow AND quality. Lean and quality go hand in hand. Lean methods, like error proofing, and mindsets, like not blaming people, can very directly improve quality.

So, I disagree with him on that point, but there are many good points in his book about not overcomplicating Lean or Six Sigma — that the goal is results (and I'd add “developing people”). I'm also glad that the phrase “Patient Safety” is in the subtitle of his book, as it is in mine.

You can read more about Jay and his bio here.

Joining me again for Episode #288 is Dean Gruner, MD, the recently retired CEO of ThedaCare, a health system in Wisconsin that has long been considered a worldwide leader in the practice of Lean in healthcare. Recently, in Episode #286, Dean shared his reflections on his work and ThedaCare's "Lean journey." Today, the topic is Accountable Care Organizations and other bigger-picture healthcare reform topics. Dean was also previously my guest in Episodes 119 and 144. I'm including a full transcript along with a three-page PDF summary, as I've been doing recently.

@Flinchbaugh Interviews @MarkGraban About "Measures of Success"

Today's episode is the second time that friend and podcast guest Jamie Flinchbaugh has turned the tables by playing host to interview me about my new book, Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, which has recently been the #1 best selling book in Amazon's Total Quality Management category. Jamie is very knowledgeable on these topics, so he was a great person to interview me and to have more of a conversation about choosing the right metrics and then managing them the right way. I hope you enjoy the conversation and future podcasts will return to the usual format where I interview guests and try to let them do most of the talking.

My guest for episode #194 is Paul Piechota, Director for the Center for Competitive Change at the University of Dayton School of Engineering. Piechota has authored over 30 publications with such titles as Transforming the Enterprise, Getting to the Future First!, and Establishing a Method for Process and Culture Change in the Military. His most recent publication is the book titled, Keeping Your Business in the U.S.A.: Profit Globally While Operating Locally. In this episode, we'll talk about topics including how the university is using Lean and Six Sigma to improve their own operations, how they are getting students involved, and their attempts to engage professors to improve their work in the classroom. This all follows up a blog post I wrote about their press release on this topic. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/194 -- go there for some links and material that Mark wrote to share with the listeners (and he'll have a guest post soon that expands on the thoughts in the podcast). Please leave a comment and join the discussion about the podcast by visiting the blog page for this episode. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. You can also listen to streaming episodes of the podcast via Stitcher: http://landing.stitcher.com/?vurl=leanblog If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #163 is Dr. Gregory R. Johnson, the Chief Medical Officer at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this episode, we talk about how Parkview is using Lean to cope with today's challenging environment, how Dr. Johnson encourages Lean thinking among physicians, and the role of standardization in medicine. Dr. Johnson says Parkview is moving toward “having everyone operating in a Lean way, all 8200 co-workers” instead of just doing “Rapid Improvement Events.”

This episode is produced in partnership with the Healthcare Value Network. Dr. Johnson and I also talk about Parkview's participation in the Network, including hosting a “gemba visit” by other members.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/163.

Learn more about the Healthcare Value Network, the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, and their annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

Joining me for Episode #258 is a many times returning guest, Jim Huntzinger, the President and Founder of Lean Frontiers (check out Episodes 8, 15, 33, 196, and 251, his with Russ Scaffede). Jim has written two eBooks, The Roots of Lean: Training Within Industry: The Origin of Japanese Management & Kaizen and Deflation: The Road to Prosperity. We'll talk about that second book and topic in the podcast today. We're also going to talk about Lean Accounting and Lean Management, the related topics at the upcoming Summits in San Antonio later this month. I hope you can join us, as I'll be giving a talk on "Practicing Lean" to kick off the event and I'll be around that whole day. Lean Frontiers produces many great events and I hope you can check one out some time.

Today's guest is my friend John Ervin and we were able to sit down together here in San Antonio to record this episode. John has about 20 years of healthcare leadership experience, including in military medicine and the civilian sector. He's been a manager and director of operating rooms in many types of hospital and surgical center settings.

2022 update: John is now a part of the team and is my colleague with the firm Value Capture and we were able to collaborate on an engagement with a Philadelphia health system.

We share a passion for Lean and, more importantly, patient safety. We believe strongly that you need the right type of culture and leadership to encourage and support a culture of safety and that's what we'll talk about today.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/215.

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.  You can also subscribe and listen via Stitcher.

Joining me again for Episode #308 is Mike Grogan, a previous guest in episodes #182 (from Tanzania) and #224. Mike now lives in the Philippines, where he's helping and coaching many people and has written a new book, The MESSI Way. In this episode, we talk about the idea of "personal Lean" and being the best version of yourself. I appreciate Mike's reflections and honesty and I think we had a great conversation that was very thought provoking. What are your fears? Your failures? What have you learned about yourself in the last 12 months? What's a "thinking partner?" Those are just a few of things we discuss here today.

My guests today are Darrell Damron and Hollie Jensen and we're talking about Lean in Washington state government. Darrell and Hollie are both state employees, serving in the role of Enterprise Lean Consultant within a team called “Results Washington.” I've seen them both present at a Lean Enterprise Institute summit and I'm really happy to have them share their ongoing improvement story here in the podcast.

In the episode, we talk about their backgrounds and how they got started with Lean – Darrell in the public sector and Hollie at Starbucks. How did the state of Washington get started with Lean? What are some of their goals and accomplishments? How is Lean a strategy under Governor Jay Inslee and why is Lean a non-partisan issue that was supported by both gubernatorial candidates in the last election? What are some of the challenges that lay ahead for Washington?

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/210.

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.  You can also listen via Stitcher.

Darrell's Bio:

With a passion for public service, Darrell has served as an enterprise lean consultant in the Governor's Office for the past 3 years, under two governors,  helping Washington state government learn to use lean principles and tools to deliver better value to more Washingtonians. As part of the Results Washington team, Darrell created Washington State's Lean Expert Partnership Program through which, over the past 3 years, more than 200 private sector lean experts have volunteered their time (no cost to taxpayers) to give thousands of Washington state's public servants advice, training, and coaching as they learning to use Lean principles and tools to make improvements throughout state government. Darrell has been a public servant in Washington State government for more than 23 years, working in the Department of Corrections and the Department of Revenue. Prior to joining state government, Darrell served 6 years on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Hollie's Bio:

As part of her role with the State of Washington, Hollie Jensen is developing and implementing a Lean Fellowship program while also consulting on the governor's priority goal areas. In this role Hollie focuses on developing state leaders by teaching, consulting and coaching on Lean principles and leadership behaviors.  Through her work with the Fellowship and State leaders, she is focused on every state employee learning how to problem solve and every state leader supporting the problem solving work by teaching and coaching.    She joined state government in the spring of 2013 as an enterprise lean consultant after her 17-year tenure with Starbucks, where she began as a barista on the front lines and worked her way up through the organization with roles in human resources, global strategy and operations. Most recently she was a lean practice strategy manager with a focus on implementing the store system of work and the leadership/coaching program.  Jensen holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington and has worked closely with LEI over the past 7 years to grow her lean knowledge and experience.  Most recently, Hollie has had the opportunity to teach other practitioners at the Lean Transformation Summit, LEI public workshops in Seattle and the Lean Coaching Summit.

Normally, my podcast is all about my guests. This episode has me being interviewed by the hosts at Healthcare Tech Talk, a new podcast for Healthcare IS professionals. This originally appeared as episode #23 of their series.

Thanks to hosts Terry Baker and Kelley Hill for interviewing me and for allowing me to republish their episode here.

I hope you like the podcast. You can subscribe to their series via iTunes, Google Play, and their app for iOS or Android. Learn more at their site. My podcast series will return next week.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/211.

My guest for Episode #276 is a Lean consultant (although he might not prefer that term) and an author, A J (Andy) Sheppard. Andy is the author of The Incredible Transformation of Gregory Todd: A Novel about Leadership and Managing Change. He also contributed a chapter to my Practicing Lean book project. You can download the PDF of his chapter here and I hope you'll consider buying the book (it's for a good cause). He is a coach for leaders of change. His core expertise is helping workforces to quickly achieve systematic change in practice. A former McKinsey & Company consultant, he has now spent eighteen years working out this art of transformation in diverse industrial environments across the USA, Europe and Asia. He also continues to draw from prior experience of navigating change in corporate environments and experiencing it on shop floors. Further information about Andy can be found on www.ajsheppard.com. Andy is also happy to take any follow-up questions about leading change on his Goodreads Author Page. I hope you enjoy the conversation, which touches on Lean, change management, the need to balance empathy and urgency, and more.

Joining me for Episode #271 is Isaac Mitchell (@IssacMitchell), talking about Lean Design for healthcare, the Society for Health Systems, and more. Isaac is a full-time lean practitioner at East Tennessee Children's Hospital, a lecturer at the University of Tennessee's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and an instructor for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. You can read his bio (PDF) and learn more about Isaac via his personal website. Scroll down to the show notes for links to a special Lean Hospitals book excerpt and more free downloads about Lean Design and Isaac's work at ETCH.

My guest for episode #197 is a hospital leader I really respect, Kim Barnas, author of the new book Beyond Heroes. 

Until very recently, Kim was a Senior VP at ThedaCare, leading Appleton Medical Center and Theda Clark Hospital. I've seen Kim speak to groups at ThedaCare and a few conferences and she has a lot to teach us about Lean leadership, using her stories and experiences in a way that's very powerful. I hope you'll check out the book. Read a press release about it here.

In the podcast today, we talk about topics including her initial reactions to Lean when first introduced to it as a hospital leader, why “heroes” are overrated and sometimes create “chaos” in healthcare, and the importance of moving beyond tools and projects to a Lean culture and management system.

2018 Update: What's Going on at ThedaCare?

Kim talks about the need to “create more value” (not just reduce waste), saying “just trying to do more with less makes no sense – you need a plan.” We also talk about programs like GM's “Speak up for Safety,” where she says that speaking up “needs to be a conversation, not a reporting” transaction.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/197.

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts. 

Episode #111 brings us some time with Professor Jeffrey Liker from the University of Michigan, the well-known author of many books in the The Toyota Way series. You can see Dr. Liker talk at the upcoming Shingo Prize Conference (hope to see you there!). Today, we are talking about his TWO upcoming books: The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance and Toyota Under Fire: Lessons for Turning Crisis into Opportunity. The second book was clearly written in response to Toyota's recent challenges and Dr. Liker has some very strong perspectives to share here in this podcast. What was his take on  Toyota's recalls and quality problems? Why does he think that Toyota was singled out as a "scapegoat" to be "taken down"? Does he think Toyota really will emerge stronger from these challenges? To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/111. You can leave comments there, as well. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #205 is a conversation with Joe Schnur, VP Business Development at Intelligent M, a company that “designs data-driven hand hygiene compliance  improvement solutions for hospitals that dramatically reduce healthcare-acquired infections and their associated costs.” Joe and I share a passion for improving patient safety and we've had a number of great conversations comparing notes on the problem and the different ways we need to work toward solving it. We decided to finally record one of those discussions for a podcast.

In the podcast, Joe shares some shocking statistics about “hand hygiene compliance” – that while hospitals report numbers that are far higher, the typical care provider washes or cleans their hands only about 20% of the time. One management challenge (and sales challenge for Joe) is that hospital executives might find it too easy to sit back and point to the inaccurately high numbers that claim 90%+ compliance (numbers that are based on sampling instead of real data).

When I first started talking to Joe, I was skeptical about a “monitoring” technology for healthcare professionals, since I see hand hygiene as a system problem (lack of time, empty gel dispensers) that management has to work to fix… it's a process problem. But, I think (as in many cases) there is a role for technology that can be supportive of people (patients and staff) and can enable systemic improvement. What's the proper balance between individual accountability and the role of “the system?” I'm curious to hear what you think (you can post a comment on this post).

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/205.

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.  You can also listen via Stitcher.

In this episode, Mark and Karen discuss a provocative question she raised: "Is Lean Dead?" (or "dying?"). Karen is the author of books including "Value Stream Mapping" and "The Outstanding Organization." Her next book is titled "Clarity First" and we'll be discussing that in a future episode. http://www.leanblog.org/285

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/24

Remastered July 2021

Episode #24 of the LeanBlog Podcast is the 2nd part of my recent conversation with Jim Womack, of the Lean Enterprise Institute. In this episode, we talk about the state of the auto industry, from the time of The Machine That Changed the World through today. Who does Jim think is in the best shape among the "Detroit Three?" Jim also answers some questions from Lean Blog readers. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at podcast@leanblog.org or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast. Please visit our websites, www.leanpodcast.org and the Lean Blog main page at www.leanblog.org.

Show Notes and Approximate Time, Episode #24

• 1:50 “We had some brief hopes for Ford in ‘Machine'”
• 2:20 “Mind of Toyota” book is a Womack must-read: “it's a great book, harder than heck to read” Inside the Mind of Toyota: Management Principles for Enduring Growth
• 3:00 Womack on GM's decline
• 4:15 What about the Ford Atlanta plant going from most efficient to shut down? The Taurus story, original development took 7 years when Toyota was taking only 3. At least it was what the public wanted and was easier to put together than the comparable GM product.
• 7:00 GM's political footprint is shrinking as factories are closed outside of Michigan and Ohio, while Toyota's is growing with factory expansion.
• 9:15 BBC series on the auto industry and lean production, pulling the cord much more at Toyota, and how people were scared at the Ford plant to pull the cord (mistrust between workers and management).
• 10:15 “If it were just a plant-on-plant competition, they [Ford] would be OK, they've learned enough… all over the company, the managers are not pulling the andon cords.”
• 10:40 More on Ford management and the “corrupt” Ford culture
• 12:10 How things stand with GM today, according to Jim

• 12:50 “Ford and Chrysler have a different magnitude of problem than GM.” If not for the legacy problems, GM would be OK, not a world-beater… “not as good as they should be.”
• 14:30 “Ford and Chrysler's problem is management.”
• 14:45 Question from the blog, from John Hunter, “What 3 publicly traded companies have the deepest understanding and execution of Lean?” Danaher, “can't vouch for it personally….” Tried to put them in the Lean Thinking, but was escorted off the property because the President declared they had deep secrets….
• 16:15 Article about Danaher from Business Week
• 17:00 G.E. has been a “make the numbers” company as opposed to a “fix the company” company, says Jim. But now GE is saying they have to be like Toyota… “is there anything beyond Six Sigma or even to Six Sigma?”
• 18:25 Lots of other little guys out there, privately held. “Wish I could point to other examples of large companies…”

• 19:00 LEI is doing some research for how to take a traditional mass production mentality company and transition them to a lean management approach, what methods do you have to implement?
• 20:00 “The world is pretty Dilbert-like.”
• 20:30 “I wish I could rattle off the 14 companies who have actually done it…. No stock tips.”
• 20:50 From Joe Wilson, what about “Lean and Mean? Do you wish you had picked a different word than Lean?
• 21:15 “It also rhymes with green…. A word is a word, you have to pick something.” Jim meant it to describe “how to do more with less” but many have spun it into “how to do less with a whole lot less, including people.”
• 22:00 “If lean is taken on by managers who are clueless to the real meaning, well then over time, the meaning becomes the meaning that people deduce from the behavior of those managers. I can't do anything about that.”
• 23:00 “Lean got us out of the nationalism and ethnic focus,” that it had something to do with Japan. “Lean” was designed to focus on an objective measure of performance. (the term coined by Jon Krafcik)
• 24:40 “Sorry that so many clueless people [made lean “mean”]… it's a lot of stupid meanness, where you try to hurt others and end up hurting yourself.” Toyota was about growth, not trying to get rid of people. “Where you get into the problem with Lean is when you have these big behemoths that are fading fast…”
• 26:10 Jim spent a week in Australia looking at healthcare organizations… “How would Toyota run healthcare?” “Toyota treats car parts better than a hospital treats its patients, and treat people better than hospitals treat their staffs.”
• 26:45 “We're going to bankrupt every company with our healthcare practices.”
• 27:45 Far more than half of the visitors to the LEI website and those signing up for workshops have nothing to do with manufacturing… “How would Toyota run Starbucks?”

For episode #236, things are a little different than usual. Today, I wanted to share a video discussion between my friends Ted Stiles and John Toussaint, MD. Ted is a partner with the recruiting firm Stiles & Associates. John, of course, is the president of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and has been a frequent guest in my podcast series. John's most recent book is Management on the Mend. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/236.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/127

Remastered audio June 2021

Podcast #127 is a very special conversation with a leader and a hero of mine in the world of patient safety, Richard P. Shannon, MD. Dr. Shannon is a cardiologist and is Chair, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as well as the Senior Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Medicine. We'll be talking about his work in using Lean methods to reduce patient infections and other clinical outcomes.

According to data published by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the improvements at Allegheny indicated that “the VAP rate dropped by 83 percent and the CLI rate fell by 87 percent.” Savings lives and reducing cost go hand in hand, as his work shows. This work is now being repeated successfully at UPenn.

Leaders at Allegheny General estimate that patients diagnosed with VAP average a 34-day stay, with a net loss to the hospital of $24,435 after reimbursement; patients diagnosed with CLI average a 28-day stay, at an operating loss of $26,839. For an investment of about $35,000 in improvement work, Shannon estimates that the hospital experienced a $2 million improvement

Dr. Shannon was an early pioneer in the use of Lean and Toyota methods to improve outcomes and patient safety, namely the reduction of hospital-acquired central line bloodstream infections when he was at Allegheny General Hospital, near Pittsburgh, as documented in Naida Grunden's book The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare: Improving Patient Care Using Toyota Based Methods. You can see inside the book and some of the mentions of Dr. Shannon via Google Books. In Pittsburgh, as part of the PRHI effort, Dr. Shannon learned from Paul O'Neill, read or hear my interview with O'Neill.

This podcast was produced in conjunction with the Healthcare Value Network as a continuation of their previous podcast series.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/127. Scroll down this page for a transcript of this episode.

Related Posts:

• Toyota video about Lean at Allegheny
• Interview with Dr. Shannon
• Some Data on Patient Safety and Quality Improvement, including PRHI and Allegheny
• Podcast with Paul O'Neill

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

* Remastered audio June 2021

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/29

LeanBlog Podcast #29 features a very special guest, Dr. Sami Bahri, “The World's First Lean Dentist.”

If you're thinking “what can I learn about lean from a Dentist?”, please listen in. I think you'll be amazed and will learn a ton. I've really enjoyed the two chances I've had to talk with Dr Bahri, including this podcast session and I've been very impressed with his approach to lean.

He's gone back to all of the source texts, including Shingo and Ohno and has really had to figure it out for himself, as opposed to following some sort of cookbook approach. I particularly appreciate how he involves his employees and staff… it's a great example we can all learn from.

If you have questions or comments for Dr. Bahri, he's agreed to a follow on podcast. You can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or visit leanpodcast.org to leave a comment or read some linked articles about Dr. Bahri.

Keywords and Main Points, Episode #29

• Learning about Lean and figuring out, over time, how to apply it to a dental office.
• How Dr. Bahri is able to take care of patient needs all in a single visit (not coming back for separate follow on appointments).
• How Dr. Bahri has engaged his workforce, through Lean, to improve productivity, job satisfaction, and employee engagement.
• Lean as a never-ending journey toward perfection, an experimental process.
• Learn how Dr. Bahri's office creating an innovative “flow manager” position.

Episode #198 is a discussion with Harry Kenworthy about his work bringing Lean into local and state governments. We had a great conversation that touches on the influence of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and many other concepts that might be of interest even if you're not interested in “Lean Government” and the work happening there.

Harry is Principal and Manager of the Quality and Productivity Improvement Center (QPIC, LLC), a consulting organization he founded in 1984 and has been with full time since 2004. He worked with Dr. Deming in 1983-85 on a series of 2 day seminars throughout the US, sponsored by MIT. He has spoken at over 90 conferences on quality, productivity, Lean, and Six Sigma, and has been published several magazines including Quality Progress and Purchasing. He also had working relationships with Dr. Joseph Juran and Dorian Shainin.

He was one of the first practitioners to apply LEAN in the Government sector in the mid-90s.

Here is an article by Harry, shared with permission (PDF link): Getting Started on a Lean Government Journey

Harry was also a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner from 1989-1991, a licensed Professional Engineer and a Certified Quality Engineer. He worked at a NYSE listed, global manufacturer, for 26 years in a variety of capacities: Operations Manager, Division Manager, Group VP and, for his last 3 years, as Corporate VP, Manufacturing. He was the Executive Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Champion: leading the LSS effort and developing the LSS training program, which incorporated the best of traditional Six Sigma (DMAIC), Lean, and a series of Specialized Problem Solving Techniques. He provided LSS training in the US, Europe, Japan and China.  For 9 years, he was on the Board of Directors of a Japanese Joint Venture based in Nagoya, Japan. The JV was a key supplier to Toyota and Harry was able to learn about Lean through Toyota. He also had a long term relationship with JUSE (Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers) which administered the Deming Prize in Japan and had the honor of visiting several Deming Prize-winning companies. Harry holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA in Finance from Syracuse University. 

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/198.

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.  You can also listen via Stitcher.

Podcasts Sponsored by KaiNexus

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/30

Remastered July 2021

LeanBlog Podcast #30 is an interview with Bob Emiliani, author of the books Better Thinking, Better Results and Real Lean: Understanding the Lean Management System (Volume One) (and Volume Two). Bob had a long career at United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney and also has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, as well as a PhD in engineering from Brown University.

Better Thinking, Better Results, which is now out in a 2nd revised edition, has a new epilogue about Wiremold, the subject of the book, and how they have moved away from Lean after their acquisition by another company. In this podcast, we'll talk about why that happened and what others can learn from the story, in efforts to prevent the dismantling of even the most successful of Lean transformations. You can visit the page for this podcast at leanpodcast.org for links to Bob and his books, including the “Real Lean” series.

Keywords and Main Points, Episode #30

• Why did you update the Wiremold story and produce a second edition of your book Better Thinking, Better Results?
• So what happened?
• Why didn't Legrand value the Lean transformation that Art, his team, and the people of Wiremold did?
• So it looks like Legrand made some mistakes.
• What can we learn from what happened to Wiremold?

Joining me for episode #182 are Michael Grogan and Dr. Brenda Dmello, joining me via Skype from Tanzania where they are working together to use Lean to improve health care at the Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania  (CCBRT). Michael is Irish born and left his career in the United States to work in Africa (which you can read about in his guest post that I published earlier this month).

In the episode, we talk about their mission to reduce maternal death rates and “needless suffering” by creating “engaging, problem solving managers” as “everything rises and falls with leadership.” They are developing leaders who can “stop blaming” and treat people with respect, eliminating the “culture of fear” that we see in far too many organizations around the world. Dr. Brenda says, “I don't think it's ethical to allow change to happen so slowly” and that “clinical skills alone” won't solve healthcare's problems.

Links about their work:

• You can make donations toward their work via the Kupona Foundation
• Mike Stoecklein's blog post about their work
• Michael's blog post on his first 79 days in Tanzania
• Register for a webinar by Michael, hosted by the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value on August 14

Episode #246 is my second episode in recognition of Patient Safety Awareness Week. My guest is Steve Montague, who talked about Lean and Crew Resource Management with me in episode #195 in 2014. He's a retired Navy fighter pilot, a commercial pilot, and a consultant for hospitals and health systems... and a fellow Texan and a near-neighbor of mine. See his full bio here. Today, we're talking about a number of topics, including patient safety and checklists... what's the difference between good checklist systems and bad (and what are the parallels to Lean done well and Lean done badly). We talk about a number of articles and recent events about how NHS employees are afraid to speak up, an Iowa hospital that had four wrong site surgeries in 40 days, and the recent NEJM brouhaha.

Episode page

Podcast #83 is an in-depth conversation with Jim D'Addario, the CEO of D'Addario, Inc., a manufacturer of guitar strings, drum heads, and other musical accessories. Jim and his family company were featured on CNN late last year, highlighting how lean manufacturing has helped save and create jobs as part of their business strategy. Jim agreed to speak with me to delve into more detail about their use of lean management principles.

Jim is a hands-on CEO who gets out on the shop floor, which seems to be a big advantage for lean success. He describes his personal transition from a starting point of “not seeing the benefits” after lean was initially proposed to him to reaching a point where he articulates very well how lean allows D'Addario to better serve their customers' needs.

D'Addario started in the warehouse where, prior to lean, the operations strategy involved millions of dollars of warehouse automation. Now, with lean, they have freed up space, they have deployed people, and they can now ship orders that come in by 5 PM that very same day, as opposed to 48-hour performance before lean. Customers are able to hold less inventory and they can order more often in smaller batches. While this might increase order picking costs to D'Addario, Jim emphasized the increased customer contact and the benefits that come from that.

D'Addario has long had a committment to its people, avoiding layoffs as much as possible. In the course of lean improvements, people are redeployed and cross-trained to be more flexible. Now, with lean, D'Addario was able to shut down a California warehouse, resulting in job loss. But, the company has consistently moved to bring jobs to Long Island, acquiring product lines and moving production from China. In the case of guitar straps, Jim emphasized that while the unit labor cost for sewing is higher, they don't have “110 days lead time” coming from China. Customer service is better and that's good for D'Addario's business.

Jim said:

“We've moved more and more work here and we'll continue to do that.”

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

My guest for episode #249 of the podcast is Steve Leuschel, author of the book Lean Culture Change: Using a Daily Management System. You might remember a post from January that included an excerpt from his book on "huddles." In this episode, we discuss topics including his greatest influences, the lessons he learned from Rodger Lewis (a former Toyota general manager), "mutual trust," PDCA cycles, daily huddles, and more. What's the potential of a Lean management system and why is it difficult to get organizations and leaders to embrace a holistic system like that?

Today's episode (#313) of the podcast is a bit of a departure from the norm. Instead of interviewing a guest about their book or other work, I'm reading what's basically an audiobook-style excerpt of the first part of my new book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More. I say "audiobook-style" because it's not professionally produced and my voice has been bad after being sick last week... but I thought this would be one way to share some of this material and promote the book. I won't be doing a full-blown audiobook because the book is so full of charts, I don't think it all translates well to the audiobook format. But, here I'm reading the foreword, the preface, the introduction, and part of Chapter 1.

Episode #115 is a discussion with Eric Ries (@ericries), entrepreneur and author of the book The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.

Remastered August 2021

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/115

You can also read a partial transcript of the podcast. 

Today, we talk about how got introduced to Lean, core materials like books by Womack and Jones and Jeff Liker, and how he has put a lot of thought into how to take proven Lean principles – such as reduced batch sizes, 5 whys analysis, and faster time to market – and applied them to startups.

We both agree there are a lot of applications of these Lean Startup principles even if you are working on new products in larger, older, manufacturing settings – so I hope you'll take 20 minutes to listen regardless of your background, as Eric's work has pushed my attempts at Lean thinking in new directions.

You might also be interested in Podcast #99 with Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits on “Customer Development.“

To point others to this episode, use the simple URL:  www.leanblog.org/115.

Book website:  http://www.lean.st/

Buy the Book via Amazon: The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Today's podcast is different than my usual interview format. I still plan on continuing the podcast format and series, but I also wanted to try something new.

I'm starting a “Lean Blog Audio” podcast, which is basically an “audio book” type reading of blog posts. I won't do it for all posts, but maybe a few a week. I'll also occasionally look back at an old post, as I did in this episode, which is actually #4 in the new series. The episodes in this new series won't have their own page, but the audio will be embedded in the blog post itself. To find all episodes, you can visit www.LeanBlog.org/audio.

I realize this won't add value to all readers of the blog or all listeners of this podcast. But, many people tell me they like listening to the podcasts while they drive or workout and this new podcast provides a way to keep up on the blog in addition to or instead of the written word on the blog. These are really easy to do and many of them will be done while I'm doing a final proofreading of a new post, basically (which might reduce the number of typos and other defects!). Interviews (planning them, prepping for them, editing them) for my original podcast series is actually more time consuming than doing a podcast of this type.

If you go to www.LeanBlog.org/audio, you'll see information about how to subscribe via an RSS feed or the iTunes podcast directory.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/213.

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.  You can also subscribe and listen via Stitcher.

Episode Page

Episode #117 is a conversation with Prof. Samuel A. Culbert of the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Along with Daniel Pink, he is a fellow alum of Northwestern University. Prof. Culbert has a BS in Systems Engineering, the precursor of the Industrial Engineering department in which I was a student. Dr. Culbert then earned a PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA.

Today, we are talking about his most recent book, Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing–and Focus on What Really Matters.

Much like Dan Pink's take on incentives in the workplace, Culbert is a contrarian about the generally accepted (yet dysfunctional) practice of the “annual performance review.” In his writing, Culbert calls them “corporate theatre,” as well as a “sham,” a “facade,” “immoral,” and “intimidating.” In the podcast, we talk about the problems and alternatives to this common management practice.

For a link to episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/117.

Recent articles by Prof. Culbert via my blog posts:

• Professor Channels Dr. Deming and Writes “Get Rid of the Annual Review”
• New Book Gives Negative Review to Performance Reviews

Prof. Culbert mentioned that he only discovered the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming a few years back, although they were both railing against the annual performance review in 1980. They must be “long lost cousins,” Culbert says, and I would agree.

Joining me for Podcast #178 is Drew Greenblatt, President and Owner of Marlin Steel Wire Products, a manufacturing company based in Baltimore. I was really impressed with Drew's keynote talk at the recent AME Southwest Region conference here in San Antonio. Drew's company is successfully competing against cheap Chinese imports by using Lean and “theory of constraints” methods, being passionate about serving customer needs, and making a commitment to (and investment in) his employees.

Whether you're a manufacturer who is considering “re-shoring” your production (or avoiding off-shoring) or if you're an organization looking to success by partnering with all of your employees, I think you'll find Drew inspiring.

• Drew and Marlin Steel Wire are featured in this month's Fast Company magazine
• Check out Bill Waddell's recent blog post about Drew and Marlin Wire.
• Inc. Magazine article on Drew
• Video of Eli Goldratt's last speech, shared by Drew online

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/178.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

You can also listen via Stitcher.

Podcasts Sponsored by KaiNexus

http://www.leanblog.org/311 My guest for Episode 311 is Jess Orr, a continuous improvement practitioner at WestRock, a large paper and packaging company, where she helps plants foster a culture of continuous improvement and employee engagement. Her experience includes working directly for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky. She is particularly passionate about sharing best practices across industries, which motivated her to found Yokoten Learning. In today's episode, we talk about her path from Six Sigma Black Belt to a Lean-thinking engineer at Toyota. How did she progress from solving problems herself to developing others? We'll talk about a blog post that she wrote for this blog earlier this year, Lean and ROI, leadership and culture, and much more. What is it like working outside of Toyota again? I hope you enjoy the discussion.

In my latest Video Podcast (here as audio podcast #103), my guest is Matthew E. May, returning to talk about his latest book, a business fable called The Shibumi Strategy: A Powerful Way to Create Meaningful Change. I’ve been reading the book and have found it be a thought-provoking about your own personal effectiveness in a complex world. You can read more about the book at Matt’s website: www.ShibumiStrategy.com. Some of the topics we discuss include: ▪ What is “Shibumi” and where does the term come from? ▪ What’s the context for lean practitioners or students of Lean and TPS? ▪ Did you reach a point of Shibumi while writing this book or in your other work? ▪ Any particular reason you chose a car dealership as the job and the setting? Is it because it’s stereotypically a very numbers-driven “get it done” setting? To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/103. You can also watch video of our discussion at www.leanblog.org/v12 . For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #220 is somebody I've wanted to interview for a long time, Dr. Robert Wachter, one of the leading voices in the modern patient safety movement. He's most recently author of a brand-new book The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age. His book was excerpted in this New York Times Op-Ed piece, "Why Health Care Tech Is Still So Bad." In this episode, we cover topics including: How Bob got into the patient safety field Of all of the estimates of patient harm and death caused by medical errors, which does he find most valid? His perspectives on the interface between Lean principles and practices and the modern patient safety movement What were some of the pros and cons of the $30 billion in federal government incentives for EMR/EHR adoption? Is it fair to say that EHR systems solve some patient safety problems while solving others? Some of the new waste introduced by new "meaningful use" regulations The story of a preventable medication error that harmed a child - a combination of technology problems, human factors, and bad process Finding the balance between "system problems" and personal accountability (see this article) Disclosure: I received an advance copy of The Digital Doctor from the publisher. I highly recommend the book for its balanced presentation of the promise, successes, and challenges of healthcare IT. The book discusses why electronic medical records haven't been adopted more quickly, why government incentives were introduced, and EMR/EHR systems are not the panacea that some had promised. Previously, Dr. Wachter has written books on patient safety (that I've read and recommend) including Understanding Patient Safety and Internal Bleeding. He received one of the 2004 John M. Eisenberg Awards, the nation's top honor in patient safety and quality. He has been selected as one of the 50 most influential physician-executives in the U.S. by Modern Healthcare magazine for the past seven years, the only academic physician to achieve this distinction. I was honored when Dr. Wachter recently interviewed me about Lean and patient safety for his AHRQ "Web M&M" series. Dr. Wachter is Professor and Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where he holds the Lynne and Marc Benioff Endowed Chair in Hospital Medicine. He is also Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine, and Chief of the Medical Service at UCSF Medical Center. He has published 250 articles and 6 books in the fields of quality, safety, and health policy. He coined the term "hospitalist" in a 1996 New England Journal of Medicine article and is past-president of the Society of Hospital Medicine. He is generally considered the academic leader of the hospitalist movement, the fastest growing specialty in the history of modern medicine. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/220. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.Joining me for episode #219 is Tristan Kromer, a professional "Lean Startup" coach who works with startups around the world and volunteers for the non-profit Lean Startup Circle.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/54 

Remastered August 2021

Our guest for Episode #54 is John S. Toussaint, MD, the CEO emeritus of ThedaCare, and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. Dr. Toussaint is very well known for his leadership of the Lean efforts in the ThedaCare system, done under the heading of the ThedaCare Improvement System. ThedaCare has been profiled in the WSJ and many other articles about the quality and cost improvements they have achieved.

This is the first of two podcast discussions we recorded, so check back for the second by visiting and coming back to www.leanpodcast.org. In this podcast Dr. Toussaint looks back at ThedaCare's accomplishments, reflects on their journey, and shares his advice for other hospitals.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

Episode #54 Key Words and Links:

• ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value Blog
• The importance of going to the “gemba“

Episode #138 is a discussion with Al Norval from Lean Pathways, talking about his new publication titled:

“The Lean Manifesto: Back to basics – how a Lean business system creates value by engaging everyone in improvement.”

It's a free six-page document and you can download it here. The manifesto is a fun, upbeat guide to the basics of the Lean methodology and management system, including a brief history of Lean, as well as its foundational concepts, and a discussion of why “just in time” is not the right place to start.

Conflict of interest disclosure: I have a business relationship with Lean Pathways where I sometimes work with their healthcare clients.

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/138.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the “Lean Line” at (817) 993-0630 or contact me via Skype id “mgraban”. Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

About Al Norval (from the Lean Pathways website):

Alistair Norval is a professional engineer who developed his skills at Eastman Kodak Company, where he helped design and implement the Kodak Operating System, based on the principles of the Toyota Production System. In this capacity, he received in-depth personal training with leading international senseis. Following that, Alistair helped guide Celestica International, a provider of Electronic Manufacturing Services, with their lean journey at multiple site value streams in Asia. More recently, Alistair has been guiding clients on their lean transformation while achieving significant business results. His clients include the Medical, Consumer, and Professional Services business sectors.

Alistair has been a manager of manufacturing, product and process engineering, and has helped launch several plants. His experience covers both continuous chemical processes as well as discrete manufacturing. He has applied lean methods in new product development and the supply chain. His passion is to apply lean thinking across the enterprise so as to achieve consistently superior results.

Joining me for episode #199 is Jeff Gothelf (@jboogie), talking about “Lean UX” or “Lean User Experience,” a key method for software development, usually used in conjunction with design thinking, agile development, and Lean Startup business practices. Jeff is author of the book Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience and he is Managing Director at Neo, the global product innovation company.

Jeff is teaching a workshop in Austin on June 10 called “Lean UX Bootcamp: Agility through cross-functional collaboration.”

I barely know anything about LeanUX, but have chatted with Jeff before and read the first few chapters of his book… but my role here is to just ask questions…

Jeff will explain Lean UX to us today. I'm taken by the parallels between Lean UX (along with Lean Startup) and more general “Lean,” as I know it in manufacturing and healthcare. It's about deeply understand the customer and their needs, forming hypotheses, and iterating in an experimental and data-driven way… a departure from the old way of the designer “knowing” what the customer wants or a software company writing a huge specification document (about “half of which never got used,” says Jeff).

Lean UX designers are problem solvers, they “get out of the building,” and they get their designs (or even just sketches) in front of customers to get feedback early and often. It's better to do small, inexpensive tests of change… if you're going to fail, better to fail early and fail often… and we'll be more successful as a result. That's good solid Lean thinking and Kaizen thinking. Read more about Jeff via:

• His bio
• His blog

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/199.

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.  

Episode Page

Here is LeanBlog Podcast #33, a new interview with Jim Huntzinger, the President of the Lean Accounting Summit. In this Podcast, Jim gives us an update on the recent Summit and talks about some of the latest trends in Lean Accounting.

Podcast Episode #60 is the second part of a two-parter with retired Lt. Randy Russell of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, an innovator in the use of Lean methods for improving law enforcement (Part 1, Episode #51 is here). In this episode, Randy discusses some really interesting examples of how Lean methods are helpful in law enforcement and how 5S or standardized work can help save a life. Very powerful stuff. Randy’s company, Hyperformance Enterprises, LLC, operates a Lean consulting and training division that can be found online at www.improvementors.com. Randy's interests include waste identification and elimination, process improvement, transactional systems, and strategic alignment. His hands-on experience with Lean in a broad array of settings as the former Chairman of the (47+ member) Jacksonville Lean Consortium and his two decade career as a law enforcement commander and lead security planner for a Super Bowl provides valuable added experience and insights when it comes to dealing with sensitive and complex projects. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Today's guest is Katie Anderson, and we're talking about her experiences living in Tokyo for 18 months and what she's learning about Lean culture, Japanese culture, and how those aren't always one and the same. I first met Katie through the Healthcare Value Network and our participation in that collaborative. She's an experienced Lean healthcare practitioner, coach, consultant, having worked for Stanford Children's Hospital and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation before starting her own consulting practice. Katie has been generously sharing her experiences in Japan and her reflections on her blog, which I highly recommend. You can also find her on Twitter and LinkedIn. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/233. Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their software that helps spread continuous improvement -- Learn more at http://www.KaiNexus.com

My guest for Episode 291 is my friend and colleague, Jeff Roussel (@jeff_roussel on Twitter). Jeff is the VP of Sales at KaiNexus, a technology company that I have been involved with for over six years. As Jeff will humbly explain in the podcast, he joined our team almost four years ago as an experienced sales leader, not as an expert in Lean or process improvement. But, he's a voracious learner and he probably talks to more organizations about their process improvement efforts - what their aims are and what they're struggling with - than anybody I know. Our main theme for the podcast today is not technology. Our topics include what Jeff is hearing from organizations and trends he hears about. I hope you'll enjoy our conversation, as I did. I hope you'll also join us on Thursday as Jeff presents a free webinar hosted by me and KaiNexus: The Why, How and What of Continuous Improvement

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/17

Remastered July 2021

LeanBlog Podcast #17 is a discussion with a good friend of the Lean Blog, David Meier, a former Toyota Georgetown Group Leader, founder of Lean Associates, and the co-author of the excellent book, The Toyota Way Fieldbook, and the upcoming Toyota Talent, due out in April (both co-authored with Jeff Liker, check out my Podcasts with him here and here).

In this podcast, we talk about David's recent first hand experiences with factories in China. Are there labor shortages? Is there a lot of waste in Chinese factories? Do the Chinese have good management skills at this point? What lean methods did David see in China? We'll cover all this and more.

If you enjoy this podcast, I hope you'll check out the rest of the series by visiting the LeanBlog podcast main page.

Show Notes and Approximate Time, Episode #17

• 2:00 Overall, pretty surprised, Chinese factories are in good condition, but there are some real labor shortages growing, intense cost pressures from other countries (India, Vietnam, Turkey, etc.)
• 3:00 Lots of struggles from the supply chain side and total cost, “China isn't as great a deal as they anticipated in the beginning” (inbound supply chains)
• 4:00 “One company had 160% turnover last year”
• 4:15 Local management isn't that strong, so companies bring in their own management(which is costly to bring in foreigners)
• 4:45 David was frustrated to see the same challenges and problems in China that are typical here, including the “kaizen blitz” mindset (companies aren't getting long-term satisfaction or a sustainable process)
• 5:50 Saw one company (a clothing manufacturer in China) that took “one piece flow” to such an extreme that it was costing them in other ways, companies are missing the point of what Lean really is
• 6:30 More on the single piece flow situation – are you implementing single piece flow or are you improving performance?

• 10:00 What about Chinese factories and their metrics and goals? David was surprised to hear how everyone was focused on efficiency and labor cost
• 11:00 David saw a lot of Non Value Added activity (20-30% of people's activity) because ofthe way work was structured
• 11:40 “Big shortage of Industrial Engineers in China”
• 12:45 Chinese managers learn “mass production management” or lean management methods?
• 13:45 “I didn't see any factories that would be a model of lean” and David was visiting companies who had expressed some interest in being lean
• 14:15 What lean methods did David see at Chinese factories?
• 15:20 David says there is a general lack of understanding about how to use “Value Stream Mapping”
• 17:15 David and Jeff Liker are working on a new book about systems and how to develop the system properly, how to use the system (such as Kanban) to drive continuous improvement
• 17:45 An earlier new book, “Toyota Talent” is coming out in April
• 18:30 After the Fieldbook, David and Jeff realized there were some topics they could really expand on, Toyota Talent, lean systems, and problem solving.

• 20:15 A preview of Toyota Talent... didn't see much “Standardized Work” in China, the depth of lean there isn't as great as in the U.S. The book looks at how you break down jobs and train people.

• 22:00 People look at Toyota and assume that standardized work only applies in repetitive, highly cyclical jobs (but Toyota has a lot of jobs that don't fit that mold)
• 24:30 David comparing the high turnover in China with the high turnover in fast food and how McDonald's simplifies things, uses standard work, makes it visual, etc. But why do they accept the turnover?
• 25:45 The NPR piece on In-N-Out Burger and how they value employees.
• 26:45 David points out how you have to look at total cost, not just the low hourly labor cost
• 27:30 Is everything going to inevitably move to China? We're trying to compete against that with Lean, reducing costs through Lean methods and improved/faster response.

318 - Marcus Hammarberg, How Lean & Kanban Saved an Indonesian Hospital Joining me from Sweden for Episode 318 of the podcast is Marcus Hammarberg, author of the fascinating book Salvation: The Bungsu Story: How Lean and Kanban saved a small hospital in Indonesia. Twice. And can help you reshape work in your company. Marcus is a software developer, consultant, lean/agile coach, speaker, and author. He ended up with an opportunity to work with a hospital in Indonesia and he tells that compelling story in the book. How did a huge hole in the roof help trigger a change in culture and results? You'll hear about that and more in this episode. I hope you enjoy it and find it inspirational, as I did.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/47

Remastered audio June 2021

Norman Bodek is once again back for episode #47 of the LeanBlog Podcast, talking about his most recent trip to Japan (his 68th trip!). He poses the question, "What can we do to leapfrog Toyota?" Norman asks important questions about how we can help people, in any role, enjoy their work, rather than dreading Mondays. Why does Norman think the Canon photocopier plant he just toured is the best he's ever seen? Why does Norman disagree with the phrase, "Work smarter, not harder"?? If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #47 Key Words and Links:

• Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations, by Alan Robinson
• Do 60 or 80% of people “hate” their job? How can we help people enjoy their work?
• What is a “supermeister” in a Canon factory?

Episode #46 is a chat with a good friend of the Lean Blog, Dean Bliss, a Lean Improvement Specialist with the Iowa Health System. Like myself, Dean made a transition in from manufacturing into health care a few years back, he'll share some of his experiences and recommendations for how to use Lean in a hospital and how to make that transition. He will also share some stories about how his hospital prioritized what problems to solve with the Lean methodology. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail  via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Now actor Charlie Sheen has been all over the news lately, giving interviews to practically anyone with a microphone. This is the type of "news" I normally try to tune out, yet alone blog about. Somehow, he stumbled across my "Lean Line" phone number to talk about Lean Healthcare, although I suspect he may have been looking for the street drug called "lean." He claimed to have spent his hiatus from TV working to teach and implement the "Lean" methodology at hospitals around Los Angeles. Listen to the audio and judge for yourself - is he pulling our legs? Is this just another Hollywood publicity stunt? Is he the type of Lean consultant you would want around? Ok, it's an early April Fool's Joke.... that was audio taken from an interview he gave to ABC's Good Morning America show.

For the episode and more details, visit http://www.leanblog.org/audio235. If you've been a listener of my LeanBlog Podcast series, you might know that I normally record conversations and then publish them into the podcast feed. Today, I'm going to do my first live broadcast of a podcast discussion via the "Blab.im" streaming platform. My guest is Sam MacPherson and we are talking about Lean leadership, including his lessons learned from his time as a Green Beret. Topics Include: Differences between Special Forces (The Green Berets) and the rest of the military Similarities between “The Green Beret Way” and The Toyota Way - shockingly similar Command and Control vs. Leadership "Commander's Intent" Misconceptions regarding military leadership and industry leadership Lean transformation - you current leadership style and skills wont cut it!

Episode 84 is audio from Video Podcast #10 (available on iTunes and YouTube). This is a conversation with Karl Wadensten, President of VIBCO, a manufacturer in Wyoming, R.I. Here, we talk about his radio show, "The Lean Nation," which airs on AM 790 in Rhode Island and streams live on the web everyday weekday at 4 PM eastern -- www.790business.com.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Joining me for podcast #191 is my friend and fellow LEI faculty member Mike Orzen (@MikeOrzen), co-author of the Shingo Award-winning book Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation. I recently crossed paths with Mike in Columbus, Ohio, because we're both mentoring students in the Ohio State University MBOE program. We have a lot in common, it seems!

Mike is also collaborating with the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value for a new workshop: “Leveraging Information, People & Systems in Healthcare,” to be held in Phoenix on January 28 and 29.

In this episode, we talk about topics including an overview of “Lean IT,” how Lean is different compared to manufacturing and other service settings, how healthcare organizations can benefit from Lean IT, and the potential for kaizen and continuous improvement in IT.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/191.

Mike and I wrote an article in 2011 on using Lean to meet the IHI “Triple Aim” goals in healthcare (PDF link).

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the  main Podcast page, which includes information on how to  subscribe via RSS  or  via Apple Podcasts.

Podcasts Sponsored by KaiNexus

Episode page

Remastered 2023

Episode #91 is a very special one-on-one conversation with Dr. Stephen Covey, recorded at the Shingo Prize Conference in Salt Lake City last week. My main question to Dr. Covey was to ask his thoughts on Toyota's “Respect for People” principle, sometimes called ‘Respect for Humanity.” You can listen to the audio or you can read a transcript below in this post.

After the chat with Dr. Covey, I share a few thoughts at the end of the podcast about Dr. Covey's work and Lean, along with a little background about the interview and my personal reaction to speaking with him.

A partial transcript of the conversation:

Mark Graban: The one question I would ask for your thoughts on is Toyota's principle of “respect for people,” or often referred to as “respect for humanity.” Could you share some thoughts on the importance of respect in workplace, what does that really mean?

Dr. Covey: I think that it's of profound importance because it means you are caring and you trust them to do the right thing.

Mark: You were talking earlier about the industrial model and trust seems to not come with that.

Dr. Covey: It doesn't come with that. And the industrial model is obsolete. You know, the supervision is command and control, it's top down. There's such co-dependency about it.

Mark: So we have a situation maybe where we have to convince the industrial world that this industrial model is…

Dr. Covey: … is obsolete. But it's hard to do that because they're so used to it… kissing up to the hierarchy.

Mark: Have you been able to visit with Toyota?

Dr. Covey: I have. I was with the President of Toyota in Japan. We were walking in the plant and he said, “Any person in this plant can close the line down if he can show to the others that would improve quality and lower cost.”

Mark: And so there's a trust inherent in that?

Dr. Covey: Definitely, and it tells you also about the culture. If he can show to the others…

Mark: It's very exciting to have you participate in the Shingo Prize conference and to share your message with the Lean community. What are your hopes, with your professorship at Utah State, to try to help influence…

Dr. Covey: Yes, and also I am very appreciative of that opportunity with Utah State. And I think that the Shingo Prize is one to be really sought after and to be won. It's very significant. But I think that in the next few years it will be knowledge-worker age companies that will win the Shingo Prize, because they are developing and empowering their people.

———————-

Thank you to Bob Miller, the Executive Director of the Shingo Prize, to Steve von Niederhausern, the Director of Marketing and Communications, and to Michael Ockey, who works for Dr. Covey and FranklinCovey for their help in lining up the time with Dr. Covey and for helping me prepare. I'm going to have a separate podcast discussion with Bob on his thoughts about Lean and Dr. Covey's work.

One of the conference attendees, an executive from a major corporation told me how they have given every manager the Covey training each year for the last 15 years. This leader thinks that leadership training has been the key to their success with Lean.

What are your experiences with Dr. Covey and his teachings? Do you see it as a core component of Lean, a helpful add-on, or fairly irrelevant? What do you think of the partnership between Dr. Covey and the Shingo Prize?

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the “Lean Line” at (817) 993-0630 or contact me via Skype id “mgraban”. Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Episode #254 is interesting to me for a number of reasons. For one, I have a "guest co-host" joining me for the first time. He's Chip Ponsford, DVM, a doctor of veterinary medicine and former practice owner who I've gotten to know here in Texas over the past few years. Chip has been a great student of Lean, following a path similar to that of Sami Bahri, DDS ("The World's First Lean Dentist") in reading the "classic" Lean books from industry because there had been nothing written about Lean in VetMed. I've been helping Chip with his "Lean Vets" blog and we've collaborated in a few other ways to promote Lean in veterinary medicine. Our guest is Samantha (Sam) Parrett, the Director of Business & Administrative Services at North Carolina State University Veterinary Health Complex. Chip and I ran across Sam's name in one of the few articles we've found on Lean in VetMed: NC Vet College Dives Into Lean Training In the podcast, we'll discuss their story at NC State and the potential for Lean to make the jump into veterinary medicine more broadly. We hope you enjoy the discussion.

Joining me today for Episode #287 is another returning guest (see Episode #198), Harry Kenworthy. We're talking about his book, which will be released on Friday, Lean Government NOW! : Increase Service, Capacity and Employee Engagement While Reducing Costs and Wastes. The book is now available for pre-sale on Amazon at $19.95 (until September 7, 2017, at a $5.00 discount from list price). Harry was also a contributor to the book Practicing Lean, which is now available in audiobook format. I've been involved with some "government healthcare" organizations in different countries, but have never delved into other parts of government. I'm glad Harry is doing so! This seems like a big challenge, but an important and necessary one. We're seeing some examples of success with Lean at the local and state levels around the U.S., it seems. I hope we see more. I hope you enjoy our discussion whether you work in government or vote, pay taxes, or use government services (or all of the above!!). I'm including a four-page PDF summary, as I've been doing recently.

My guest for episode #131 is Paul Borawski, the CEO of ASQ, the American Society for Quality. Today, we are talking about ASQ, their recent World Quality Month events (November), and other topics including:

• Their “YouQ” video contest (vote on the submissions now via Facebook)
• The ending of federal funding for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (as I blogged about)
• Paul's blog post on the passing of Bob Galvin and Steve Jobs

I'm also happy to be presenting (about Healthcare Kaizen) at the 2012 ASQ Lean & Six Sigma Conference, to be held in Phoenix, February 27-28. Hope to see you there!

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/131.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

My guests for episode #162 are Patrick Vlaskovits (@pv)  and  Brant Cooper (@brantcooper), previously guests on episode #99. I recently ran into them at the Lean Startup Conference and today we are speaking about their newest book (coming in February) The Lean Entrepreneur: How to Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets. You can learn more via their website:

www.LeanEntrepreneur.co

In this episode, we talk about:

• What is Lean Entrepreneurship?
• How does Lean create disruptive innovations?
• Why is it better to fail fast and learn your idea isn't viable sooner rather than later?
• Why is “follow your passion” really bad advice?
• What's a value stream in the context of a startup?
• Why would data “inform decisions” rather than “make” them for you?

Their books:

• The Lean Entrepreneur: How to Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Market
• The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany

For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/162.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

Podcasts are sponsored by KaiNexus and their continuous improvement software platform -- www.KaiNexus.com Our guest today is Alan G. Robinson, PhD, an award-winning author, educator, researcher and consultant. He has co-authored six books, including Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement: The Shingo System, Ideas Are Free, and his latest, The Idea-Driven Organization. His specialties include managing continuous improvement, creativity, ideas and innovation, and Lean production, being one of the earliest professors to visit Japan to study the Toyota Production System. In this episode, we talk about the history of suggestion programs (and a surprising detail about their history), why 80% of an organization's improvement comes from staff ideas, and why high-performing idea systems are rare. We also talk about some of the pitfalls of traditional cost-benefit analysis, the role of leaders and humility, and a company, Scania, that intentionally overstaffs to provide time for Kaizen, leading to 12-15% annual productivity improvement. Why is mankind still battling against command-and-control management systems? And what's the real story behind American Airlines famously removing an olive from their salads? We cover all of that and more in this episode. For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/217. For earlier episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.

Joining me for Episode #334, all the way from Australia, is Barry McCarthy. Barry spent more than 15 years in leadership roles with Toyota in Australia and now works as an Associate with consulting firm Honsha. We were able to spend a lot of time talking when I participated in Honsha’s Executive Development Mission trip to Japan late last year. One thing we talked about quite a bit was Barry’s experience with Toyota being “a development company,” as I blogged about here. In our discussion, Barry talks about why he was “skeptical” about Lean before he joined Toyota. But, he evolved as Toyota continues to evolve. Why is Barry afraid that Lean (outside of Toyota) might get stuck in the past? We’ll talk about all of that and more.

Joining me today is Jim Lancaster, CEO of the company Lantech, a manufacturer that is the leader in stretch wrap technology and innovation, as well as case handling equipment. Jim is also author of the new book, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute, titled The Work of Management: A Daily Path to Sustainable Improvement. This episode is sponsored by the eVSM Group. It's almost 20 years now since the book "Learning To See" was published and value stream maps were established as central to a lean deployment. What has changed rapidly, however, is the supporting eVSM toolset that captures and analyzes the initial wall maps, making it easy to do "what-if" studies and prioritize improvements. Receive a free eBook and see the state of the art at evsm.com/2020.

LeanBlog Podcast Episode #53 is a conversation with Patrick M. Anderson, the Executive Director of Chugachmiut, the Tribal consortium created to promote self-determination to the seven Native communities of the Chugach Region. I met Patrick at a Lean conference where he shared their experiences with applying Lean principles to healthcare delivery in Alaska. I am happy to bring their story to you, here in the first part of a two-part Podcast discussion. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/25

Remastered July 2021

For Episode #25, I'm pleased to have Dr. Mark Spearman, Founder and President/CEO of Factory Physics, Inc. (www.factoryphysics.com). You may know Dr. Spearman from his book, co-authored with Dr. Wally Hopp, Factory Physics. If there is ONE operations management textbook to own, this is it (it's well worth the cost). I was fortunate, as an Industrial Engineering undergrad at Northwestern, to take Dr. Spearman's operations course. The introduction given about Lean and the Factory Physics / Little's Law concepts (among others) have served me very well during my career. In the Podcast, we talk about his company, Factory Physics, and the work he is doing today in the manufacturing world.

Show Notes, Links, and Keywords Episode #25

• Keywords: Throughput, Lean Six Sigma, Lean, WIP, work in process, continuous improvement, variation, flow, Dell Computer
• Dr. Spearman explains The 3 Buffers: Inventory, Time, and Capacity

Episode #238 is a conversation with somebody I've wanted to talk with for a long time, Kevin Cahill. He is the executive director of the W. Edwards Deming Institute. He's also a grandson of Dr. Deming! Kevin played an instrumental role in getting NBC to publicly release the 1980 documentary, "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?" that featured Dr. Deming (see my blog posts about it). We talk about that in the podcast, along with his other recollections of Dr. Deming and how he watched the original NBC airing with him. We also discuss his reflections on learning the Deming philosophy and his attempts to utilize the ideas in his career (and how challenging that can be when it flies in the face of the prevailing business culture). It was a really fun discussion and I hope you enjoy it. If you have follow up questions for Kevin, please post a comment, as I'm sure we can do another podcast in the near future.

Skip Steward, the Chief Improvement Officer at Baptist Memorial Health Care in Tennessee, was a guest on Episode #314 of the podcast talking about TWI and Toyota Kata in healthcare (he was joined by Brandon Brown). Today, I've asked Skip to come back and chat 1x1, in Episode #320, about his experience with Don Wheeler, learning from W. Edwards Deming, and more. I hope you enjoy his reflections, our discussions about healthcare, and connections to my book Measures of Success (Skip undoubtedly has a book in him too). 

My guest today for episode #284 of the podcast is Dr. Margaret (Margie) Balfour, the lead author of an article, published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, titled "Using Lean to Rapidly and Sustainably Transform a Behavioral Health Crisis Program: Impact on Throughput and Safety." Today, we're talking about that article, the important improvement work that led to it, and her belief, as stated in the article that "Lean methods can positively affect safety and throughput and are complementary to patient-centered clinical goals in a behavioral health setting." Dr. Balfour is the VP for Clinical Innovation and Quality at Connections Health Solutions, one of the largest providers of psychiatric emergency care in Arizona, and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona. Dr. Balfour received her MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cincinnati and completed residency and a fellowship in Public and Community Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. A link to the article can be found at http://www.leanblog.org/284

Episode #108 is a discussion with Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth, recorded in person at the 2010 Shingo Prize Conference in Salt Lake City. Gwendolyn was previously a guest on episodes #26, 45, and 49. Here, we chat about lean and the "respect for people" principle, following up my talk with Dr. Stephen Covey (episode # 91) and we also touch briefly on her new book "Work That Makes Sense." You can find Gwendolyn's website at www.visualworkplaceinc.com. To point others to this, use the simple URL: www.leanblog.org/108. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

My guest for episode #129 is Chris Cooper, a vice president with Simpler Consulting. We're talking about his new book The Little Book of Lean.

We discuss his career in Lean and the background of his book, which is intended to be a simple introductory primer for those who are new to the methodology. Chris has worked in aerospace, as well as military and non-profit applications of Lean.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/129.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

About Chris Cooper:

Joining Simpler in 2002, Chris Cooper has over 20 years of leadership experience in the delivery of successful large-scale Lean transformations across a broad range of industries, companies and countries. His industry segment experience includes aerospace, defense, military, finance, marketing, health care, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO).

Chris's Lean journey began in 1989 as a student of the Kawasaki Production System (KPS) while working for Europe's largest defense company, BAE Systems. During this time he became part of the leadership team that drove the company's Lean transformation of the defense division all the way to a value stream organized company winning a Queen's Award for Export. As a result, Chris was promoted to be the company's first Integrated Product Development Team Leader (IPT) position to introduce set-based- concurrent-engineering methods to Europe. During this period Chris was trained in six sigma and design six sigma by Motorola, Inc. As the IPT leader he won a Chairman's Award for Innovation and a McDonnell Douglas Supplier award for introducing Lean techniques beyond the shop floor. Directly before joining Simpler, Chris was the Lean Advisor to the Eurofighter Program, then the world's largest non-U.S. based military program, where he worked as a member of the Chief Engineer's staff team.

Chris's professional career in Lean and six sigma consulting began in 2002 when he joined Simpler in the early days of European expansion. As a member of the European leadership team, he has helped grow the business ten-fold since. Chris has been at the forefront of the Lean revolution speaking at conferences, working with executive teams, and as an assessor for the Shingo Prize. He has been the sensei for many significant and pioneering Lean transformations and has often introduced Lean concepts to new sectors and organizations in the commercial business and non-profit fields. As Vice President, Chris leads a multi-cultural team of consultants working in more than ten languages throughout Europe and Asia.

Chris has authored The Simpler Little Book of Lean and co-authored Lucky by Design with Rob Westrick.

Chris is an Aeronautical Engineer through his formal apprenticeship program with BAE Systems, and has a Business and Technology (BTEC) Higher National Diploma (HND) from the University of Humberside. He lives in the North West of England with his wife and two children.