Tag: lean healthcare
What is the True Essence of Lean?
The true essence of Lean is all about building relationships based upon mutual trust and respect... and having a little fun, too! Enabling Respect for People means not asking them to waste their valuable time on things that don't add value...
New England Lean Consulting ANNOUNCEMENT!
New England Lean is Growing! It’s sometimes hard to believe that it’s been 10 YEARS since New England Lean Consulting was born! Back then, we were a 1-man show focused solely on Lean. It was scary! My wife and I had two little kids (6 and 4), a mortgage and here I was leaving a […]
Stop listening to the Lean critics!
The Lean community, like any other or the population in general, has its share of critics. There are those who vehemently oppose Lean in general (or TOC, or Six Sigma…), whilst lauding some other form of continuous improvement (or TOC, or Six Sigma…). It’s exhausting sometimes, and a turn off all of the time. I’ve […]
Why fight about what percentage Lean transformations fail?
If you have been following us on social media or read this blog with any amount of regularity, you know that the habit of throwing out anecdotal Lean failure rates is one of our pet peeves. The internet is littered with articles, blogs and posts that state things like “Industry experts agree…” or “Studies show…” […]
Why 0% of Lean Transformations Fail
You read that right. 0%. None. Nil. Nada. If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably also read other articles, blogs and claims about how 50%, 75% or even 90% of all Lean transformations fail. The authors of these diatribes will then go on about all the reasons why (disengaged management, too much lingo, yada […]
Can Lean save baseball?
Another season is upon us as the boys of summer take the field for 2018. The hot dogs are getting steamed, the popcorn is popping, and the smell of the damp infield sod gradually wafts into the stands. There’s nothing quite like being at the ballpark on a summer evening. Watching professional athletes do things […]
Are KPI’s really Lean?
As a former “Ops guy”, it’s a bit of heresy for me to even question the integrity of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). In a very real sense, for most of my professional career KPI’s made the world go ‘round. It wasn’t until recently that I realized what side of the “truth and a good story” […]
The true power of Lean and Respect for People
As we start to wind down for the holidays and year’s end, I always find myself becoming reflective. During a group discussion at the AME workshop in Boston I recently lead on Employee Engagement, someone asked me what my proudest Lean moment has been. To answer, I relayed the story of Chris and Tony – […]
#Muffingate, or “Customer Service Part II”
Ah Customer Service. The oft-discussed topic that rarely (if ever) seems to go anywhere. Our blog post on this topic from a few weeks ago elicited some interesting responses from folks. While some folks commented that customer service is all but dead, still others gave great examples of it being alive and well. The topic, […]
This nail is proof that Lean works
This nail is proof that Lean works. We own an old house – like an “it’s so old no one really knows how old it really is so the deed says built in 1900” kind of old. My guess is it’s circa 1850-1875, judging by some of the evidence I’ve found and seen. Like this […]
