Introducing Lean in to an organisation takes work. Sometimes it flies. In other cases it is a long, hard slog, or is abandoned altogether. I’ve written about problems in using Lean in the past, including in a book review and a discussion of problems in Canada. In this post, I want to talk about the…
Improvement is easy. If you take a team, or even people from a few teams who work along a Value Stream, and give them time and space to work on quality problems, they will identify ways of improving services and reducing waste. Almost always, the solutions are sensible, and help resolve the problem. Sometimes the…
‘Implementation’ is a contentious word in Lean. It can sound as if Lean is a one off implementation, like introducing an IT system (and as anyone who has been involved in a new IT system will know, you can’t implement an IT system and walk away in any case!). Larry Rubrich’s 2004 book, ‘How to…
Mark Graban produces an excellent podcast series. If you haven’t come across it, I recommend it highly. Episode #252 (it’s been going for a decade, which must be about a century in podcast years) featured Jordan Peck of Maine Health. There were two ideas in this podcast that I enjoyed – one on axiomatic design,…
This blog is written in WordPress, and on the WordPress dashboard, you can see a list of search terms people used to reach the site. One recent search term caught my attention – ‘RPIW improvement conflict‘. I don’t know the context in which term was used, or where in the world it was typed, but…
Creating a Lean Culture by David Mann is now in its third edition. The book ranges widely, but at its heart is a central challenge in the use of Lean: how do you move from individual improvement efforts, or work in one area, to joined up use of Lean supported across an organisation? The traditional…
Applying Lean techniques to improvement work is not rocket science. I’ve seen teams who produce significant change after reading a book and applying what they learn. Most improvement events using Lean result in measureable improvement, and teams usually apply the techniques they have learnt to make further improvements. Despite this, the use of Lean in…
