Category Archives: lean management

New Year’s Resolutions That will Have an Impact

Beginning the new year is a good time to reflect and make commitments to change our own behavior in some way that will have a positive impact on others. Here are some suggestions. Continue reading

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How You Change Is The Change

Today the following article was published in Industry Week’s Continuous Improvement Newsletter. Lean Management is not a change methodology; it is a destination, a desired set of practices and culture. How you get there will determine the outcome. There are … Continue reading

Posted in Change Management, Corporate Culture, leadership, Lean Culture, lean management, Lean Manufacturing, Organization Design and Process Improvement | 3 Comments

Lean Healthcare

Over the past months I have been working rather intensely with a Canadian healthcare organization, the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON). This work has made very clear in my mind two things: first, that healthcare is in need of lean … Continue reading

Posted in Corporate Culture, Healthcare Lean, Lean Culture, lean management, Organization Design and Process Improvement | 2 Comments

Lean Culture and Continuous Improvement Require Enabling Structures

Lean management requires a rethinking of the structure of organizations, the formation of teams, and a “whole-system” understanding of the organizational system. Even how we structure the change process may result in a failure to address the root cause of waste and quality problems. Continue reading

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Lean Leadership – The ONE Quality that Matters Most

Rupert Murdoch’s first remark in his testimony before Parliament was that this was the most humble moment of his life. No doubt true. Hubris, rather than humility has led many companies over the cliff of disaster. The quality most required of those leading continuous improvement is the opposite of hubris, it is humility, the antecedent to learning. Lean leaders develop an attitude of science, the ability to experiment, learn from the data, and try again. Lincoln’s victory over General Lee was a victory of humility over hubris. Continue reading

Posted in Corporate Culture, leadership, Lean Culture, lean management, Organizational Behavior Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Survey Results: Execution and Importance of Lean Culture and Leadership Factors

Eighty-two lean implementers contributed their opinions to this survey. I have processed the data from this survey and written a report, which I hope you will find interesting and useful. You can download a report and analysis of the data and you can download the complete survey results and do your own analysis. I think the data on both importance and execution of lean cultural factors will help you in your efforts to convince your managers about the importance of their leadership behavior to your lean journey. Continue reading

Posted in Corporate Culture, Lean Culture, lean management, Lean Manufacturing, Organizational Behavior Management | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Please Participate in a Lean Culture and Leadership Survey

The following link is to a survey on Lean Culture and Leadership Factors. The purpose of this survey is to gather data on how you perceive the success of your organization in creating lean culture and how important you feel … Continue reading

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Company Wide Lean Implementation

Many senior executives have struggled and failed to gain the advantage of a multi-site or dispersed organization. Instead of capitalizing on the potential value of multiple sites for learning, it seems that too often the same lessons have to be learned over and over again without any shared learning. This is a failure of senior management. In a lean organization, managing learning and improvement is THE primary function of senior managers in addition to deploying capital. Continue reading

Posted in Corporate Culture, leadership, Lean Culture, lean management, Lean Manufacturing, Organization Design and Process Improvement | 6 Comments

Sustaining Lean – The Power of Beliefs

To address the sustainability of the lean process we are looking at this model that defines the different components of a culture. At the core is the system of beliefs among the members of the organization. On the outside is the external environment with changes in technology, economics and other trends to which every company must adapt. The sustainability of any system is based on both its ability to adapt to a changing environment and its ability to stay on the course of its core values. Continue reading

Posted in Corporate Culture, leadership, Lean Culture, lean management, Lean Manufacturing, Organization Design and Process Improvement | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Operations Management Review

Jay Heizer and Barry Render, both professors of Operations Management, publish the blog Jay and Barry’s OM Blog. It is a good source of continuous operations management knowledge and source information. They were kind enough to post this review of … Continue reading

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