Blog

2nd Annual World Quality Month 0
- Quality
- November 9, 2011
Last November, ASQ, together with organizations, leaders, and stakeholders in the Global Quality Community, celebrated the inaugural World Quality Month. This year ASQ is again joining with the Global Quality Community for World Quality Month 2011. “Consumers and other businesses will seek to interact with those organizations whose commitment to quality is strongest, or in
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Learning From Wiremold and Art Byrne 0
- Sharing Best Practices
- November 8, 2011
My friend Bob Emiliani recently shared a collection of videos from a research project he led on Wiremold’s Lean transformation in 2001. These historic videos capture an amazing event that took place on 5 November 2001, when a group of more than 25 executives, physicians, and department managers from Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) made
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Daily Lean Tips Edition #22 0
- Lean Tips
- November 7, 2011
For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips. It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to
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Lean Quote: Success Always Starts With Failure 0
- Lean Quote
- November 4, 2011
On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on
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Bring Value to Your Value Stream Map with These Ten Tips 0
- Lean Basics
- November 3, 2011
Value stream mapping is a tremendously valuable tool for improving a process. Well suited for a broad range of industries and processes. A value stream map (VSM) illustrates the flow of materials and information as a product or service moves through a process. In short, it helps eliminate waste. But like any tool, VSM must
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Lean Quote: True Power is Worth Having 0
- Lean Quote
- October 28, 2011
On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on
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Fabulous Formula to Speak Strong 0
- Leadership
- October 26, 2011
Good communication skills are essential for successful leadership. Recently, I have been reading a book on learning to communicate clearly by Meryl Runion called SpeakStrong. In her book Meryl shares her favorite formula for effective communication: “Say what you mean and mean what you say without being mean when you say it.” Meryl also shares
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Seven Strategies to Bridge the Communication Style Gap 0
- Guest Post
- October 25, 2011
While at the Northeast Shingo Prize Conference in Springfield, MA at the beginning of October I had the opportunity to meet Meryl Runion. Meryl gave a presentation on powerful communication. She calls herself the Kata Qween of Communication. The key she says is continuous communication improvement. Katas are practices to make that improvement a way of life.
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Does Your Company Measure Up? Using Metrics to Improve Performance Webinar Replayed 0
- Webinar
- October 24, 2011
It is hard to talk about making improvements without the conversation, at some point, turning to metrics. Used right, measuring processes in an organization can propel it forward. Used wrong, measurements can be disruptive and wasteful, and can crush morale. In this presentation from Tim McMahon and Jeff Hajek’s webinar series, you will learn some
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