Lean Healthcare – Sunnybrook Surgeons given a hands-off way to Kinect

An article in today’s Toronto Star titled “Surgeons given a hands-off way to Kinect” clearly demonstrates how improvements can be realized in our work environment.  One of the concerns in the operating room is maintaining a sterile field during surgery.  Doctors cannot physically touch any devices away from the sterile field for fear of breaking it and have only 1 […]

The Invisible Gorilla

Just when you thought everything was under control, someone asks you about something that isn’t even on your radar.  Our perceptions can be deceiving and are not always as accurate or reliable as we think.  This is nicely documented and demonstrated in this article and video that we found on Yahoo today:  The Invisible Gorilla. If the above link doesn’t work, cut and paste the following […]

Foundations of Failure

The problem with many of the problems we find ourselves having to contend with at any given time is that we learn of their existence after the fact (when the damage is done) or after discovering that the results we were looking for simply didn’t materialize.  As we learned from Michael A. Roberto’s book, “Know What You Don’t Know“, there […]

Toyota: Managing Nightmares

The Nightmare Toyota continues to be plagued by recalls.  The current acceleration issues (either floor mats or “sticky” accelerators), braking issues on the Prius Hybrid, and now reports in the USA of steering problems with 2009 and 2010 Corollas.  While the majority of the news reports focus on the next steps to repair faulty vehicles, the real nightmare is the human tragedy that was and may still be […]

The Zeigarnik Effect and Lean

Have you heard of the Zeigarnik Effect?  If you have, you’re probably among the few of us that can appreciate how the Zeigarnik effect can affect our thinking processes.  What application could this possibly have with lean?    Consider that the human brain views an unanswered question the same as an incomplete task.  The brain must satisfy it’s innate desire to answer the question.  Lean is […]

Using TRIZ for Problem Solving – Resources

In our first post on this topic, “Using Triz for Problem Solving – Introduction“, we provided a very basic introduction to TRIZ.  In the spirit of TRIZ, it is not our intent to rewrite or redefine the TRIZ process when excellent information is already available.  Our intent is to identify the few of the many excellent and exceptional resources that we have found. What is […]

Using TRIZ for Problem Solving – Introduction

Using TRIZ for Problem Solving – Introduction A famous quote from Albert Einstein, “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.“, applies to the discussion of problem solving and more so to the topic of TRIZ, The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, developed by Genrich S. Altshuller. TRIZ – Theory of Inventive Problem Solving […]

How to Solve Problems with Idea Maps

Problem solving is a problem in itself for many companies and at times can be one of the most daunting tasks to undertake during the course of an otherwise regular work day. For some, problems seldom occur while for others this may, unfortunately, be a daily activity.  Since problem solving is not usually part of the typical daily agenda of “routine” activities, our ability […]

Welcome to LeanExecution!

Welcome! If you are a first time visitor interested in getting started with Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), click here to access our very first post “OEE – Overall Equipment Effectiveness“. We have presented many articles featuring OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), Lean Thinking, and related topics.  Our latest posts appear immediately following this welcome message.  You can also use the sidebar widgets to select […]

OEE – A Vantage Point Metric

The automotive industry has recently been plagued by doom and gloom as the economy continues to erode any chances for a rebound.  Chrysler has already met with the reality of an uncertain future and has subsequently filed for bankruptcy.  Unfortunately, as Chrysler plants shut down and cease operations for the next 30 – 60 days, suppliers will also feel the impact […]