Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

It’s hard to believe that four years have passed since we started blogging here on WordPress! We would like to thank our many subscribers and visitors for your many e-mails and comments, making this a fulfilling learning experience for all of us. This blog was originally founded on the premise that very little information was available on the topic of […]

A Lesson in Lean Over a Long Holiday Weekend

What? Another long weekend? That’s right! The first Monday of August is a civic holiday here in Ontario, Canada. However, if you ask people what we’re supposed to be celebrating you may be surprised by the vast array of answers – including “I don’t know.” Some of the confusion begins with its declaration – the provincial government has not defined […]

Anticipation – Wait For It!

Anticipation We’ve all said it, “I just can’t wait!”  We look forward to certain events, both big and small, with eager anticipation. We carefully plan for vacations, family events, a get together with friends, or major purchases like a new car or home.  Our minds race, eagerly waiting for that magic moment to arrive. Anticipation instills excitement and expectation in […]

Unplugged – Earth Hour – 2012

The Earth – Unplugged EARTH HOUR is now an annual event that is embraced around the globe.  For at least one hour, we will have the opportunity to “unplug” ourselves from the world to ponder and increase our awareness of how our “activities of daily living” can make a difference to the environment we live in. Measuring Change While the […]

BlackBerry or Bust?

Leadership Leadership can make or break any organization whether it is business, government, or even a sports franchise. I felt compelled to cite this quote from a column titled “Iconic teams tumble from penthouse to outhouse” as published in the Toronto Star (20-Jan-2012): And while all have found different routes to the bottom, they do have one thing in common: […]

Lean Leadership: The Missing Link?

I coined the phrase “What you see is how we think” to suggest that the principles of lean thinking are not only embraced by everyone but are also evident throughout the organization.  In this context, becoming a lean organization requires effective leadership to create and foster an environment that allows lean thinking to flourish.  Just as a teacher establishes an […]

Are You Suffering from Fragmentation?

When Toyota arrived on the North American manufacturing scene, automakers were introduced to many of Toyota’s best practices including the Toyota Production System (TPS) and the well-known “Toyota Way”.  Since that time, Toyota’s best practices have been introduced to numerous other industries and service providers with varying degrees of success. In simple terms, Toyota’s elusive goal of single piece flow […]

Sustainability or Meltdown?

For as many years as I have been blogging here on Lean Execution, I have been increasingly concerned with the sustainability of our economy, business, and government at all levels – locally, nationally, and globally. To this day, these same interests are all struggling to define and establish models that will allow them to recover, sustain, and flourish in the […]

Sharp Minds – On the Cutting Edge or the Cutting Board?

I continue to be frustrated by the notion that the only way to reduce spending is by cutting services.  While the demand for change is high, few are willing to challenge tradition and conventional thinking to improve services and increase efficiencies that will enable us to do more with less, find new opportunities, and to create jobs instead of eliminating […]

Hanging from a thread – Lean Healthcare

Background It seems that Lean Healthcare is getting a lot of exposure here as of late.  I will qualify this by saying “in practice” rather than “name”.  The Toronto Star published yet another article, Sunnybrook cuts wait for prostate diagnosis down to 72 hours, that once again demonstrates that improvements can be made if we put our minds to it. […]