Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Return of the pigs! This time in Vancouver.

It is a great kick for me to see some of my older blog posts resurface from time to time, especially when they are indicative of a new Lean training program in one hospital or another.  The most popular in that regard is the June, 2009 three-part series about drawing a pig as an introduction to designing standard work.  In that regard, thanks to Tim McMahon of Westfield, MA, who has summarized the exercise beautifully on his blog, A Lean Journey.

This week, all of a sudden, I received a bunch of hits on these posts from Vancouver General Hospital.  If anyone out there is reading this, please comment on what you folks are up to. 

I would also love to get comments from others elsewhere who have used this exercise as part of their Lean training.

Thanks, too, to Alice Lee, the Lean sensei at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who introduced me and many others to this simple and elegant exercise.

By the way, I love the fact that if you do a Google image search on the word "pig" -- depending on what's happening in cyberspace -- among the first images is sometimes this one, from that very blog post.  Curious?  Go here.

4 comments:

Lin Goldston said...

I've been following your blog for about 2 weeks now. Thank you for your great work. Which I Love Lucy segment did you use for your Lean Training. The link is currently inactive. Million thanks!

Paul Levy said...

I think it was the one in which she and Ethel are trying to make chocolates (or maybe pretzels) as the raw material comes along a conveyor belt.

Tim McMahon said...

Hey Paul. I love that exercise. Thanks for highlighting it again. I have used this in many different languages and cultures. Seems to work everywhere. Gotta love simplicity.

Tammy said...

I went to a Lean seminar last year where the pig exercise was used. This year I was part of a group at my hospital training in adaptive design, and I used the pig exercise to show the benefits of standard work. The leaders of the group loved it!