Dr. Sami Bahri, the "lean dentist" and author of Follow the Learner, tells Business901 podcaster Joe Dager how he has applied lean management principles to continuously improve the delivery of quality dental care since 1996. Bahri's lessons on leadership and applying lean principles are universal to any professional service that wants to improve quality, delivery, and cost.  In 2006, Bahri Dental Group provided the same amount of dental treatments as 2005, but needed 40 percent less resources, thanks to the application of “Lean Dental Management.”

An underlying secret to Toyota’s success is human resources development. That was one of the key insights shared by Wichien Emprasertsuk, Toyota Motor Thailand’s top marketing executive, at a recent forum organized by Thailand Management Association. “It’s not the money, the engineering, or the management knowledge because anyone can learn that,” Emprasertsuk said. “But at Toyota we have our own curriculums and universities to develop our staff on top of their normal degrees.” He explained the principles of the Toyota Way, including kaizen, which he said was often translated as meaning continuous improvement, but could more precisely be defined as “searching for a better way.” Emprasertsuk also said Toyota has drawn up a survival plan in light of the worsening global economic crisis, bracing for the worldwide automotive market to shrink by 10 percent in 2009. (Published on nationmultimedia.com on Jan. 14, 2009.)

To mark the 108th anniversary of Eisenhower's birth a blogger compared some quotes from the former president and military leader with quotes from Toyota executive Taiichi Ohno, a key developer of the Toyota Production System (the prototype lean management system), and with lean thinking concepts in general. We think the best ones are about "go see," pull, planning, and leadership. (Published by TheManufacturer.com, Oct. 21, 2008.)

IndustryWeek summarizes 14 management principles from The Toyota Way by Jeff Liker.

As property values decline, so too do the taxes that fund local services.  The city government in Cape Coral, Florida has used a Kaizen business model to reduce the time and effort required for many of their office operations – most recently in the police records department. The improvement efforts have already saved $2 million for the city, and have also reduced wait times for services such as issuing new business licenses and hiring firefighters, among many others. (Published by News-Press.com online, Feb. 22, 2009.)

When a Lean Thinker asked how to apply the principles of 5S to the company server, Dan Markovitz responded with advice for applying these five key concepts to electronic information files.

Flight reports on Boeing's plans to build 737 commercial airplane fuselages and the P-8 military version on the same moving line. One innovation: in the 737 production system workers stay in one position while the aircraft moves. For the P-8, small specialist teams will follow the fuselage and wing down the line to handle the differences.