Lean documentation · April 2016 webinar archive
Question the process. Protect the quality.
Nenad Furtula of Bluestream and Galyna Key of Datix presented a webinar on Lean documentation, using The Toyota Way as their stated philosophy.
The 2016 announcement
Archive · Published 25 April 2016. Event invitations and roles reflect the original publication period; the event has passed.
Implementing Lean to eliminate waste in a documentation production factory
Recording mentioned in the original announcement
Presented by Nenad Furtula, Bluestream and Galyna Key, Datix In this presentation, we embark upon re-thinking the entire content production cycle, and we use The Toyota Way as our philosophy. Expect fun and engaging conversation that will make you question some or all of the time-honoured content production processes and to start looking for waste. We will discuss the Lean principles in Japanese car manufacturing and apply them to content production. We will debate that not only can this be done today, but also that it can be done well. Finally, we will look how using Lean together with a good quality DITA/CMS solution can lead to incredible results in reducing production time and costs, improving team morale, and achieving superior product quality. By product, we, of course, mean content output.
About Datix
Datix is the leading supplier of patient safety software for healthcare risk management, incident and adverse event reporting. We are committed to improving patient safety and service user safety, with over 80 million+ people protected by our software. The software is widely used within both public and private healthcare organizations around the world.
About CIDM
This webinar and recording are hosted by the Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM) who bring together the most highly skilled and talented managers in the field of information development from across the US and internationally to facilitate the sharing of information about current trends, best practices, and developments within the industry, from information development to training and support.
Editorial context · October 2026
The original presentation’s premise
The announcement invited teams to rethink long-established content-production processes and look for waste. It proposed applying Lean ideas to documentation and exploring the role of a DITA/CMS solution.
A Lean documentation process audit
| Observe | Ask | Keep a record of |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting | What decision or input is the item waiting for? | The handoff and its owner. |
| Rework | Why is the same item returning to an earlier stage? | The missing information or changed requirement. |
| Duplication | Where is the same content maintained separately? | The copies and the reason each exists. |
| Unclear readiness | How does the team know the item can be released? | The approval evidence and remaining checks. |
Improve one handoff at a time
Choose one recurring interruption and describe a small experiment. For example, give a technical reviewer the target audience, product version, and specific question alongside the topic. Then compare the clarity of the response and the number of follow-up exchanges. Avoid promising a percentage improvement before you have evidence from the team’s own work.
Efficiency still needs an editorial boundary
Some checks exist because an incorrect instruction can cause harm, expense, or customer confusion. Before removing a step, identify the risk it controls. If the step is poorly designed, improve how that control works rather than assuming every pause is waste. A faster process is useful only if the resulting content remains appropriate and trustworthy.
Where is the recording?
The original announcement credited CIDM as the host of the webinar and recording. A recording link is not available on this page.
Archive source: Whatever you do, stop it now!, 25 April 2016.