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Productive Meetings—Back to Basics
For many people, meetings are one of life’s unavoidable annoyances. Too often they accomplish little, while frustrating many.
Read MoreWho Will Lead Your Lean Transformation?
As is the case with any major organizational improvement effort, lean transformation requires a great deal of commitment, guidance and follow-up. This transformation also requires effective management.
Read MoreHurry Up And Wait
In our fast-paced, results-driven world there never seems to be enough time to do the things that need to be done. Companies are faced with continually increasing customer demands, ever-decreasing leadtimes, tighter margins and insufficiently qualified people.
Read MoreStart Thinking About Your Financial Accounting System
As companies recognize the benefits of Lean Manufacturing and begin to implement lean strategies within their organization, they soon realize that their existing financial accounting systems do not effectively support a lean enterprise. Even worse, sometimes traditional standard cost-based financial accounting systems make it appear that the improvements credited to the lean program are doing nothing for the “bottom line”.
Read MoreSooner Or Later We All Run Into “Ed”
No matter what type of business you are in and no matter what position you may hold, you will run into “Ed. ” Ed is not a real person but a type of person you may encounter from time to time.
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Develop Baseline Measures And Make Them Visual
Before we try to make improvements in any organization, it is important that we understand the current conditions within that organization and establish a baseline measure. This measure must then be visually communicated to everyone in the organization.
Read MoreInvolving Operators In The Maintenance Process
Every company is faced with the challenge of having too many things to do and too few resources to do them. Unfortunately, an important activity that often suffers from this lack of resources is equipment maintenance, or more specifically, preventive maintenance.
Read MoreA Simple Yet Effective Way To Identify Opportunities
Over the years, I’ve described a number of techniques to identify opportunities for reducing waste while improving customer satisfaction. One such technique is Value Stream Mapping, which uses quantities of inventory throughout the process to illustrate the relationship between value-added and non-value added activities.
Read MoreThe Power Of The Continuous Improvement Event
The continuous improvement event (CIE), called the Kaizen event by some, has proven to be a valuable tool for introducing positive change in an organization. Such an event targets a specific area in the organization where employees can work together to implement improvements quickly.
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Understanding The Four Major Behavioral Styles
Companies today are expanding the role of teams in the workplace in an effort to empower employees and improve organizational effectiveness. The more we try to work as a team, the more important it becomes to recognize that people exhibit different behavioral styles.
Read MoreCritical Factors For Successful Improvement Efforts
Why do some improvement efforts succeed while others fail? What actions do some companies take to ensure that improvement efforts are successful? Do other companies’ efforts fail because of a lack of action? Think about the following factors when embarking on an improvement effort in your company. Leadership must be committed and demonstrate interest in the improvement process.
Read MoreIdeas For Simplifying Your Operation
I have been fortunate enough to work with some interesting companies that have done some clever things to simplify their processes and make things easier for everyone. This month, I want to share some of those ideas that I have run across.
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