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Economy of scale means that an organization is structured in such a way that as production volumes rise, per unit costs fall. In effect, this is a fancy of way to say “bigger is better”. It is based on the idea that a product has two basic components to its Read more…
Effectiveness is like the transmission of a car. It turns potential into results. Of course, there are two implications here. The first is that an individual has skills or characteristics that can lead to the desired outcome, or that a machine or process has the right capability and enough capacity. Read more…
Efficiency, in the strictest sense of the definition is being able to produce something with the minimum amount of time and resources. Efficiency in Lean comes with a few cautions. The first warning regarding efficiency in Lean is to make sure you are using the term the same way that Read more…
On the job emotions are rarely talked about. But let’s begin with emotion in general. Emotion is something that we are all familiar with. It is the internal reaction we have to things- the shriek when you win the lottery, the gasp at bad news, and the anger when someone Read more…
Employee engagement describes a state of workers’ full commitment to the success of the company. Employee engagement is characterized by the worker making the extra effort and linking her personal success to corporate success. Employee engagement relies on two factors: Job satisfaction The ability to contribute in his role A Read more…
Enforcement is the act of compelling someone to follow a standard. Think of enforcement as the strong arm of discipline. With good discipline, people are inspired to follow rules and meet standards. But, as in all things, there are long tails on the discipline bell curve—some people naturally do the Read more…
Engineers, not surprisingly, are people who are specially training in an engineering field. In a nutshell, they design solutions to a problem. Types of Engineers Design engineers solve problems by creating a product. Software engineers solve problems with code. Manufacturing engineers create processes to solve problems. Engineers are key players Read more…
Ergonomics is the broad study of how people interact with their environment. It covers a wide range of these interactions—from how people fit into their cars, to the way tools feel in people’s hands, to motion in the workplace. As with your car, a proper fit in the workplace makes Read more…
Error proofing, also referred to as mistake proofing or poka yoke, is the art of building processes that make it nearly impossible to make a specific mistake. Error proofing is targeted at specific errors—they are not general in nature. This concept is predicated upon the concept that errors cause defects. Read more…
Preventing errors is one of the ways Lean helps reduce waste. Before we talk about preventing errors, let’s first talk about what errors are. They are the gap between what happened and what should have happened. Simply put they are mistakes. Errors link to defects. Every defect that is identified Read more…
Evidence is the data that supports a theory. It is what separates opinion from fact. Lean relies heavily on problem solving to make improvements. In order to get to the root cause of a problem, people in Lean companies must act like detectives, uncovering evidence to understand processes better. Evidence Read more…
Executives are the senior leaders in an organization. They make the sweeping decisions that affect a large cross-section of the company at the same time. These senior leaders are usually the ones responsible for bringing Lean into an organization and setting the course that it will follow. Many executives can Read more…
Setting expectations is part of the relationship building process. Whether between a boss and a subordinate, or a Lean advocate and the rest of the company, relationships are formed by what one party expects from the other. One of the things that sets the human mind apart from that of Read more…
Does experience matter anymore? Despite the fact that people talk about experience with a degree of reverence, it has a changing role in continuous improvement. Experience is defined as having knowledge or practical wisdom from having done something. The more it was done, the more experience a person gained. Be Read more…
Setup is the process of preparing a machine to run a product. Some of the steps of a setup must be done while a machine is shut off. That is known as internal setup. External setup is when the steps to get the machine ready to run a different part Read more…
There’s and old joke. There are two types of people in the world. Those that know what extrapolation is, and those… If you know what extrapolation is, you get the joke. Extrapolation is the process of making an estimate of what data will look like based on the current trend. Read more…