When most people think of goal setting, KPIs, or improvement metrics in general, they tend to focus on targets. A lead time of 2 days is a target. 97% on time delivery is a target. Productivity of 7.6 units per labor hour is a target. Setting targets is an integral Read more…
One of the challenges modern businesses face is the flood of information that is streaming at them on a daily basis. That wave of data contains a wealth of good ideas. And some of those ideas are things that the competition is doing.
The problem is that many people, predominantly managers, suffer from SCS, better known as “squirrel chasing syndrome”. When they are in the middle of something, the moment an interesting alternative flashes by, they drop what they are doing, and chase after that elusive idea. For dogs, the “can’t resist” alternative is often a furry little creature. For business people, the irresistible item is commonly something that a competitor is doing.
How do you apply Standard Work in the office? The short answer is that true Standard Work is rarely used in Lean office environments. I tend to be rather flexible in how I teach people to apply continuous improvement tools in the office, but at some point, if you deviate too far, you are no Read more…
When you choose a new job, you can make sure that your skills match the requirements of the position you are seeking. When a company starts it Lean journey, though, your job requirements change. You may feel grossly unprepared for the transition. Fortunately, though, there are many ways to learn Read more…
We’ve been working on our features schedule to try to get something interesting posted every day. One of the latest ideas is a weekly poll question. This week’s questions is intended to shed light on how companies tend to go about allocating time for improvement efforts.
As a new weekly feature, we will be asking our readers a question about how they use Lean or other continuous improvement methods in their organization.
This week, we would like to know how your company makes time for improvement activity.
Despite having been fairly mainstream for going on three decades now, there are a surprising number of misconceptions about Lean. Here is a list of 11 of the top things people misunderstand about continuous improvement. Lean means getting rid of inventory. The reduction in inventory is actually the result of Lean, Read more…
One of the imperatives of any continuous improvement program is a commitment by the organization to protect jobs. If people don’t trust the company, they will be reluctant to do anything that will increase productivity. Obviously, if fewer people can do more, then there is a need for fewer people. Read more…
I recently read an article about the debate over the number of H-1B visas being offered. What was interesting to me was not the immigration issue, but rather the customer service issue. Apparently, the system creates a batch process. There is a filing deadline, and companies are required to turn Read more…
How do I download the free forms? Our forms can be downloaded for free or purchased from our training and resource platform, CI Central.
I’m an executive. How do I prepare to start my company on its Lean journey? While every Lean journey takes a slightly different path, there are some basic phases that every company progresses through. (You can learn more in our Continuous Improvement Development System.) Unfortunately, though, there is no standard path Read more…
There is a way people think known as an “availability heuristic.” That is a fancy way of saying that we judge what we think is going to happen by the easiest to remember examples. We’ve all heard about efforts to cut costs in other companies (or possibly even our own), Read more…