There are countless quotes about rules, most of them negative. Rules are made to be broken. –unknown There are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something. –Thomas A. Edison Rules and models destroy genius and art. –William Hazlitt The common perception of rules is that they are stifling, limit free thought, and create a rigid, inflexible organization. The truth is the exact opposite. While there is merit in the belief that the individual Read more…
When someone is happy, they say “I am happy.” They do not say, “I am not sad.” When people speak in negatives, they are typically meaning, at least subconsciously, whatever they are saying with the “not” removed. In the case above, if a person says, “I am not sad”, it really translates to “I am sad, but I have a reason that I don’t want to announce it.” People use this speech mechanism frequently. Listen Read more…
Many parts and instruments have specifications that call for a tolerance. That just means that there is a given range within which the part has acceptable quality. One way to determine if the part is good is to measure and compare the results to the specification. This, however, is a slow process. An alternative is to use a Go/No-Go Gauge. This tool requires a part to complete two tests. The part must fit one of Read more…
You are close to a process, and think you know what the evidence and facts & data is telling you. Your boss, though, may come up with a different conclusion about what is going on. How you present your evidence goes a long way toward reconciling your positions.
Days sales outstanding is a measure of how effective an organization is at getting paid. DSO indicates how many days of sales are still left uncollected. Obviously, an excessively high number means a lot of cash is tied up in the cost of producing and shipping products. On the surface, it might seem that the lower this number is, the better. It is true to a degree, but at some point, overly restrictive credit policies Read more…
It can be extremely frustrating to be asked to participate in continuous improvement efforts, only to feel like your calls for help fall on deaf ears. Frequently, though, solid data and real world examples act like amplifiers to make the problem you are addressing stand out.
The difference between complaining and airing problems is whether or not there is a willingness to help solve the problem. That support can come in the form of offering solutions, presenting facts and data, or volunteering for a project team. How an issue is aired goes a long way to determining how it will be handled.
Office politics are the unwritten rules of interactions in an organization. Social politics form in any group of people that interact regularly. Families have politics. Cliques in schools are a form of politics. And, of course, coworkers have a set of norms that they operate under. Office politics are commonly used to gain a personal advantage within the day-to-day operation of the company. That leads to the generally poor reputation office politics has. Getting the Read more…
Days sales of inventory (DSI) is an accounting measure that gives an idea of how much inventory is on hand in a company. A large number means the company is generally inefficient at turning raw materials into profit. The formula for DSI is: The average inventory is calculated as follows: Now, of course, this is not going to be precise. Theoretically, a company could game this metric. That is a whole different problem than trying Read more…
A sunk cost is an expense that has already been incurred and has no bearing on future decisions. Imagine that you are working on restoring an old car and have budgeted $2000 to complete the project. After all the repairs are made and you turn the key, you hear nothing. You learn that it will cost another $1000 to get it operational. Conventional wisdom says that the decision to proceed or not is based on Read more…
A job shop is a flexible production operation that builds to order. They specialize in (but are not limited to) low volume, high-mix work. They often do custom production rather than manufacture standard parts. A job is a discrete unit of work—same product, same setup—of a specified quantity. A job order is the instruction that tells the job shop what to produce. Because of the nature of this one-off type of work, operators in a Read more…
One of the challenges of being a big company lies in making sure one hand is talking to the other. I recently came across an instance in which this seemed not to happen. I was running McAfee security software at the time, and occasionally received emails from them. I was mild amused to see their spam filter in Outlook capture one of their own marketing messages. On one hand, it was refreshing to see Read more…