Interruptions plague workers, especially in the office. This simple log lets employees gain a better understanding of how much time they lose due to interruptions. It also helps them understand, and resolve, the root cause of the interruptions. Get Our Interruption Log for FREE
The Countermeasure Sheet is a form used to track the actions necessary to get a KPI metric or other goal back on track. The basic steps to using the Countermeasure Sheet are: Fill out the header information. Create a problem statement. Do your homework and provide the background information. Do Read more…
A kaizen charter is a form that lays out the scope and goals of a rapid improvement project. Get Our Kaizen Charter Form for FREE The kaizen charter is a living document that evolves throughout the planning process. It establishes the team, and scopes the project, setting the goals and Read more…
One of the harder things for people to do at work is to really cut their creativity loose. Industry as a whole tends to reward successful creativity, but when ideas, especially ones that have just a sprinkling of ‘crazy’ on top, don’t pan out, the person can be viewed in Read more…
I was watching a little TV to wind down this evening, and saw an interesting commercial from Domino’s. Apparently, the pizza franchise did a little restaurant kaizen and came up with a new recipe. I am sure restaurants are constantly tweaking their processes and their secret ingredients, but this is Read more…
If you are in a Lean company, you probably already have a fairly well defined kaizen process. After all, an effective kaizen is one of the most powerful continuous improvement tools in your Lean kit. Like all things, though, your kaizen process probably has room for improvement. I’ve compiled a Read more…
Well, we are deep in the heart of the holiday season. Like many of you, I visited some family last week. I happened to be in Spokane, and one night we went out looking at Christmas lights. Just outside the city, there is a barn with a pretty amazing display. Read more…
Most well-managed companies track the performance of its suppliers. Or more specifically, they track the performance of their external suppliers. Common Supplier Criteria Lead time Quality On-time delivery Responsiveness to questions and problems Orders shipped complete As you can see, there are many criteria with which to measure suppliers. Here’s Read more…
The success of a kaizen project is closely correlated to its proper, thorough planning. But there is also a need to avoid going into a kaizen project with pre-conceived notions of specific changes. Those two opposing factors can create a situation where a team starts diving into a kaizen project Read more…
Machining time is the time when a machine is actually processing something. Generally, machining time is the term used when there is a removal of unwanted material. For example, in a drill press, machining time is when the cutting edge is moving forward and making a hole. This is known Read more…
Process observation is a critical task in the battle against waste. One of the mistakes people make when observing a process is to ask questions about it before they go to gemba to watch it. This tends to bias the person doing the process observation.
So, the story about stray jet-the plane that missed its stop and was out of contact for 78 minutes-continues to unfold. The latest CNN article now reports that the pilots have said that they were both distracted because they were using their laptops in the cockpit during that time. One Read more…