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The people actually doing a process a new way are at the frontline of change. They are the ones who must enforce new processes with internal customers, manage changes with suppliers, or work with customers to educate them about the new and improved methods. Working at the frontline of change Read more…
Growth is the driver of stock appreciation. The basic way investors determine what to pay for a stock is to look at the value of its assets, minus its liabilities, and then factor in expected future earnings. With growth, those expected earnings get bigger, and the company’s stock prices go Read more…
Optimization is the act of making a system as effective as possible by adjusting the controllable variables. In a nutshell, optimization means figuring out where to set all the controls to make the company, system, process, or other aspect of your life do what you want it to do. “Effective” Read more…
Lean Six Sigma is the combination of Lean and Six Sigma into a single business philosophy. Lean is commonly thought of as a way to improve process speed. Six Sigma is primarily considered a quality tool. In truth, though, the two both share a lot of the same tools, and Read more…
A spaghetti chart is a visual depiction of the flow of a person through their workstation. The spaghetti chart may also be used to depict the flow of information and materials as well. Typically, the chart is done on a Standard Work Sheet, mostly out of convenience. The sheet may Read more…
Risk management is the process of identifying risks, reducing them when possible, and making plans to deal with undesirable outcomes. Risk management can be done for an ongoing concern, such as a product line or company, or for an individual project, such as rolling out a new software package. Risk Read more…
Lean manufacturing is the business philosophy of relentlessly eliminating waste to improve flow in a production environment. It has evolved into something far more widespread, and now Lean encompasses offices, construction, service, hospitals, and even government. While many people trace the roots of Lean manufacturing back to the Toyota Production Read more…
Confusion is a lack of certainty. This uncertainty translates to waste. This waste is cause by two main things: Delays: Confusion creates delays in processes when operators try to figure out what to do. This leads to variation in cycle time. With enough of these delays, lead times also become Read more…
Absences are, in a nutshell, times when a person is not present to do their normal work. Absences primarily fall into two categories from a production viewpoint—planned and unplanned. Your company’s HR team may categorize absences in a larger variety of ways, but from the operations standpoint, human resource definitions Read more…
The scope is the boundary of something in business. It may apply to an agreement, contract, set of responsibilities, or project. The scope defines what is covered and what is not. In Lean, the scope is most commonly used to refer to the boundary of what a project will cover. Read more…
Meetings are a gathering of more than one person to discuss a specific topic. Well planned meetings have an agenda. They also have a meeting manager who keeps the meeting on track and sets clear objectives. Poorly planned meetings generally miss out on one or more of those components, and Read more…
“Bells and Whistles” are the extras on a product…or on a process. On a product, bells and whistles are the features that enhance the product, but don’t significantly change the function. Years ago, power windows were part of the bells and whistles packages that carmakers used to distinguish cars from Read more…