Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt (March 31, 1947 – June 11, 2011) was a thought leader during the early development of Lean thinking. His ideas were not actually presented as Lean, though. He focused more on his own ideas, primarily the “Theory of Constraints” and drum-buffer-rope. His basic premise was that you keep looking at ways to pace your production and create flow with an emphasis on reducing delays at constraints in your system. His most famous Read more…
Frank (July 7, 1868 – June 14, 1924) and Lillian (May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) Gilbreth were each forward thinkers in manufacturing in the early 20th century. They were closely linked to time and motion studies and created a set of 17 motions they could uniquely identify during work. This set of motions, which included things like transport, grasp, and hold, are called “therbligs” which is a near-reversal of their last name. Categorizing Read more…
Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an early thought leader on modern continuous improvement. He is known for many things but is probably best known for two specific achievements. The first is that he is closely linked to the revival of the Japanese economy after World War II and helped position the country to be an economic powerhouse later in the century. His second major accomplishment is the growth of PDCA Read more…
A production playbook is basically a set of alternative options depending upon predictable situations. The most common playbook entries cover operating in unusual staffing or demand situations. One set of plays might clarify what is done when 1, 2, or 3 people are absent, and another set of plays might cover how to set up for 3 different demand ranges or for a demand spike. In addition to staffing and demand plays, you might have Read more…
Creating a great continuous improvement culture means lots of projects. That, in turn, means a lot of people will be away from their jobs on a regular basis. In addition, more minds looking at a process means more ideas on how to improve it. Both of these require that employees have backups ready, willing, and able to step in and take over their work as needed. Let us know how your company does at providing Read more…
One of the challenges in continuous improvement is getting gains to stick. Backsliding is common. It is demoralizing to a team to spend time and energy and resources to change a process, only to learn that a short time later, their efforts have evaporated. Read the main article by clicking the “Previous Section” link below. But first, make sure to answer our poll question about backsliding in your company.
In any organization, time is a valuable commodity. We cover the 1/3 – 2/3 rule in detail in the main part of this post, but want to get some feedback from you on whether or not your leadership team provides you with enough time to accomplish the projects they assign.
The 4 P’s of marketing are a core lesson in any business education. They define the marketing mix strategy. The 4P’s of Marketing are: Product Price Promotion Place The origin of the 4 P’s is credited to E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960, so the concept has had some staying power. That should give an indication of how important it is. In a nutshell, the 4P’s of marketing define what you are going to sell, how Read more…
The standard work schedule week is five 8-hour days, totaling 40 hours. Some companies opt for a 4-10 workweek with an additional day off each week. There are several pros and cons to each schedule. To make the decision even more challenging, the pros and cons can flip for different people. The criteria for job satisfaction are highly personal. From a company perspective, several factors impact whether it is a good decision. In most cases, Read more…
