Deadlines are, simply put, the date something is due. Deadlines may be externally dictated, such as the Internal Revenue Service’s April 15th deadline. They may also be internally set. You may establish March 15th as the date you want all of your tax records gathered. External deadlines tend to carry Read more…
Diminishing returns happen when resource (time, effort, money, space) yields less output than it did at an earlier time. In math jargon, diminishing returns happen when the productivity curve starts to flatten out. Diminishing returns are essentially the inverse of the Pareto 80/20 Principle. Once the 80% of gains are Read more…
A decision is a choice between two competing or alternative options. We make countless decisions each and every day—what to wear, what to eat, the route to take to work. Some decisions are made so rapidly that they are virtually automatic. You make a decision every time you adjust the Read more…
One of the basic tenets of continuous improvement is respect for people. A way to do this is to look for and eliminate the tasks that are dirty, dumb, or dangerous. Unfortunately, people have become used to doing tasks that have some or all of these components. Think of the Read more…
Data (the plural form of datum) is essentially information that is not yet in context, or without any applied meaning. For example, if you were told that a particular elephant in a zoo weighed 5,800 pounds, you could comprehend how heavy that is, but it would be hard to act Read more…
Customer demand is the pull from a customer. Don’t confuse customers saying they want to purchase something with actually buying something. There is a considerable fall-off between a customer admiring a product or service, and actually opening up her wallet. Knowing your customer demand is critical to Lean operations. Customer Read more…