Administrative processes substantially contribute to a company’s costs. Obviously, it depends on the company, but estimates commonly attribute 60-80% of expenses to administrative processes. Administrative processes are the office tasks that are required to keep a company humming along. Administrative processes include human resources, marketing, and accounting. Basically, anything that Read more…
Variation is the enemy of processes. Variation in inputs or in the process itself causes variation in the output of the process. And that variation is perceived as poor quality. The layman’s definition of variation is simply fluctuation. More advanced definitions of variation categorize it in two ways. Common cause Read more…
Specifications are the stated design parameters of a product or service. Specifications can cover any of a variety of features, from physical dimensions, to operating range, to battery life. Some specifications are given with a margin of error, such as “12.00 +/- 0.10 inches”. Other specs are given with a Read more…
Intermittent problems are simply ones that don’t occur every time a process is performed. The inconsistency with which intermittent problems present makes them extremely hard to resolve. The most common form of intermittent problem is the computer glitch. Something happens once, and then the problem goes away for a while. Read more…
Making operations flow is the ultimate goal of Lean. When all the waste is reduced, every process is improved, and the excess inventory is eliminated, you are left with work that effortlessly glides through operations. Flow is often talked about reverently. The senseis I worked with from a premiere Japanese Read more…
Customer behavior is the way the average customer, in a specific target group, will act in a given situation. Customer behavior depends on a host of factors—economic class, psychology, region, culture. Like-minded customers tend to behave in similar ways. That is why ads are targeted to specific groups. In the Read more…
Observation is an important skill for Lean and other methods of continuous improvement. It is necessary to document the “before” process, identify waste, to conduct audits, and to confirm the effectiveness of changes. Observation is simply the practice of watching a process, preferably several times, to learn about it. Observation Read more…
Analysis is the deep dive into the details of a problem in order to better understand it. Analysis is a central part of most problem solving methods. In fact, the ‘A’ in DMAIC (from Six Sigma) is Analyze. In the analysis step, one doesn’t necessarily look for solutions, just a 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…
I am a devotee of 5S. I love what 5S does for my effectiveness at work. I keep things organized, make my workspace support what I do, and prioritize all my ‘tools’ (books, computer peripherals, etc.) so the most important things are at arm’s reach. Despite that, I still constantly Read more…
Cyril Northcote Parkinson first published this idea in The Economist in 1955. In essence, the concept says that work expands to fill the time available. This is a particular problem in continuous improvement. By definition, there is always something more to do after the task that you are on. If Read more…
The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, comes from observations made by a 19th century Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto. It simply says that just a small number of causes (the critical few), determines the majority of the effects. For example, several difficult clients might take up most Read more…