Business Novels: The Next Best Thing To Reality

I enjoy reading business novels and fondly remember my first read of “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt.  I also had the pleasure of reading another book titled “Velocity:  Combining Lean, Six Sigma, and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance – A Business Novel” by Dee Jacob, Suzan Bergland, and Jeff Cox.  This book is a natural extension of “The Goal” […]

Discover Toyota’s Best Practice

I have always been impressed by Toyota’s inherent ability to adapt, improve, and embrace change even during the harshest times.  This innate ability is a signature trait of Toyota’s culture and has been the topic of intense study and research for many years. How is it that Toyota continues to thrive regardless of the circumstances they encounter?  While numerous authors […]

OEE: The Means to an End – Differentiation Where It Matters Most

Does your organization focus on results or the means to achieve them?  Do you know when you’re having a good day?  Are your processes improving? The reality is that too many opportunities are missed by simply focusing on results alone.  As we have discussed in many of our posts on problem solving and continuous improvement, the actions you take now […]

The Invisible Gorilla

Just when you thought everything was under control, someone asks you about something that isn’t even on your radar.  Our perceptions can be deceiving and are not always as accurate or reliable as we think.  This is nicely documented and demonstrated in this article and video that we found on Yahoo today:  The Invisible Gorilla. If the above link doesn’t work, cut and paste the following […]

Pivot Tables, OEE, and Differentiation Strategy

Automated systems are great at creating data and generating reports but they don’t always give us what we’re looking for.  Microsoft’s Excel Pivot Tables provide an amazing ability to create and generate custom reports on the fly and it’s easier than you may think.  Could this be a differentiation factor for how your company works with OEE data versus others […]

Differentiation Strategies and OEE (Part I)

If your competitors are using OEE to manage their processes just like you, how do you plan to establish a unique approach that helps your company to outperform them?  You may be surprised to learn that the perception of process management and control created by high technology OEE solutions can quickly be shattered by the lack of specific process level […]

Pure Genius: Teach, Build, Model

At first I thought this approach seemed to be a little too simplistic as an execution strategy.  On second thought, however, it seemed to be very appropriate to most situations that we may encounter.  It has certainly been a very practical superview for our current project. Teach: Teach the concepts, systems, processes, and procedures that are required to achieve a given goal or […]

Foundations of Failure

The problem with many of the problems we find ourselves having to contend with at any given time is that we learn of their existence after the fact (when the damage is done) or after discovering that the results we were looking for simply didn’t materialize.  As we learned from Michael A. Roberto’s book, “Know What You Don’t Know“, there […]

Solving problems BEFORE they Happen!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could solve problems before they happen?  While a problem free world may be far from our present reality, I am encouraged to learn that there are steps that we can take to improve our ability to recognize and resolve problems before they happen in real-time.  The solution to developing this problem awareness mindset is […]

Lean Reflections

Sometimes we need to take a look back in history to understand and appreciate the significance of change over time.  I recently found an article titled “How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers” that was published on November 26, 2001 and authored by Sarah Jane Johnston.  The title of the article gave me cause to reflect on the recalls that […]