In theory, Employee Opinion Surveys provide a pulse of the workforce and the workplace in general. In practice, they measure the performance of executive leadership and the management team. They serve as a tool to understand what is working and to identify opportunities for improvement. Unfortunately, collecting and compiling survey data is very time-consuming and only represents a snapshot in time. While […]
The Pulse of Leadership
Leadership – Get Thirsty …
We are likely to find as many definitions for leadership as there are leaders. I recently downloaded an excellent app titled “Leadership Development” from Apple’s App Store and this definition of leadership was presented in one of the many videos: “Leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the […]
Managing Visually – A word from Daniel T. Jones
Visual Management is certainly one of the characteristic traits that sets lean organizations apart from all others. The success of Visual Management is predicated on relevant and current data. To be effective, Visual Management must be embraced and utilized by leadership, management, and employees throughout the organization. I also believe that “Knowledge is Power and Wisdom is Sharing it.” For […]
Waste: The Devil is in the Details …
I planned to publish this yesterday but for some reason I felt compelled to wait. I doubt it was fate, but as you will see, Toyota once again managed to serendipitously substantiate my reason for it. I was originally inspired to write this post based on a recent experience I had at a local restaurant. After I was seated, I ordered a coffee to start […]
What did you expect? Benchmarking and Decisions – for better or worse.
What did you expect? Benchmarking & Decisions – for better or worse I recognize that benchmarking is not a new concept. In business, we have learned to appreciate the value of benchmarking at the “macro level” through our deliberate attempts to establish a relative measure of performance, improvement, and even for competitor analysis. Advertisers often use benchmarking as an integral component of their marketing strategy. […]
What are we Changing?
Our process improvement strategy is founded on the Theory of Constraints where improvement initiatives are supported by lean and six sigma tools. Process disruptions affecting flow and task execution all contribute to variance and the efforts to eliminate or reduce them are evidenced by increased stability, increased throughput over time, and increased profits. So, our main goal in production is […]
Lean Paralysis
Lean – Breaking Through Paralysis Significant initiatives, including lean, can reach a level of stagnation that eventually cause the project to either lose focus or disappear altogether. Hundreds of books have already been written that reinforce the concept that the company culture will ultimately determine the success or failure of any initiative. A sustainable culture of innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, and continual improvement requires effective leadership to […]
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” […]
Killer Metrics
Managing performance on any scale requires some form of measurement. These measurements are often summarized into a single result that is commonly referred to as a metric. Many businesses use tools such as dashboards or scorecards to present a summary or combination of multiple metrics into a single report. While these reports and charts can be impressive and are capable […]
OEE: Planned Downtime and Availability
As a core metric, Overall Equipment Effectiveness or OEE has been adopted by many companies to improve operations and optimize the capacity of existing equipment. Having completed several on site assessments over the past few months we have learned that almost all organizations are measuring performance and quality in real-time, however, the availability component of OEE is still a mystery […]
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