Lean – A Race Against Time

Background If “Time is Money”, is it reasonable for us to consider that “Wasting Time is Wasting Money?” Whether we are discussing customer service, health care, government services, or manufacturing – waste is often identified as one of the top concerns that must be addressed and ultimately eliminated.  As is often the case in most organizations, the next step is an attempt to […]

Toyota’s Culture – Inside Out

As discussed on our Lean Roadmap page, the culture that exists inside your company will determine the success or failure of your lean initiatives in the long-term.  So, how do we cultivate and nurture this culture that we desire to achieve? Fortunately, I found a great article,  How to implement “Lean Thinking” in a Business: Pathway to creating a “Lean Culture”, written by one of my recent twitter […]

Seasons Greetings

This year has been filled with many new experiences, hard times, great times, and many opportunities for learning.  While some may prefer to see this year pass sooner than later, 2009 is hopefully a year that presented many new opportunities and even greater challenges. As lean practitioners, we learn to appreciate failure from a different perspective than most people would enjoy.  The focus is not the […]

Lean Execution: Competing with Giants – It’s all about Speed

Sometimes you need a break from reading and learn from others who are truly walking the talk.  We trust you will find this video, “Competing with Giants – It’s all about Speed“, featuring Dominic Orr, CEO of Aruba Networks, as interesting and thought provoking as we did. This short clip will be done in less time than it takes to make popcorn. Another clip that […]

Contingency Plans – Crisis Management in Lean Organizations

Contingency Planning For Lean Organizations – Part IV – Crisis Management In a previous post we eluded that lean organizations are likely to be more susceptible to disruptions or adverse conditions and may even have a greater impact on the business.  To some degree this may be true, however, in reality, Lean has positioned these organizations to be more agile and extremely responsive to crisis […]

5S Your Software (Computer)

We recently discussed how software skills of people in your company can impact their effectiveness and efficiency.  One of our suggestions was to provide additional training and resources to allow staff to upgrade their skill levels. We should also mention that upgrading to the latest software release may also improve their performance.  Microsoft recently announced upgrades to their Office product line so now may be the time to “5S” […]

How to Solve Problems with Idea Maps

Problem solving is a problem in itself for many companies and at times can be one of the most daunting tasks to undertake during the course of an otherwise regular work day. For some, problems seldom occur while for others this may, unfortunately, be a daily activity.  Since problem solving is not usually part of the typical daily agenda of “routine” activities, our ability […]

OEE for Batch Processes

We recently received an e-mail regarding OEE calculations for batch processes and more specifically the effect on down stream equipment that is directly dependent (perhaps integrated) on the batch process.  While the inquiry was specifically related to the printing industry, batch processing is found throughout manufacturing. Our more recent experiences pertain to heat treating operations where parts are loaded into […]

Benchmarking OEE

Benchmarking Systems: We have learned that an industry standard or definition for Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) has been adopted by the Semi Conductor Industry and also confirms our approach to calculating and using OEE and other related metrics. The SEMI standards of interest are as follows: SEMI E10:  Definition and Measurement of Equipment Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability. SEMI E35:  Guide to Calculate Cost of Ownership […]

OEE: Frequently Asked Questions

We added a new page to our site to address some of the more frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) we receive regarding OEE.  We trust you will find this information to be of interest as you move forward on your lean journey.  We always appreciate your feedback, so feel free to leave us a comment or send an e-mail directly to LeanExecution@gmail.com or Vergence.Consulting@gmail.com We have had […]