In this blog, I want to talk about five ways to overcome company procrastination. Having been around many different companies over the years, I have had the opportunity to witness many company cultures. Unfortunately, one culture that I sometimes run into is one of procrastination. It becomes acceptable to put off the hard work of …
As a leader of people things will happen that shouldn’t happen. It’s natural since you are a leader of people. Maybe they are operating within a process and they generate errors or scrap within the process. How do you react? Do you attack the problem or the person? Using a Fishbone Diagram along with these …
Attack the Problem not the Person- Using a Fishbone Diagram Read More »
Geater Machining was able to increase throughput by 60% in a bottleneck operation after one Rapid Improvement Event. Learn how their efforts have paid off! One of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries …
Geater Machining Increased Throughput by 60% After One Rapid Improvement Event Read More »
As I mentioned in the original Industry 4.0 blog, there are nine key enablers that support Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing. As a reminder, the nine key enablers are listed below. While 5G networks will allow you to collect data at an alarming rate, how do you store and manage that information? Cloud computing and …
There are wastes everywhere in your business. Going to operations and conducting a waste walk will help you identify opportunities for improvement! One of the techniques to understand where opportunities lie in eliminating waste is to develop a Value Stream Map of the enterprise. This is called an EVSM or Enterprise Value Stream Map. Once …
Developing a winning team is extremely important if your company is going to make improvements. In this blog, I provide four steps that will help. It’s interesting that when we begin our days in school that everything is focused upon individual performance. Don’t cheat off your neighbor, don’t crib information from Google or the review …
Sounds good, but what does it mean and how do you apply it within a Lean framework? First, let’s talk about self-leadership and then I will provide you with a tool that can help you improve in that area. Leader standard work. Self-leadership starts with being self-aware. What are your strengths, weaknesses, values, and emotional …
Great Leadership begins with Self Leadership- Leader Standard Work Read More »
Learn how a company in Waterloo, Iowa benefitted from deploying Mixed Model Lines. One of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses …
Filter Minder Uses Mixed Model Lines to Improve Operations Read More »
If we will gather increased information from the factory floor, customers, supply chains, and quality, we better make sure we have a handle on cybersecurity. In 2019 there were 3800 publicly exposed data breaches. These exposed 4.1 billion records and data breaches have increased by 54% over 2018. Ouch! According to IBM and the Poneman …
Many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away…oh not really. Toyota identified the seven wastes when they developed the Toyota Production System from 1948 to 1975. As the production system was integrated into Western culture the eighth waste- Not Listening to People’s Ideas was adopted. When put into the correct order, the eight wastes …