These are unprecedented times. My guess is many of your employees are working from home full time or at least part of the time. To maintain physical distancing, many companies have adopted Zoom or other technology solutions to support their business. Doing that is like running with scissors- too much technology can ruin your culture. …
This week I get to interview David Goodreau the President of the Small Manufacturers Institute and he shares their mission and passion for helping small manufacturers. David helps design and implement programs that make manufacturers more profitable and give people a career. His 40-year work history is as a machinist, manager, entrepreneur, and a builder/collaborator …
Last week I shared the importance of developing and A3 or project charter for your kaizen events. This week I want to share my kaizen event sequence of events. I have led over 450 kaizen events in my career and I have a good sequence of events. Here is how to hold a successful kaizen …
Let’s face it, these are unprecedented times. My guess is many of your employees are working from home full time or at least part of the time. Twitter told their entire staff they can work from home forever! Many tech companies have told their employees they can work from home until the end of the …
Given the desire to keep employees physically distanced, companies are investigating robots and cobots. So much so, the market is expected to grow from $981M to $8B by 2026. For those of you keeping score at home, that is 42% growth every year. Which one should you consider? Let’s look at cobots vs. robots. Robots …
Last week I talked about identifying kaizen events that will impact your KPI’s. That’s a great start. Hopefully, you have a Lean Game Plan for the quarter and are ready to get going. While the excitement in your organization is high, before your first event it is important that you complete a project charter or …
Do you have a culture of innovation? Let’s talk about it and find out. In the book Intrapreneuring in Action, the authors developed 19 traits of companies that have a culture of innovation. This is part five of a five-part series. I’ve begun this entire intrapreneur series because some companies have to pivot because of …
Do You Have a Culture of Innovation? – Part Five Read More »
There will be times in your leadership career when you have to deal with frustrating people. That isn’t a character trait, but it does happen from time to time. People can be frustrating in certain situations. Here are four tips on how to deal with frustrating people. Tip 1 – Realize they’re struggling just like …
Cybersecurity is often overlooked in many industry settings. Not entirely, but it doesn’t get the attention or budgeting that new equipment, cobots, and other tools get. They are easier to justify by improved throughput, increased efficiencies, etc. Cybersecurity doesn’t add directly to the bottom line, yet if you are the recipient of a cyberattack that …
Four Ways to Improve Cybersecurity in Manufacturing Read More »
As you develop your Lean Game Plan, you’ll identify KPI’s–Key Performance Indicators that you want to affect with your Lean improvements. Often you need to go several layers deep before you get to the actual kaizen event. This blog will explain how to match your kaizen’s to KPIs successfully. Let’s use the picture above as …