LinkedIn Group Discusses Change Management The idea of effecting change within a business is exciting and positive, but it can, at the same time, cause some stomach turns for Lean professionals. Even with experience, and sometimes because of it, the task of changing minds, processes, and habits can be daunting. Users on LinkedIn Six Sigma, Change Management, and Lean Methodology groups often bring up the topic of which tools and habits make for the most …
Preparing to enter the job market is a task that can take years and even decades. Parents start preparing their kids for an eventual job and a career practically from the moment they set foot in a classroom. As one progresses through the stages of their chosen career, people start to think about the kind of education they wish to get to advance. One of the most often asked questions is what matters most during …
With the new year just beginning, it can be a great time to look at what types of things you can do to help make 2014 the best year ever. Companies that have properly implemented lean strategies over the past year will have undoubtedly found many benefits, and improved the way their business is done. If there is one area where virtually every company can improve their lean implementation, however, it is with data collection. …
SDCA (Standardize, Do, Check, and Act) with LEAN principles. The SDCA cycle is simply a refinement of the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Act) cycle. The goal of both processes is to stabilize production. Many companies use this process to improve their product or service. Here is what your company may want to know about this process. 1. LEAN Marketing with SDCA Marketing cycles can be improved with iterative processes. Customer value is most often …
A Time to be Thankful Thanksgiving Day is full of food we rarely ever consume, watching football of teams we hardly care about, yet seemingly play every fourth Thursday in November, and family members we only see on the holidays. Yet at some point during the piling of calories onto our plates we find time to express what we are thankful for. This is usually a spontaneous answer, half full of emotion, and half full …
This fall marks the 25th anniversary of the Lean movement which continues to revolutionize the manufacturing industry and is now spreading into other industries as well. Jim Womack, former MIT researcher and well-known founder of the Lean movement was a keynote presenter at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) in Toronto last month. Womack was introduced by CME president Jayson Meyers, who said he is “someone who has changed the world” by launching the Lean …
Cloud computing has emerged as the latest technology to help companies, but what are the benefits of this technology? Companies all over the world are using it to create a mobile workforce and to lower expenses. There are so many benefits to this new technology that any company with an IT department could use this technology to improve business processes. Here is what you need to know about this new technology that’s sweeping the nation. …
Red Sox Win Their Way The 2013 Major League Baseball season came to a roaring end in Boston last week, crowning its 106th World Series Champion on the sacred Fenway Park grounds. For the Boston Red Sox, it was their third title in ten years and eighth overall, fourth behind the Oakland Athletics (9), St. Louis Cardinals (11), and New York Yankees (27). It was also the first time they clinched a title at home …
Most businesses are run with a series of ongoing projects. The breaking up of tasks into projects results in manageable workloads with specific assignments, making them more likely to get accomplished in a timely manner. By definition, projects are sets of interconnected tasks that are targeted at meeting a certain goal. Many organizations rely on steady project completion to lead to the achievement of broader company goals. Project Phases Projects are run, overseen, and monitored …
The path towards continuous improvement in your lean journey is not always as clear as you’d like it to be. Many of the processes and methodologies behind Lean take time before your organization has success with them. It’s a learning process well worth the investment, but can be frustrating at times. Same goes for the Lean process known as Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED). The increased efficiency and reduction of costly inventory that results …