Why doesn’t anything work … at work?
Have you ever been frustrated when things just don’t seem to “go” properly at work? Maybe you are just trying to complete a simple, day-to-day task and for some reason it is just way harder than it needs to be. Sound familiar? Computers and information systems are supposed to help, but guess what – they […]
Sustaining Performance without Hovering
Sustaining Performance without Hovering As a consultant, I am constantly challenged with providing sustainable process improvement performance. You may have heard of the “Hawthorne Effect”, an experiment with one interpretation being: people perform better when they are aware they are being observed. Knowing this, we can leverage several simple tactics to sustain this effect without […]
Developing a Roll-out Strategy for OEE Implementation
Developing a roll-out strategy for any kaikaku (transformative) level initiative may seem like a difficult task. There is a visual method that I have used over the years that lets me put the pieces on the paper (PowerPoint) and move them around to see if it makes sense. Depending upon the situation you are in […]
OEE Metric Boards for Visibility to Machine Process Health
Did you know Advanced Process Optimization, Inc. can help you create and deploy Metrics boards to manage process performance such as #OEE? OEE can be tricky to deploy if you haven’t done it before. It is important to use this performance measure and benchmarking Key Performance Indicator (KPI) honestly and consistently throughout your organization. Like […]
How Can Standard Work Instructions Help Our Business Processes?
At a minimum we must capture the current best practice in a document. Why? It serves to provide a base understanding of the process. It operationalizes “tribal knowledge”. It can be used as a training document. It removes speculation and sets the expectation for process execution. It removes variation from the process inputs and outputs. […]
What Is Your Single Best Advice For Problem Solvers?
I get asked this question quite often and feel there is no trouble in sharing one of my top “secrets” to successful problem solving. My answer is this: “Challenge every assumption!” Without a doubt the most common oversight I see is that people that are tasked with solving problems in organizations believe that the employees […]
How to Select the Right Project for Improvement?
Whatever business you may be in, there is a constant pressure to improve, and rightly so. How to go about it is the difficult part. First, understand what value you bring to your customers and any competitive advantage you lack or would try to build. Think in simple terms such as time-based and quality-based improvements. […]
Critical To Quality Done Wrong
The Back Story Ok so I have another example from my life about a Six Sigma concept. Let me lay out the scenario. I love eBay. LOVE IT!! So I am shopping for a TV. I found what I wanted a big 65″ LCD and the price is right. The TV is refurbished, but is […]
Old-School Managers: You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here
The Avoidable Fate of Old School Management and Change Averseness I had the opportunity to visit several steel client prospects over the past week. I was fortunate to come across one that had experience with process improvement as delivered in a strategic perspective, or at least understood the tactical approach and its limited but effective […]
What is Quality?
Some people think “Quality” is the act of inspecting and testing. Others think it is a ranking of what is a top performing product or service. Some even think of it as consistency. We show “Quality” in quotes because it is an ambivalent and ambiguous term used as a catchall. Is not “Quality” the acceptability […]