Tag Archives: lean

We’ve all had one of those shifts when everything comes together – we aren’t starved of material, no equipment break-downs, we have a full crew and Bob is on OP70 – and we really ‘nail it’! There are ‘high-fives’ all round at the end of the shift, your manager >>

Who decided in their wisdom that Continuous Improvement is to be limited to a problem?   Why can’t someone just have a great idea?
I was in session the other day when some delegates were being trained on this subject of Continuous Improvement.  I was meant to be a bystander during >>

CLIENT: You are asking us to rush.  It’s unsafe.

ME: No, not at all.  I want the product to move faster on its journey to the customer.

CLIENT: You ask for more urgency.

ME: Yes

CLIENT: This could be dangerous. It could lead to more accidents. You want us to do more set-ups >>

Is it really possible to get an average of 61.8 ideas per annum from each and every one of your employees?
Robinson and Schroeder wrote a great article on Continuous Improvement called ‘The Role of Front-Line Ideas in Lean Performance Improvement.  It appeals to my own experience of continuous improvement >>

Why is OEE so abused in many of our operations where, despite expensive software ‘solutions’, we can find lots of data but very little useful information? Why do so many managers ask for the ‘overall OEE’ for their whole operation – is that even a real question? In view >>

Can we stop using the term Quick Wins?  It’s destructive.  End of blog.

Maybe I need to flesh this fruit out a bit more. I’ve been in consulting for longer than I care to remember and this term plagues me wherever I go. I’m all up for Return On >>

When I started my career in British Aerospace we did a very simple simulation using a 3 pin plug to demonstrate the power of one piece flow.  I was always amazed when facilitating the 4 hour session how you could build just as many plugs with a drop in >>

There are times when you need to freshen up your material.  An analogy, however good, at some point must be laid to rest.  In my case, my usual one for describing continuous flow had been given its last rights as I knew my audience consisted of delegates that had >>

Most leaders working in a Lean environment will have gone through a painful journey of figuring out how to juggle a non-lean diary (meetings and possibly more meetings) with the pressures of performing the role of a Lean leader in the workplace.

In the utopian Lean world we would look >>