What is your ‘second gear’ for delivering on time?

As the year draws to a close there are many businesses who are in the middle of their peak load, particularly in the food and drink sector. Now whilst I am sure that your business is not slowing down in preparation for Christmas it can still be worthwhile considering how other businesses change gear in order to maintain their on time delivery performance.

Most businesses have specific challenges to overcome regarding their ability to deliver. Some are expected and some are unexpected.

The difference between the businesses who cope well during changing situations and the ones who suffer seems to boil down to two main things; visibility and levers.

Firstly the businesses who cope better with the bumps and troubles of business usually have a better visibility going forwards. This doesn't mean that they necessarily can see what is going to happen, but that they look forwards on a regular basis and determine if they need to change course or stay as they are.

Secondly, when the businesses who cope better do determine that a course change is required, they know what options they have available to them, or what levers they have to pull. In other words, they have a set of pre-defined courses of action to choose from. Like a sub-routine in a computer program some of these options might be rule based and indicate to the business when they need to go back to ‘normal’ ways of working.

If you are not in the middle of your peak load at work and you don’t have something similar currently in place, it might be worthwhile considering this kind of approach. Could it help with your business’ New Year’s resolutions?

Giles Johnston

Smartspeed Consulting Limited
Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

Kamishibai Boards

Available to purchase here. Some tools are incredibly simple to use, and also deliver some amazing results. Kamishibai boards are a great example and are superb when you want some visual control over routine tasks. By the way Kamishibai is pronounced "come-e-she-bye" in case you were wondering! As simple as you could want it, a Kamishibai board is a T-card system that has red cards glued to green cards (so that each T-card has a red side and a green side). The red cards are for the incomplete tasks, where as the green cards symbolise that the work has been done. See the photo below of a board in use. On the red side of the card you write the name of the task that needs to be completed, and if appropriate you can include details of how the task is to be completed. This is not expected to replace standard operating procedures, but can be a good opportunity for an aide memoire. The boards can be organised for daily, weekly and even monthly cycles. They are g

Kamishibai Boards: A Visual Management Tool to Improve Discipline and Workplace Habits

If you need to increase your effectiveness in the workplace and need a visual tool to help with day to day task management then this short guide is for you. Giles Johnston, a business improvement consultant for small to medium sized businesses, takes you through the steps needed to implement a low / no cost solution to your day to day management problems - a 'Kamishibai' board. A Kamishibai board can help to improve discipline within the workplace and ensure that the working days / weeks / months are more effective. Common within businesses that use 'lean' methods to improve efficiency and performance (and very effective to use when implementing 5S), a Kamishibai board can be used in its own right, in any kind of business, whether you are going through a lean transformation or not. Click here to view on Amazon.com. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

What is 5S and how does it help to improve the performance of my business?

Many businesses have heard of 5S; it is a simple workplace organisation system that is designed to make workplaces more effective and more efficient, as well as safer. Many businesses also try and fail at implementing 5S . It might be simple, but as you will know, anything that involves changing the behaviours of your staff isn’t always straightforward. If you haven’t heard of 5S before there are five basic steps, all beginning with ‘S’. They are: Sort – clearing out the clutter and re-distributing other people’s belongings. Set in order – optimising the workplace so that everything you need frequently is close at hand. Shine – cleaning the workplace to an appropriate level. Standards – defining what good looks like and how you will keep it that way. Sustain – forming the habits to retain the benefits of an organised and disciplined workplace. So, how does 5S improve the performance of your business? From a safety perspective, fewer accidents means less downtime.

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