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Showing posts from March, 2015

Is CI Important To Your Business?

Just a simple question for you today: 'How much time does your business spend on CI each week?' OK, and another one: 'Does that amount of time reflect your business' aspirations?' If you want some strategies to change this around read this article . Giles Johnston Author of Business Process Re-Engineering Now available in PDF format

Do You Design Problems Away, or Do You Manage Them?

I had a great catch up with a colleague yesterday and we were reminiscing about past projects when we, as Engineers at the time, would struggle to get people to realise that designing a problem out of a process is usually better than just managing it. I spend most of my time nowadays with clients who want to improve their on time delivery performance . Guess what? When I first start working with them they are trying to manage their problems rather than design them out. In 2015, so far, one of the common problems that I been asked to help with is 're-scheduling'.

Would a Process Summary Help?

Some business processes can be rather detailed, can't they? They may be written, or flow charted, and extend for pages. The question I often ask myself, when working on my client's projects, is 'do people actually understand them?'

Can You Quantify Your Improvements?

I was recalling a past conversation to one of my clients today; it was based on the idea that 'all decisions are financial'. The conversation that I was recalling was between me and a talented Engineer who was frustrated by his boss' lack of enthusiasm to an improvement he had identified.

Do You Write Down Your Improvement Ideas?

When I am working with clients I often hear them talking about potential improvement ideas. But, when I ask them where they keep their improvement ideas they can't show me!

You Don't Have Time To Improve Your Business?

I get it. No, I really do. People are busy. Are you busy? I certainly know the feeling. However, when someone tells me that progress is not being made on their improvement projects because they haven't got time it makes me question what they do have time for.

A Quick Continuous Improvement Start

When you embark on making changes to your business Planning is required. If you recall the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act) cycle, you will know just how important this is to effective change management . There are a lot of businesses, however, who get too bogged down with their Planning and become ineffective with their Doing.

Continuous Improvement Is All Around Us

Some businesses haven't grasped the idea of continuous improvement including a progression of small incremental changes. These businesses don't do continuous improvement, they do one off improvements. Their improvements are small in number but large in terms of change. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

Are You Working On The Right Problem?

Have you ever had that feeling that the change you are trying to make in your business is the wrong one? There sometimes comes a point, when your improvement just isn't making progress, that this thought crosses your mind.

Sustaining 5S

One of the challenges I hear from businesses is with regards to sustaining 5S. If you haven't come across the 5S approach for improving workplace organisation it really is worth reading up on.