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Scheduling the 'once a year' items.

How many times do you find yourself in a rush to complete a task that you also had to rush a year ago? There are many tasks that only take place once a year, but because of a lack of preparation or scheduling they seem to appear out of the blue. Of course these sorts of things never are out of the blue, it's just that we weren't paying attention. If we did properly schedule these items (once we knew what they were) then we could ask different questions, such as 'what would be a better way of doing this?' Many times however the task re-appears and we do just enough to get the job off our lists. What would happen if you listed all of those quarterly and yearly tasks and scheduled them properly? What improved results would you get? Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the  frustration  out of on time delivery.

Where's the Impedance?

Impedance is one of those good words that, when applied to the context of business improvement, you can quickly find ideas to improve how your business operates. For example... What gets in the way? What obstacles are there in your business that stop you from being as fast as you can, or delivering your product or service to the highest quality levels? How you do make it difficult to do business? Does your business prevent your customers from doing business? Is there any way that you can re-design how your customers interact with your business so that their life becomes easier and you can deliver more products and services for them in the future? What stops good ideas from taking effect? If you are trying to implement changes to the way that you work what gets in the way? Can you better understand how changes are stopped (or impeded) and then design a different way for your business to behave in this area? If you find certain activities in your business aren't happening

The Big Society in Action

I question I often get asked is "does all of this business improvement activity work outside of manufacturing?" The answer is yes, and the charity I am a Trustee of got in the press because of it. I was even interviewed for the article. Read the article here. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

The Statue of Change (Management)

One of the most common phrases you hear when you first embark on improvement project work is 'we've done all of this before'. Have you had this said to you? If you have then there is a simple antidote to the situation, finding a 'statue of change'. Find something in your organisation that doesn't work and that fits in to the remit of the change you are trying to make. Then, put all of your efforts into making sure that this specific change takes effect and works. Sometimes this requires extra effort to ensure that everything runs smoothly. The key to making this strategy work however is to make sure that the change is visible. The change needs to be the statue referred to in the title, a monument for everyone to see that change really can happen. If you are finding that your business change projects are being faced with resistance then it may be worthwhile  to consider a 'statue of change' for your business. Find the one thing that every

5S in the Office

5S is a much used Lean tool that is often seen as a good launching point for business transformation projects. In many cases however, its application into the office environment is rather lacking . This is a shame because it can offer some really good benefits for the business who does embrace the five steps (sort, set, shine, standards and sustain) fully. For example, when you implement 5S on your computer server files become easier to find and time that was wasted trying to get the information that you need is now used for more important tasks (plus it's less frustrating!). Physical files and information are better organised and clutter in the workplace reduces. Again, this makes retrieving information quicker, trip hazards reduce and morale can improve. Also, if you run some form of software to manage your business (such as a CRM system, or MRP/ERP system) then having this same mentality with the data in the system will allow you to improve the quality of the business

Business Process Improvement: A Rapid Method for Improving Operational Performance

'Business Process Improvement' is a practical how to guide based on the author's experience of helping businesses to improve their operational performance. It is aimed at the person whose job it is to make operational and on time delivery improvements happen. During the time he has worked as a business improvement consultant, the author, Giles Johnston, has identified a number of approaches that work for his wide range of clients time and time again. Different clients, different businesses, different needs… but similar approaches.. ‘Business Process Improvement’ outlines these approaches in a simple way that makes them easy to apply to your business. If you are short of time and need to quickly make tangible changes in your business, then this practical guide book is for you. Shorter lead times, improved on time delivery performance and less fire fighting are just around the corner. Click here to view on Amazon.com. Smartspeed Consulting Li

SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies)

I heard a statement recently about how SMED was something you do to ‘polish’ a process, after you have done everything else you need to do to that production process. When I worked through the experience part of gaining my Engineering Chartership I had never heard of the term SMED, it was just something you did to streamline a process – to remove the ‘dead time’ when changing over. Since the lean movement has grown (where I first heard the term SMED) we understand better the need for flexibility within production environments and how quick changeovers can really help. As you can imagine, I disputed the statement that SMED was something you do at the end. I’m sure that you agree that it is just good working practice. If you aren’t familiar with SMED it is a really useful method for taking the work out of a changeover and minimising the time where the process is not running at full speed. A common approach is to: 1 - List all of the activities required to changeover.

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.

Plan, then execute

Planning and execution (the doing part) are often treated as the same activity. They are clearly separate; they have different names to begin with. When I say that they are treated as the same activity what I mean is that I often find that people will think about what they are doing (planning) as they are doing the task (execution). By this time they are already on a specific path and so the effect of their planning is limited. Planning can be seen as another task to be completed. Another thing to do on an already straining ‘to do’ list. This is understandable with how workload’s seem to be nowadays. However, planning can be done very quickly, and can help to reduce the amount of work required to complete a task. So, a small amount of planning could actually reduce the total workload you have in front of you. Coming up with a quick planning method that suits the way you work is the trick here, and that requires you to have a think about how you work best and what results you n

Huddles need to be quick

A daily meeting to organise, prioritise and focus team efforts are invaluable. They also need to be quick. Businesses that have put these ‘huddles’ into place run the risk of the meeting becoming stale, boring, routine and long. The first three of these problems are OK, but the fourth ( huddles becoming long) is the real stumbling block. If you become quick at running the meeting then the first three problems can disappear altogether. If your huddles are becoming stale and long winded then refresh the meeting through speed. A daily meeting to increase productivity and performance is just too good to miss. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

How big are the packets?

When I first start working with clients, one of the complaints they often make  is that their projects are not progressing quickly enough. Upon further inspection their diary seems so stuffed full of things that they don’t have time to get anything done in the first place! Sometimes this problem is due to procrastination, and when that is the case then breaking the overall project down into small packets is a great way to move forward. Small chunks of time that are easy to schedule that have a clear start, middle and end. These small packets of time work even better when they are done at the start of the working day. You can also put a number of small packets together if you feel inclined. If you are feeling stuck with your projects then consider re-planning the work and putting it into palatable chunks of work and trying to schedule those instead. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

Lists can make life easier

There is a great saying 'it is better to have a short pencil than a long memory'. Getting things out of your head and on to paper can do great things for your own personal productivity. When you have ideas and tasks crammed into your head then you run several risks: 1 - You might miss the tasks deadline or never do the task. 2 - Your mind will probably be constantly running on overtime just so that you don't forget. 3 - You might miss the other opportunities and ideas that arise. How you keep your lists and how you choose to use them is up to you. People who are organised, thorough and not bogged down with a thousand things in their heads usually get the job done quickest. How do you organise your thoughts?   Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.