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Takt time (or cycle time) is a term that is very rarely understood outside of engineering circles, but can apply to different businesses who need to improve their business processes. The reason for writing this post is to help people who approach their business improvement with no real objectives other than to be better than they currently are. When continuous improvement approaches are used in isolation there is sometimes a lack of understanding about how good  an improvement needs to be in order to serve the business from the perspective of profit and customer service. Sometimes we pat ourselves on the back when we make improvements, but the improvement might not go far enough. Calculating takt time is a simple approach that divides the amount of demand into the available time. For example, if you need to handle three enquiries every hour, then that means that the task (nominally) should be designed to be no longer than 20 minutes. Obviously this example assumes that there is n

When we decide to make improvements to our business, the number of options available to us can seem overwhelming. Anyone who has looked into the Lean Transformation toolbox will remember how they felt when they first saw the full range of methods and techniques. However, there is a very simple way of deciding which tools will work best and that is to ask yourself whether the way your business operates lives up to the brand you have designed for it and the image you wish to project to your customers. To put this into perspective let me tell you briefly about some work I did with one of my clients. They were under pressure from their customers to improve their performance, particularly with respect to on time deliveries, and were about to embark in some Value Stream Mapping activities. At the point that I came to support the business there was already a long shopping list of methods, problems and potential improvements available for review. The problem was that after some analysis the

Having good data that is clean (complete and accurate) is essential in order to make appropriate decisions, especially in the quest for 100% on time delivery performance. A lot of the data that is used nowadays is driven through ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) type systems, and the quality and consistency of the entries made determines the effectiveness of the information coming out from that system. The reason for writing this particular blog entry is that I see many businesses chasing their tails to make improvements, whether from a lean or a delivery perspective, only to find out that their improvements are in vain. In many cases it's not that the improvement wasn't a good idea, it's just that the improvement wasn't required as they have been led on a wild goose chase thanks to some bad data being used to drive decision making. As boring as it may sound, having the necessary checks and balances within your business means more than just checking the that shop f

A project that has recently come to fruition was for Greenleaf Recycling Ltd in Bedlington, Northumberland. The have just gained their PAS100 / CQP accreditation, which we supported them with. PAS100 is akin to ISO9001 for compost producers, and includes a full QMS (Quality Management System), Standard Operating Procedures, HACCP controls and NCR system. Accreditation was notified on the 24th April 2012 and our congratulations go out to Greenleaf for achieving this success. From an on time delivery performance perspective we were particularly interested in how the lead time for compost production could be reduced, and through design of the process schedule and defining some standard working practices the lead time for compost production has been taken from 6 months down to 3 months. You can view the Greenleaf website here . Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

When you are trying to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of a business process you are often presented with in-trays. They may look quite innocuous as they sit there on the edge of the desk, but the way that they are used can greatly affect the ability to close out project tasks, or affect the lead time of the process that they are part of. As an example, one of my clients was having problems with the length of time it took to produce their manufacturing orders. As I was engaged to lead some lean transformation work in this area I scoped the sales order processing part of the business into the project. There was initially some scepticism as to why I would need to look there when it was a manufacturing problem I had been hired to resolve. However, after explaining the lead time was from order receipt right through to despatch of the products my client agreed that the administrative function may have some effect on the overall time taken. The analysis from the offices in that

Continuous Improvement, or CI, is a heavily used term that often doesn't create the results that we would hope for. Common approaches to CI often help people move from having problems to being 'OK'. However, most people find that it is much more difficult to use these approaches to move from being 'good' to 'excellent'. From his past work with clients who struggled to move from 'good' to excellent', Giles Johnston, a business improvement consultant, has devised a simple method for generating new improvements (hence helping your staff to take the tiny steps that embody CI). From the most junior person to the most senior within a business this simple tool can be applied to provide new insights and ideas to improve your business. This booklet gives you a step by step guide to using this approach and ideas on how to best use it for your business. Quick start templates are also provided (via a download link in the resources section). So, i