The On Time Delivery Kit has now arrived. It's a full kit, available via immediate download, for you to use with your team to improve your business' on time delivery performance. The files are provided so that you can modify the documents and tailor this approach for your specific needs (instructions are included). The kit includes: Instructions Staff Overview Presentation Meetings Timeline Meeting Agendas Meeting Forms Examples of Forms Audit Forms Contract Review forms Scheduling Agenda Fine Tuning Worksheet 7 Mistakes to Avoid White Paper For full details, and to buy, please visit the On Time Delivery Kit page on our partner website. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

Happy New Year, I hope that this message finds you rejuvenated and ready to take on 2013’s challenges. As with every year January is a good time to review last year’s performance, and to identify opportunities to improve the level of service you offer to your customers as well as the level of profit you can achieve from doing so. For some businesses this can seem an overwhelming challenge, as you can end up with a long list of improvements you could undertake. If you find that you have too many to deal with at this moment in time then it might be worth your while prioritising and scheduling the improvements based on their relative impact, cost and ease of implementation. If you are struggling to come up with a list of improvements then reflecting against the standard metrics of Quality, Cost and Delivery can be helpful. Any other measures that you use in your business can also be considered, it is all about finding something tangible for you to reflect upon and generate ideas agai

When I have been asked to deliver waste walking workshops for my clients it has often been seen as a one off exercise, to give the business a one off jump in performance. Whilst these workshops do allow us to identify and plan improvements, waste walking is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to business improvement. At the heart of Lean (manufacturing) is the conflict between value adding activities and waste generation. The aim of Lean is to eliminate waste, ultimately allowing you to provide your customers with better products that are delivered in line with their demand whilst giving you a healthier profit margin. This method is a doorway to a larger world. One of the main reasons why waste walking is such a good way to get into Lean is that this process is really easy to learn. Best of all, waste walking actually addresses the eighth waste, untapped human potential, as it gets the people who do the job involved with improving it. It is widely recognised that the people wh

The Effective Office is a short guide written by an experienced business consultant to help you improve the productivity and effectiveness of your office. In eight chapters this book takes you through ways to get more done in less time, how to get your office team on track with the right tasks every day and how to conquer your recurring administrative problems once and for all. Aimed at the office manager who wants to make their team’s performance even better this step by step guide provides you with a list of action steps at the end of each section of the book, making your implementation of this information even easier. Click here to view on Amazon.com. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Taking the frustration out of on time delivery.

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,

If you want to make a significant improvement in how your business works then you may need to focus more. There are so many things that don't happen in businesses because the right level of focus is not on them for a long enough period of time. If you want to drive up your on time delivery performance then it needs to find its way into your daily conversations and be given enough time, resources, work and discussion to make a tangible improvement. If your customer service isn't up to scratch then it needs to become centre stage until a meaningful change has taken hold. Often we look to improve a facet of our business and we talk about it and take some action, but not enough action over a period of time to make the change take hold and stick. If you find this happening in your business then remember the common phrase 'do less better' and pick one improvement area and stay with it until you have made a real difference. Giles

As businesses grow and develop they seem to get more complicated. More systems to operate, more people to serve, and more things to remember, all side effects of traditional success. If the business is in control then these systems will be documented and allow others to follow in their footsteps. The busyness and complexity however can put off the very people we need to get involved with our continuous improvement programmes and so simplicity needs to be sought when designing our continuous improvement approach. When our approach to developing and implementing new ideas is simple we can see the changes taking place in our business. We don't have to wait for months or years to see something happen; we can experience it quickly, and sometimes immediately. When the process of making a suggestion through evaluation and into implementation is fast we can gain momentum from the people who give the suggestions. Complicated, centralised, improvement approaches kill this benefit. If poss