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Do You Push Your CI Idea's Potential?

I delivered a really interesting training session last week. I was working with a team of managers from a local engineering business, which has been growing rapidly over the past couple of years. What worked a couple of years ago was creaking at the seams last year, and this year.... well some things have broken. As part of the training session we talked about continuous improvement ideas that we could apply to the business and one of the guys started to explore some of the problems that were zapping his time. This then lead to an idea to vastly improve the situation, which was almost dismissed because of the work involved...

Who Writes Your SOPs?

This weekend I succumbed to buying a barbecue. I bought one from a local shop and thought it would be fun to build and use for the first time. I was quite impressed with the packaging and the instructions were pretty good... until I got to about three quarters of the way through the assembly.

What Are You Waiting For?

I once heard a phrase that said 'there's never a good time, so do it now'. I see so many projects and improvements that never get started that I used to wonder why that was the case. Thinking through that further I believe that many people don't realise just how little effort is required to get certain tasks moving. The breaking down of activity into tiny steps is often referred to as 'Kaizen'. This is a really great way to quantify tiny packets of activity / improvement that you can lose in your day to day busy-ness. So, as I reflect on the opening sentence I ask you, can you break down some of your immediate tasks into tiny steps and get your stalled improvement projects moving? It really is a great strategy. Giles Johnston ...fixing MRP systems and re-engineering business processes

Forming Productive Habits

A Sunrise Meeting is an effective gathering of your routines. Click here to find out more about my book on the subject. One of my clients who has been going through a significant period of change in their business said to me the other day 'it's all about forming good habits, isn't it?' When you look at our operational issues, things that stop us from getting our products out the door in a sane manner, then a lot of the time it does depend on how good your habits are.

Free Factory Improvement Report

Click here to read. I have just uploaded a PDF copy of a free report that I use as an introduction to what services I deliver. You can grab a free copy (no sign up required) here. I hope you find the simple to apply ideas useful. Enjoy, Giles Johnston ...fixing MRP systems and re-engineering business processes

Capture Then Process Your Tasks For Higher Productivity

Check out my book for more ideas: click here. Everyone is busy. During the day we received additional requests for help, ideas that pop into our heads and there are other project tasks that we need to undertake. How we capture and then process these items can affect our productivity and effectiveness. Having an approach that suits you is key to making sure that progress gets made.

Do you find change a bit messy?

When you start out on a new path of change it can often be a little messy. The idea you have in your head doesn't always appear when you try the 'new thing' for the first time. As this is so true of many continuous improvements I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on the matter. When a business identifies improvements in its communication then some form of meeting is usually instigated to improve the said communication issue. I'm a big fan of standardised meetings. These are meetings that are focused on very specific outcomes, are usually as short as they possibly can be, and support the effective routines already defined by the business. Often the first few meetings bring up all kinds of additional issues that the business is facing. This noise can be distracting and it may take a few meetings to get past this confusing stage and into short productive meetings.

What's The Right Forum To Support Improvement?

When you review a high level process map of your business, or perform some kind of root cause analysis on problems you have you may find that you need to have a conversation with another department... about their performance. There is nothing wrong with this. I'm sure that your customers will happily have this conversation with you and your department should the need arise.

Finding The Right CI Question To Ask

Central to Continuous Improvement is the PDCA (Plan - Do - Check - Act) cycle. I talk about this a lot as I believe it is rare for every improvement that we attempt to work perfectly the first time. One part of using this approach effectively is the ability to modify your questions when you aren't getting the answers that you need.

Forklift Truck Kamishibai Board

Kamishibai boards are one of the most popular searched for items on this blog. So, with that in mind, I couldn't leave Kev's kamishibai board out! Kev is a Team Leader at one of my clients and he has taken the idea of the red / green visual management approach to help communicate the state of the TPM of their forklift trucks. The wall above is in a very visible location in the factory grounds so that anyone can see the status. I love it, simple but effective. Kev, I salute you! Giles Johnston ...fixing MRP systems and re-engineering business processes

Continuous Improvement: Find A Friend

No one knows all of the answers. Continuous Improvement can sometimes seem like a lonely place to be when you are making a decision on how to improve a process. That's exactly the time when it's good to 'find a friend'.