When everything is going well, and your business problems aren't biting at your heels, continuous improvement might not seem like something that is essential. When the situation is reversed, when you are being bitten, it can seem like having done some form of improvement would have made sense.

One of the simplest and easiest tools to use in business is a check list. Once you have identified a 'best practice' in your place of work then use of a check list to help people ensure they review / complete key items is a very logical outcome. A common difficulty with checklists is getting people to consistently use them. Building them into other processes (top of a meeting agenda, adding to a standard form etc...) is one of the more effective ways to get people to use them. Of course, there is the importance placed upon checklists by the organisation, but that is a whole other conversation about getting changes to stick!

I had a great session with one of my clients last week. The management team had been struggling to reach agreement over a course of action, which related to the physical layout of their business. I was asked for my comment and opinion and I said that I couldn't as I didn't have a feel for the options.

The upload of my free factory improvement guide is now on slideshare . You can view it below, or view the original PDF version by clicking  here . Giles Johnston ...optimising MRP systems and re-engineering business processes

One of my clients apologised to me the other day.... They hadn't done anything to offend me, but that's how they started the conversation. It turned out that they were apologising because they had stopped using a method to organise their office that I had shown them. Instead of being upset I congratulated them, why wouldn't I? From talking to them they had tested out the idea, decided that it wasn't their thing, and then taken the best bits of the method and created a modified version. They weren't using the method that I had shown them, they were using a method that fitted with their way of working. In my books that's called continuous improvement ! Stepping back from this conversation came the killer question: "Is your business performance better now than it was before we looked at any method to improve how it is organised?" The answer was "yes", they were on the right track and could develop their idea further. Wh

Some of my clients, when I first start to work with them, are struggling with their on time delivery performance. Apart from the frustration of dealing with problems constantly, the risk of losing customers is a big driver in terms of getting this issue resolved. In my opinion there are two main ways that you can focus on this problem. They can both work, but one is more effective than the other (I'll let you guess which). Option 1 - focus solely on despatching on time. This is the traditional approach. It is usually linked directly with turnover targets and has the entire business looking at what can be shipped today. Of course, you do need to make sure that your orders do get despatched (I have met businesses that don't), but this option drives a behaviour that lets people take their eyes off the rest of the process. So.... Option 2 - focus on 'on time start', with a controlled process, and having one eye on on time despatches. Having a tight process

New slideshow uploaded to Slideshare. Hopefully it will give you some ideas if you are developing your own plan to get your MRP system working properly. Giles Johnston ...optimising MRP systems and re-engineering business processes