Yesterday, a Project Management Best Practice was shared regarding stakeholders, whom are important to any project’s success. According to Do your stakeholders know why your project exists? article (published on CIO.com), you need to conduct a kickoff meeting, distribute the statement of work, conduct regular meetings, and produce summary reports. I absolutely agree with the author Brad Egeland! […]
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What Is Digital Transformation?
Organizations across all industries are undertaking “digital transformation” projects. But, what exactly is it? And, are they doing it right? At it’s core, Digital Transformation is driven by the tangible shift in the role of the technology within an organization. No longer as purely a support function that enables business processes, technology is now capable […]
6 Lessons You Can Learn to Improve Your Manufacturing Efficiency
When Ford introduced the first moving assembly line, he changed more than the car industry. He transformed the culture of our workforce and the expectations that consumers have of producers. Since then, manufacturers have become the role models of savvy business and global cultural awareness. Seeing the Big Picture Unlike service providers who tend to […]
Using the Lean Kaizen Method to Unlock Great Potential
Kaizen (or commonly referred to as Value-Add Kaizen) is a problem solving tool used for process improvement by identifying if an activity (which is part of a process flow) is Value Add (VA) or Non-Value Add (NVA), then take steps to either remove or reduce these NVA activities. As these NVA activities are eliminated, the […]
[Video] Why Does Lean Fail in an Organization?
This is a compelling video of an hour long lecture conducted by Charles Intrieri. Charles is a very senior subject matter expert on Lean, Supply Chain/Logistics/Distribution, and Manufacturing, with several decades worth of experience under his belt working with several blue chip organizations. His lecture is titled “Why Lean Fails.” You can also download the actual […]
Inventory Variances: Does the Net Tell the Truth?
Across our six locations, our physical inventory variance was zero and we’re proud of it. This tells you exactly nothing. A Tale of Jack and the Pride of It All… Jack is the owner of an industrial products supplier with five sales/inventory warehouses including one large distribution center. Jack called me and asked if I […]
Teamwork, Huddles, and Competition: Sustaining Lean Culture and Initiatives using Managing for Daily Improvement (MDI)
The question is: How can we continuously improve daily, and sustain a Lean culture and behavior? Look to your people, the best resource you have. These people touch every part of daily operations through a process called managing by DAILY improvement. When a Lean culture is truly developed in a company, and old behavior, habits, […]
Inventory Management. How to Do It Right.
Editor’s Note: Vishnu Rayapeddi is a recognized pioneer of Lean Management and founder of Productivity Solutions. You can view all of his Supply Chain training materials on Flevy here. * * * * For accountants “inventory is an asset” and it is shown that way on balance sheets! Is inventory really an asset? Inventory is an […]
Lean Thinking for the Office and Admin Areas
Editor’s Note: Vishnu Rayapeddi is a recognized pioneer of Lean Management and founder of Productivity Solutions. For a more in-depth discussion on this topic, take a look at this 118-slide training course. You can view all of his Supply Chain training materials on Flevy here. * * * * This discussion relates to both Lean […]
Do You Know All the KPIs for a Manufacturing Operations Manager?
This is an exhaustive list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for a Manufacturing Operations Manager. These KPIs are aligned with Lean initiatives–specifically, Cultural Transformation, Continuous Improvement, elimination of all Wastes, associates becoming process and problem solvers at Gemba. The tools to be implemented after Lean culture change include 6S, Kanban, Kaizen, and Lean Six Sigma. […]
Benchmarking Basics. What Is It and How Do You Do It?
Benchmarking is a very powerful tool many organizations use to not only measure and gauge their performance against competition, but also to push themselves to be best-in-class. Benchmarking is a source of Competitive Advantage and Continuous Improvement (Kaizen). Wikipedia defines benchmarking as: Benchmarking is the process of comparing one’s business processes and performance metrics to […]
Do You Have a Real Supply Chain Strategy?
Editor’s Note: Vishnu Rayapeddi is a recognized pioneer of Lean Management and founder of Productivity Solutions. You can view all of his Supply Chain training materials on Flevy here. * * * * Supply chain strategy. What is it? Many might think that there is no distinction in perception between supply chain management and supply chain […]
