Unsuccessful software applications cost organizations significant efforts and resources. The reasons for these failed ventures are often attributed to technology issues. However, the real issue is flaws in business processes—the enterprise application deployment environment and the ecosystem which the application targets. This calls for ensuring the organizational readiness before initiating technology deployment. It is for […]
Tag Archives | continuous improvement
The Key to Continuous Security Improvement? A Rugged Culture of Information Security
In the age of rapid technological progress, where Digital Transformation has become pervasive, business applications are getting increasingly complex and interconnected. The advancement in technology has also helped attackers get more aggressive and inflict more damage to IT systems and applications. Application security tools and techniques are evolving too, yet most organizations still fall prey […]
How Do We Maximize Impact of Customer Experience on Value Creation?
Digitally savvy startups are disrupting markets and threatening conventional businesses. They are doing this by utilizing technology to offer new products and services and providing tailored yet uncomplicated experiences for their customers. Likewise, large traditionally-run firms will have to keep evolving their Customer Experience approaches to secure additional avenues of revenue and to stay competitive. […]
The 5 Building Blocks to Developing a Learning Organization
Organizations need to persistently improve the way they do business to staying ahead of the curve. New ideas trigger organizational improvement and build the foundation of a Learning Organization. Scholars have defined a Learning Organization in many different ways. Some suggest it as an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying […]
Continuous Improvement 101: The Deming Cycle (PDCA)
“Continuous Improvement” is a term management consulting firms love using. It’s also a driving principle behind Lean Management. So, how can we achieve Continuous Improvement in our organization? One of the most common Lean frameworks for Continuous Improvement (of quality) is the Deming Cycle–also commonly known as PDCA Cycle, Deming Wheel, Shewhart Cycle, or Continuous […]
Follow These 13 Lean Principles to Eliminate Waste in the Warehouse
In managing and improving the operations of your warehouse, consider Lean initiatives to eliminate all waste and bring value to your customers beyond their expectations. Here are 13 principles to follow. 1. Communicate effectively and often. Clearly communicating to workers your organizational goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), and the processes to achieve them is one […]
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, […]
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 […]
Flevy Author Spotlight: Our Interview with Lean Pioneer, Vishnu Rayapeddi
Lean Management has been an area of increasing interest for Flevy customers. As of now, we have over 300 documents related to various Lean concepts and Vishnu Rayapeddi contributed close to 100 of these documents–with a focus on training series. Vishnu is a pioneer of Lean Management, combining the power of Lean Thinking, Six Sigma, Balanced Scorecard, and other best-class […]
Warehouse Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measures of a company’s strengths and weaknesses of the business. They should be used in comparison to the external competition and internal customers to improve company’s economic standing. In Supply Chain, the warehouse is a critical function. Should products not move effortlessly within the warehouse, a business could come to face […]
Just-in-Time vs. Just-in-Case: An Inventory Dilemma
As manufacturers are reaping the benefits of Lean and Lean Six Sigma or other continuous improvement processes within their facilities, the importance of eliminating waste still hold sway. So the question now facing these manufacturers is this: Has the time come where Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory levels need to be changed to Just-in-Case levels? With the […]
