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Here you will find a host of information providing insights into operational excellence and innovation suitable for a range of industries and experience levels.
How R.H. Sheppard used 3P to discover a new way to manufacture. In 2012, R.H. Sheppard, a manufacturer of power steering systems and related engineered products, faced a key business decision on capital investment for one of its parts manufacturing lines that needed updating…
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To consistently drive top-line growth, leaders must commit to a disciplined and creative focus on meeting today’s market challenges while strengthening capabilities for future competitive mastery. It’s a matter of keeping the core business running optimally without losing sight of what’s on the horizon—and being prepared for and open to “creative destruction.”
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In the midst of disruption, businesses still need to operate by optimizing systems to drive out waste and improve flow. What’s changed is the need to do so smarter and faster. In this month’s What’s Up, we look at the importance of building capabilities through up-skilling and multi-skilling, and doing so rapidly…as well as highlight opportunities for educating employees.
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TPM’s integral role, with 5 takeaways to guide your strategy.
Most business owners and general managers recognize just how critically important proper equipment maintenance is, particularly in an asset-oriented work environment.
Last month saw another round of graduates from our Lean Manager for Services Certification held on the campus of The Ohio State University. Instructor and Executive Partner of Productivity Inc., Catherine Converset, spent a few minutes with us recently to talk about implementing lean in service and administrative functions.
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In 1988, when I first met Shigeo Shingo, the creator of SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die), he asked me if I had been using his SMED System. I replied that I had in fact been using it in a machine shop where we had reduced changeover times from 90 minutes to 15 minutes – not bad I thought.
Read morePragmatic Steps for Leading Lean: In recent conversations with manufacturing and service industry leaders, lean managers discussed problems they face as they work to advance operational excellence in their organizations. The sticky issues will likely come as no surprise; they include ones most of us are already aware of and have encountered for years...
Read moreOperational excellence, continuous improvement, lean management—no matter what you call your pursuit of perfection, in order to sustain it employees have to be “engaged.”
Read moreTake a holistic approach to improvement and apply lean techniques across your system-wide value chain—it’s where most of the opportunity is hiding.
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This month we look back at sage advice from Joel Barker the individual responsible for making “paradigm” a household word back. While Joel’s focus in the article is overcoming resistance to innovation, we believe his advice is pertinent to overcoming resistance to any change and we find it just a relevant for today’s workplace.
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2020 has been fraught with challenges. As we look to 2021, what can we do to make it a better year for our businesses? We asked our consultants to weigh-in.
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Looking for a powerful new technique to add to your improvement arsenal? Then you’ll want to learn more about 3P, a cross functional team process that provides a systematized way to achieve step-level change.
From the standpoint of a Lean manufacturer, the process of producing a part quote is no different than actually making the part. You think in terms of flow, value-added, teamwork, and multi-skilled employees for both processes. In this month's From the Archives, read how a division of Aeroquip significantly improved their Customer Service team's response time and reduced the quote-processing cycle time.
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