Transportation Waste Can Create A Huge Burden For Organizations
Transportation is a common source of waste in many companies and includes the excessive and unnecessary movement of materials, products, information and paperwork and often exists where there is disorganization or a lack of clear procedures. Some specific factors that can trigger you to look for transportation waste are: Multiple operational locations where companies split operations among...
Read MoreData Measurement: For Better, For Worse!
All decisions in life, whether personal or professional, are based on available information or data-or at least should be. Accurate information contributes to good decision-making. On the other hand, insufficient or inaccurate data contributes to faulty decisions. Measurement is how your company collects data. But having someone go through the motions of measurement is not enough. Your...
Read MoreNo Method, No Problem? Ah, Not So Fast!
How you do things is extremely important if you’re looking to provide consistent products and services to your customers. We all like going to our favorite restaurant knowing that our meal will come out just the way we ordered it. My wife has used the same beautician for the past 20 years because of the consistency she gets by going there. I’ve been going to the same barber...
Read MoreMaterial Issues Create Huge Losses!
Material problems wreak havoc in many operations. Inconsistencies and variation within a lot or between lots of material can cause operators to constantly tweak machines and processes, which in turn can lead to defects and high scrap rates. Having multiple suppliers for the same material creates variability and can cause production delays, especially if the change from one supplier to another...
Read MoreMachine & Equipment Issues Create All Kinds Of Waste!
Is your operation plagued with equipment issues that drive you crazy? Old, outdated, hard to maintain, constantly down, or making bad parts — equipment exhibiting these conditions can really drive a plant manager to drink! Or maybe it’s an office copier that keeps jamming up or a computer system that has a mind of its own and decides to go down or won’t boot...
Read MoreKaizen – A Slow Steady Approach to Continuous Improvement
Shutterstock Illustration Kaizen is a commonsense, low-cost approach to continuous improvement. It is ideal for projects that are short in duration and attack a specific, known problem that is physically observable. Making small improvements is also much easier for employees to accept and since the projects are small in duration and the results can be seen almost immediately. A few years...
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