Imagine that you saw a newspaper advert. It said that the psychology department at your local university was running a “memory study” and that it wanted paid volunteers for an hour-long experiment You were having a slack morning so you decided to give it a go At the laboratory you met two men; one, the […]
Top 10 Process Mapping Sins
Not being clear on the scope: how will you know when to stop? Not gaining buy in: whose back yard are you digging in? Not explaining what you are doing: at best staff will be suspicious, at worst they will turn nasty. (Positioning your work as a cost saving initiative is not going to help […]
Silver Bullets
We have a fascination with big bets, wholesale system change, outsourcing deals, new facilities. We are rewarded for thinking strategically and pulling the big leavers; consequently we are always looking for silver bullets, the one change that will make everything more efficient. All operations are big machines that deal with materials, customers, employees and products. […]
What Can You See?
The manufacturing guys have a neat trick It is called an “Ohno circle”. They paint them on the floor at different points in factories and then the team leader stands in the circle with a clip board for 30 minutes, writing down everything that he can see that doesn’t work. He or she then spends […]
Spies Like Us
I have reached that age when for Christmas I am given socks, chocolates and paperbacks. I am half way through this year’s crop of paperbacks and found this quote in a John le Carre novel. “A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world” I learnt the same lesson working in a […]
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