Continuous Improvement When he died last year Feodor Ingvar Kamprad was worth — depending on who you listen to — somewhere between 3 and 28 billion dollars. According to Forbes he was one of the ten richest men in the world. How you can misplace $25 billion and still be one of the world’s richest […]
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The environmental rallying call I often hear environmentalists use the terms Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They refer to the ways in which we can create less waste and minimise our impact on the environment. These terms are equally applicable to businesses. Business waste isn’t solely environmental — though some companies are guilty of generating plenty of […]
Tool Hire
There are lots of tools out there I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. I mean process improvement tools: 5S, control charts, swim lanes… those sort of tools. There are also lots of people who know how to use those tools. It is easy to recruit staff who can bring a toolbox stuffed with approaches […]
Productivity for Productivity’s Sake
The obsession We love to make things more productive. We strive to be cheaper, more efficient, higher yielding. It is the holy grail, taking up most of our working hours. More for less in itself isn’t a bad goal, but who decides if we are being productive? Myopic measurement Imagine you flip burgers for a living and you […]
The Ninth Waste
The Seven Wastes When Womack and Jones wrote The Machine That Changed the World they coined the term Lean and identified the seven wastes: Transport Intellect Motion Waiting Over Production Over Processing Defects Stock The observant among you will notice that is eight wastes not seven. Somewhere along the line somebody thought to add Intellect. On that […]