The collected Body Of Knowledge of the Operational Excellence Society.
I grew-up in Binghamton, New York – actually a “suburb” of Binghamton, New Yorkcalled West Corners.West Corners was a nice little community and, as a child, seemed more akin to “Green Acres” and “The Waltons” than the nearby birthplace of such industrial stalwarts as Endicott-Johnson Shoes (remember “Father and Son Shoes”?), Link Simulation (the founding father of modern simulation) and that…
5 Key Area’s • Using Lean concepts to bring operational efficiencies to the business in a short time-frame • Focusing effort on areas that are perceived to have high fixed costs • Maximizing the value from existing processes before re-engineering • Measuring process capacity and identifying waste • Providing leaders with the right information to manage operational…
I have refrained from discussing Healthcare in my articles because the topic is so politically polarized. If I say that I am “for” healthcare reform, I am labeled a “socialist” (or worse) who is against free-markets – and if I say that I am against healthcare reform, then I am a heartless free-market capitalist. I wonder,…
I am a big advocate of leadership development. I study and push leadership development through all I do in life. I once read that General Dwight D. Eisenhower was asked how he managed to lead such a diverse group of people to work together to win Europe from the Nazis. He answered, “Sir, it is one team, or we lose.” How…
One of the primary objectives of Lean is to achieve smooth continuous flow of material through the process. If there are bottlenecks within your process, they can inhibit flow, cause inventories, and prevent throughput from matching customer demand (Takt). In order to make progress towards Lean goals, bottleneck resources must be identified, managed and improved. From a…
What a difference a year makes… Looking back at my last year’s Holiday article called 2008 “The year of quicksand” I made several references to the rip-saw in the economy and the plummet of almost every known economic indicator. Some pundits were even speaking of an “economic Armageddon”. Everything is still not back to the “before” –…
