Blog
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Three Ways Leaders Create Lean
Three Ways Leaders Create Lean “Relentless” leadership and team empowerment drive lean change For those of you who have heard this before, it bears repeating. For those of you who have not, this is important – leadership is the single most important component to lean success. It is exciting to talk about bottom-up change and…
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Are Your Manufacturing Metrics Meaningless?
It seems not a week goes by when I don’t hear from someone in manufacturing: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Of course, there is a lot of truth to that statement, but as someone who spends all day, every day, helping manufacturers gather real-time data for better operational performance, I believe the statement…
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Smart Capital Investing in a Recovering Economy
Earlier this year, the MAPI Foundation increased their projection for manufacturing sector growth for 2018 – 2021 from 1.5% to 2.8%. We haven’t seen overall growth like that in a long time, and it should spell a welcome relief for many manufacturers. Capital Spending: A Leading or Lagging Indicator of Profitability? One of the metrics…
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Fast Results Using TOC for Demand-Driven Manufacturing – Part Two
Manufacturers use constraints management first to gain the most demand-driven change Last time, we talked about focusing on enterprise improvements rather than local efficiencies using constraints management (TOC). We discussed that continuous improvement tools such as TOC, Lean and Six Sigma work like “sandpaper” on an organization’s processes, smoothing various stages of their demand-driven journey.…
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Turn Your Gemba Walk into a Power Walk
Gemba is a term that is increasingly familiar in the manufacturing world. Loosely translated from Japanese, it means “the place where the work is done.” The originators of the Gemba Walk – the practice of walking the shop floor to identify waste – knew that manufacturing process issues could not be identified or solved in…
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What Sandpaper Will You Use? – Part One
What to Use to Get the Most of Your Demand-Driven Changes Demand-driven manufacturing leaders are always refining their tools and tactics to ensure they’re spending their time wisely. This blog marks the first in a three-part series about using the tools of TOC, Six Sigma and Lean to help manufacturing leaders gain the most benefit…
