Gantt Charts
Henry Laurence Gantt (1861-1919) was a mechanical engineer, and management consultant. He developed a visual scheduling tool in the second decade of […]
Category: Lean Sigma
Simplified Systematic Layout Planning
The process of arranging a work space for a factory or office is often done informally. The people working in the area […]
Kanban Calculation
“That’s not the formula I use” was the start of the debate. So looking at a few reference books and searching the […]
Driving the Bus
A colleague of mine, Charlie Hagan, had a unique scale for assessing professional experience and competence. He would describe someone as either […]
Little’s Law
The inventory in a process is related to the throughput rate and throughput time by the following equation: W.I.P. Inventory = Throughput […]
Inventory and Demand Analysis
ABC Analysis can be used to assign the appropriate level of control and review frequency based on the annual dollar volume of […]
Change, I Ching, and Six Sigma
A critical component of any successful Six Sigma project is to overcome resistance to change. The reason: without acceptance, any process improvement […]
Sustaining, or “Walking and talking the talk”
The CFO and VP Manufacturing at a new client are frustrated; two plus years into their lean journey and they aren’t seeing […]
Understanding Lean Logistics
Supply chain management was designed to take waste out of supply chains-waste as to excess inventory, time and cost. Supply chains are […]
Minarai: apprentice, beginner; learn by observing
As I’m starting up a new lean sigma mentoring relationship next week I’ve been pondering roles and approaches: what will I do […]
Is Lean more than warmed over JIT?
Recently I heard a speaker disclaim that Lean was just warmed over and repackaged Just-In-Time; nothing new. For some reason I dismissed […]