Muda in the Warehouse
Although created in the manufacturing environment of Toyota by Taiichi Ohno, the Seven Wastes can be found almost everywhere, if you learn […]
Category: Lean
50 things to free up warehouse space
Business is growing and running out of space in the warehouse. What to do before moving to a new facility or pouring […]
PowerPoint and other miscommunications
Recently read Edward R. Tufte’s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within and initially dismissed his thesis as troglodyte. Now […]
Bow Wave
Keeping due dates straight in an MRP environment is a fundamental prerequisite. Plot a time series for the number of work orders, […]
Where to start? The 5 Rules of Lean DNA
Standardize process and standardize work Zero ambiguity Flow the process Speak with data Develop leaders who are teachers
Hoshin X-Matrix
Over a few days or weeks we build the strategic deployment message by documenting our priorities and plans. This document is known […]
Hoshin Kanri
At long last we now have a number of recent readable guides for understanding and implementing policy deployment in your organization. My […]
Hansei
Hansei is a concept that Toyota uses as a practical improvement tool. Toyota actually conducts Hansei events, like Kaizen events, to improve […]
Nemawashi
In Japanese culture Nemawashi is an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to […]
Month-end Madness
Do you have a “hockey stick”, where most of your bookings occur right at the end of the month, quarter, year? If […]
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 […]
Demand Segmentation Definition
A graphical representation of the sales/consumption volume of products vs. demand variability. High volume low demand variability products are treated differently than […]