“Value is created by removing a significant limitation for the customer, in a way that was not possible before, and to the extent that no significant competitor can deliver.” Eliyahu Goldratt The average lifespan of a company listed in the S&P 500 index of leading US companies has decreased by more than 50 years in the …
Decision Making – Focus on the Goal Almost every manager is aware of Pareto’s law, the important few – the trivial many which is often thought of as the 80/20 rule. 80% of results are generated by 20% of the actions. To improve your effectiveness, one only need to focus on the 20% and you’ll get …
In my previous post about checking your assumptions, I talked about the rules and requirements about your process. The supply chain is no different. After all, rules are made, boundary conditions established around how you deal with your suppliers. Therefore, you should also look at your supply chain policies to find possibilities to increase output – …
Reconsider Your Rules on Materials and Suppliers Read More »
To increase output, whether in a disaster or in everyday pressures, you must challenge your assumptions to find solutions. Usually, the solution is not obvious (otherwise, it would have been implemented, right?), so you have to dig deeper. Challenging assumptions helps us see where we can change the process. There is still more to get out …
The more contractors or departments involved in a project, the more chances for variation and, often, more confusion. There is always the opportunity for misalignment and miscommunication. The larger the organization, the more opportunity for missing cues on priorities and direction. For the process owner, the challenge is to align a team to drive progress towards …
Manage and Align Performance by Applying Uniform Standards Read More »
I was recently posting a Visual Portfolio Board for a customer and before we were even finished posting all the elements, the board had already begun providing real value. Just seeing the big picture of an entire portfolio of projects allowed the managers to understand relationships and issues they had never seen or understood before. In …
Have you ever worked on a project that didn’t have a clear goal? By “clear goal” I mean one that is fully defined, stable, lacks any ambiguity and is shared among the relevant stakeholders. Why is this so important? Can’t we just start with, say, “The goal is to deliver machine X”? Unfortunately, such vaguely defined …
We’ve all seen promising initiatives get started with hearty organizational enthusiasm only to gradually die out, not meet full expectations, or get displaced in favor of ‘new thinking’. Having been the individual responsible for many such initiatives, I’ve learned (often the hard way) that it pays to “stack the deck” at the beginning of the project …
“Stacking The Deck” – Embarking on a Major Process Improvement Initiative Read More »
In my previous post about checking your assumptions, I talked about the rules and requirements about your process. The supply chain is no different. After all, rules are made, boundary conditions established around how you deal with your suppliers. Therefore, you should also look at your supply chain policies to find possibilities to increase output – …
Reconsider Your Rules on Materials and Suppliers Read More »
To increase output, whether in a disaster or in everyday pressures, you must challenge your assumptions to find solutions. Usually, the solution is not obvious (otherwise, it would have been implemented, right?), so you have to dig deeper. Challenging assumptions helps us see where we can change the process. There is still more to get out …
