Lean Insight and Product Reviews
2 min read A great tool for management to maintain and improve the work flow is called the 5 M’s. By always keeping an eye on the 5 M’s, the managers will be able to see when something is not working in a process and ensure efficiency and profitability. The 5M model can be used for risk management, troubleshooting safety issues, and in Lean manufacturing. It’s a framework commonly used in root cause analysis and originated within the …
2 min read The story of Six Sigma’s origin started in a place where good stories rarely begin: aboard room, in a manager’s meeting. By the time the 1970s rolled around, the Toyota Production System had been implemented and Toyota was becoming one of the best manufacturers in the world. Motorola was finding their company unable to compete with other Japanese companies, and it was time for change. A group of Motorola executives were discussing, among other things, …
3 min read Smartphone’s have become more than just a luxury for many people and businesses today. They give you easy access to essential communication tools like email, text and, of course, voice. In addition, you can access most types of documents on them through the Internet, and do many other activities that can help make working much easier. All this convenience, however, comes with some problems as well. Research performed by the University of Southern California’s Marshall …
4 min read What if employees could lose weight, improve health and become more productive at the same time? A treadmill desk offers these benefits and more. Many people have read about them before–they have been in the media a lot lately. Let’s take a closer look and see why office desk treadmills improve productivity. Office desk treadmills are hot. Google now offers them to help keep employees healthy. Other well-known firms like AOL, Twitter and Facebook are …
3 min read As each day comes and goes we often find ourselves just going through the motions as a means to get through them. We wake up, go to work, come home, and repeat. It’s a cycle that’s tough to break and while it may seem robotic from the outside, to you it’s just another day. Unfortunately, these types of mental slumps all but shut down our ability to spark creativity. One of the biggest factors in …
3 min read Meetings can be a source of wasted time if not organized and conducted properly. Most organizations waste up to 20% of their payroll on bad meetings based on employee wage and time spent in meetings. Meetings can be described as wasteful if any or all of the following things occur within the meeting: Meet and there is no discussion Meet and discuss but no decision is made Meet and decide but no one follows through …
< 1 min read Lean, Kaizen and 5S are not just for manufacturers 5S can create some hard divides between those who love and appreciate the peace and calm that order bring and those who, while not necessarily “loving” chaos and disorder, still feel more at home amidst piles of paper, missing tools such as staplers and rulers, etc. The following video is an example of how many employees might feel when the corporate leadership decides that everyone must …
2 min read Kaizen Events and how to implement them Because Kaizen is usually an event in itself, discussing the meaning and implementation of kaizen in a business setting, this book is both aptly titled as well as targeted. Making the kaizen event even more “kaizen-like” in it’s makeup is the direction of this writing by Geoffrey L. Mika. The 292-page book begins with the history of kaizen, laying an impressive foundation and understanding of the roots of …
< 1 min read This is a great case study on how an office environment can be influenced by the Lean philosophy. View a ‘real’ example of an office that operates with end-to-end flow. The people at Duggan Associates do a good job of showing us how applicable lean can be in an office environment, where, as they show, the “product” is actually the capture and transfer of the information they handle for clients and themselves. This is an …
