Archive for April 2023
Leveraging Lean to Create a New Product … and Process
INTERVIEW – In 2020, GE Appliances had to stand up a brand-new assembly process for a new dishwasher. The leader responsible for the program explains how LPPD helped them to get it right. Interviewee: Alison Seward, Executive Director, Manufacturing Quality, GE Appliances Roberto Priolo: In 2020, you ran a very successful project to stand up…
Read MoreThe Strategic HR Department
I have been in business, running a consultancy (XONITEK) since 1985. Besides it making me uniquely unemployable, I have had the opportunity to observe and interact with the many incarnations and varieties of Human Resource (HR) Departments at countless clients over the course of years. Marking our calendars, today is April 10th, 2023. And to…
Read MoreIs Your Lean Office at Risk?
As I engage with both executive teams and board members around the country, I’ve come to gain a depth of understanding of the challenges faced within the machinery of healthcare organizations operating system. Exacerbated by the great resignation and silent quitting of staff, all time high physician suicide, burnout, moral injury to do right with…
Read MoreEmpowering Children to Navigate Life’s Challenges
FEATURE – In this new series, the author will walk us through some uncommon ways to apply lean – with a particular focus on establishing productive and enjoyable relationships. In the first instalment, he introduces the concept of lean parenting. Words: Sérgio Caldeirinha, President, Lean Academy Portugal As parents, we all want our children to…
Read MoreWhat Kind of Bureaucrat Are You?
FEATURE – In this in-depth, insightful analysis, the authors explore the essence of bureaucracy and explain why, with Lean Thinking, it can be leveraged as a force for good. Words: Michael Ballé and Klaus Beulker How can the fish be aware of the water in the fishbowl? How can we be aware of the bureaucracy…
Read MoreCulture Change; What is it and Why Change It?
The COVID years of 2020 and 2021 notwithstanding, the subject of “culture change” has been a topic at many (if not all) conferences on Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement that I have attended over the past several years. But the conversation always seems to gravitate towards the “how”whenever the subject comes up, with little attention…
Read MoreDigital Transformation Is a Must. Here's How the Voice of the Customer Should Help Drive It.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. A retail shopper looking for a specific type of handbag. A city citizen who needs better transit options. A B2B executive who wants to help other companies complete analytics with new software. What do all of these people have in common? They’re all stakeholders — customers who…
Read MoreHow Mental Schemas Have Us Jump to Solutions
FEATURE – Mental schemas help us to process information, but they often lead us to blindly jump to solutions without understanding the problem. Here, the author explains how Lean Thinking mitigates that risk. Words: Tshepo Thobejane Psychologists tell us that our brains use shortcuts and frameworks, called schemas, to make it easier to organise our…
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