American Toy Manufacturers Who Make The Holidays Possible

This time of year, elves tend to get a lot of credit for making holiday wishes come true. But the truth is, the real magic isn’t happening in the North Pole; it’s happening at real manufacturing workshops all throughout the country. Here are some of the many American manufacturers that help produce the toys —…

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Setting Up Data and Analytics Teams to Drive Value

Once a differentiator of top-performing organizations, the ability to leverage a strong data and analytics program is now a necessity. Holly Lyke-Ho-Gland DEC 16, 2019 Advanced analytics is playing a more important role than ever as organizations’ complexity and amounts of data use increase. Once a differentiator of top-performing organizations, the ability to leverage a…

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The Keys For Manufacturers To Connect With Big Buyers

Landing a contract with a big buyer can have an equally big impact on your business. However, large buying organizations tend to do things a bit differently than the clients you’re likely used to serving. If you want a real chance at landing those big fish, you need to understand how they think and how their…

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5 tips for thriving in the digital era

Your CEO has been running your company for 10 years and has spent 30 years in the industry. She is visionary and flexible and has pivoted the business during changing markets. She has evolved the culture appropriately and has consistently outpaced the competition. She knows the business and how to grow it. Until now. With…

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Good tech talent is still hard to find (how to bridge the gap)

In today’s era of digital business, companies are intoxicated by the potential of technology-driven transformation. Manufacturers eye the internet of things (IoT) as a springboard for predictive maintenance and new product-as-a-service revenues.

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What is Lean Office? Not just a 5S but value to customers.

Are you working in an office and you want a “Lean Office”? Read below, and you will discover something interesting. Every company has offices that perform administrative tasks. Honestly, I bet everything I have that you have a very few numbers of administrative tasks that go smoothly. Is not it? This is the reason why…

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How can risk foresight lead to AI insight?

EY poses the relevant question in this thought-provoking article: When it can take only one mistake — or a perception of a mistake — for a user to stop trusting AI, how can you earn and sustain user trust? For every challenge in business is an opportunity for AI, however, organizations are holding back in…

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The Simplicity of Lean

This is an except from Chapter-1, Introduction from my book, “The Simplicity of Lean”. Lean means many things to many people and its success or failure is important to a large number of stakeholders: customers, employees, management, shareholders, suppliers, and society as a whole. Is Lean a toolkit? Is it about cost saving? Is it…

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How to Calculate an Ideal Manufacturing Cycle Time

Editor’s Note: The following question comes courtesy of Reddit. I was on Reddit, saw this inquiry and found it interesting. Given that Larry Fast writes our Ask the Expert: Lean Leadership column, I asked him to weigh in on it—which he did in the following column. If you have a question you would like Larry to address, please use this form to submit it. We want your questions.—Jill Jusko, associate content director.

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Adopt an Intentional Approach to Change

Change left unattended isn’t change. It’s just an idea or a hope that becomes an unfulfilled expectation that’s disappointing and often costly. Jeff Nevenhoven NOV 04, 2019 Picture yourself taking on a personal improvement goal like getting in shape and losing some weight. You set a date for reaching certain goals like how much you…

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