Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Added for You - Preparation for Lean Manufacturing
Imagine you are about to embark on a trip of a lifetime. You’ve received brochures for a luxury resort. The rooms are lavish; the grounds impeccable. Photos of the restaurant’s signature dishes look delectable. You’re sold.You go to the hotel. The room is musty and a tad dirty. The food is barely passable. Service is brusque and spotty at best. When you complain to management, you’re met with indifference, or worse, silence. You leave disillusioned and disgusted. For all the resort’s slick marketing, they’ve fallen woefully short.Branding goes well beyond marketing. It will not be successful without ensuring that all aspects of your business reflect and support your intended brand. One of your most valuable assets—your people—must be well-trained in articulating and delivering on your brand. This step is particularly important f
Develop and Retain Strong Leaders
Good managers are coaches, poor managers are dictators. A good manager will believe in the team concept where every member of the team is important and his/her opinions are valued. A good manager will value his/her employees and realize that for him/her to be successful, the team has to be successful. A poor manger will dictate to his/her employees, which creates havoc! A good, efficient, business unit with high employee morale will fall apart within weeks if a poor manager has taken over. Poor managers fail because they don’t have strong leadership skills. They lack people skills, communication skills, decision making skills, and delegation skills necessary to develop and maintain effective teams. A strong leader must sell the Lean Strategy and realize that ultimately the employees as a team are the ones to make it happen.
Think and act World Class (eve
Let's take an example that is easy to check: I am French. Among the readers who reacted while reading that, an half felt their painful stomach ulcers starting up again while the others remembered their burning desire for visiting France. Nothing inexplicable. If the French-haters had not been that determined, the French-lovers would never have had to be so supportive. How long would it take to a Finn or a Bulgarian to provoke any reaction?Whoever you are, whatever your activity, there are people who dislike you. The faster you sift them, the faster you can take care of the others. It is not only a matter of business; it is also good for your personal life. To know who your foes are and where they stand will avoid you a lot of trouble.The easiest way to separate the grain from the bran and recognize your foes? Tell the truth! You
Most people believe Lean is just a set of tools (One Piece Flow, JIT, Kan-Ban, 5S, Six-Sigma, Kaizen Teams, Push / Pull Systems, etc.) that can be used to cut waste. However, Lean is not only a set of tools, it is a culture. If a company has severe issues with employee turnover, employee morale, product quality, product delivery, equipment uptime, plant housekeeping, etc., it will be extremely difficult to shift the employees to a new way of thinking and conducting business. In other words, if your employees are in constant fire fighting mode, they will not be able to properly implement Lean.
Fix the obvious problems first
To prepare for Lean, you must “fix the obvious problems first”. Many times employers will know exactly what the problems and solutions are. They just don’t have the time, resources, or incentive to fix them. If you have an automobile that is constantly breaking down because of a bad transmission, then fix it! Repair or replace the transmission. Do not implement a Lean Strategy to fix the car. Just fix it. Lean is not used to fix broken processes. Lean is used to continuously improve working processes to eliminate waste. When all the obvious problems are fixed on that vehicle, it’s then time to fine tune it to become more efficient. It’s time to look at ways to cut waste (cost) to ultimately save money!
A Word about Six-Sigma
Some companies now mandate that Six-Sigma be used to fix problems. Unfortunately, Six-Sigma isn’t always used correctly. Six-Sigma is intended to solve complex problems that have numerous variables that cause variation in a process, which ultimately cause defects. Six-Sigma uses statistics to systematically identify what the different variables are doing in the process and points to potential solutions. It eliminates guessing as to what’s causing the variations. Again, fix the obvious problems first. Many problems don’t have to be analyzed to detect solutions. In many instances, the solutions are obvious: i.e., If the light bulb is blown, then, change the light bulb.
Value Your People
Society generally refers to companies as entities. We speak of IBM, GM, and Microsoft as entities; however, they are really groups of people. GM doesn’t build cars, the employees of GM build cars.
To develop that culture as successfully as Toyota Corporation has, companies must first realize that they have to develop, nurture and value their employees. In order to build a culture of people wanting to continuously improve, people have to be engaged in their jobs. They have to feel valued by the company. They have to feel they are noticed and rewarded for their contributions. Ultimately, the company has to value having low employee turnover to create consistency. A company with high employee turnover cannot maintain a successful Lean environment.
To foster this type of environment in today’s business world isn’t easy. There is low loyalty between U.S. companies and their employees for a variety of reasons. Some companies look at employees as an expense rather that an asset that can be easily cut. If employees of a company do not feel the company values them, they will find other jobs. With today’s business world, it’s difficult to implement a long term Lean strategy. Yes, a company can dictate to it’s employees to use Lean tools to cut waste, however, to sustain that ideology long term require an engaged, loyal, consistent, work force.
Develop and Retain Strong Leaders
Good managers are coaches, poor managers are dictators. A good manager will believe in the team concept where every member of the team is important and his/her opinions are valued. A good manager will value his/her employees and realize that for him/her to be successful, the team has to be successful. A poor manger will dictate to his/her employees, which creates havoc! A good, efficient, business unit with high employee morale will fall apart within weeks if a poor manager has taken over. Poor managers fail because they don’t have strong leadership skills. They lack people skills, communication skills, decision making skills, and delegation skills necessary to develop and maintain effective teams. A strong leader must sell the Lean Strategy and realize that ultimately the employees as a team are the ones to make it happen.
Think and act World Class (even
A short description of the basic content is contained here >> (Link 1 at the end) but a recent example from Germany gives a good chance to get the idea across in a better way.Besides of that the development of a strategy (for the enterprise/marketingprocedures) is part of a marketing plan which should be available for every company – whether large or small.PUMA – and ist CEO Jochen Zeitz.When he started in 1993 (>> Link2 at the end) the company was a middle-sized producer of sports shoes.At this time he developed the recipe – development phases – the result of which led to today’s billion dollar company which is taken over by a French company selling luxury good – PPRWhat did he actually do ?As explained on the webpage of the company (Link 3 at the end) he oriented himself strictly at
Fix the obvious problems first
To prepare for Lean, you must “fix the obvious problems first”. Many times employers will know exactly what the problems and solutions are. They just don’t have the time, resources, or incentive to fix them. If you have an automobile that is constantly breaking down because of a bad transmission, then fix it! Repair or replace the transmission. Do not implement a Lean Strategy to fix the car. Just fix it. Lean is not used to fix broken processes. Lean is used to continuously improve working processes to eliminate waste. When all the obvious problems are fixed on that vehicle, it’s then time to fine tune it to become more efficient. It’s time to look at ways to cut waste (cost) to ultimately save money!
A Word about Six-Sigma
Some companies now mandate that Six-Sigma be used to fix problems. Unfortunately, Six-Sigma isn’t always used correctly. Six-Sigma is intended to solve complex problems that have numerous variables that cause variation in a process, which ultimately cause defects. Six-Sigma uses statistics to systematically identify what the different variables are doing in the process and points to potential solutions. It eliminates guessing as to what’s causing the variations. Again, fix the obvious problems first. Many problems don’t have to be analyzed to detect solutions. In many instances, the solutions are obvious: i.e., If the light bulb is blown, then, change the light bulb.
Value Your People
Society generally refers to companies as entities. We speak of IBM, GM, and Microsoft as entities; however, they are really groups of people. GM doesn’t build cars, the employees of GM build cars.
To develop that culture as successfully as Toyota Corporation has, companies must first realize that they have to develop, nurture and value their employees. In order to build a culture of people wanting to continuously improve, people have to be engaged in their jobs. They have to feel valued by the company. They have to feel they are noticed and rewarded for their contributions. Ultimately, the company has to value having low employee turnover to create consistency. A company with high employee turnover cannot maintain a successful Lean environment.
To foster this type of environment in today’s business world isn’t easy. There is low loyalty between U.S. companies and their employees for a variety of reasons. Some companies look at employees as an expense rather that an asset that can be easily cut. If employees of a company do not feel the company values them, they will find other jobs. With today’s business world, it’s difficult to implement a long term Lean strategy. Yes, a company can dictate to it’s employees to use Lean tools to cut waste, however, to sustain that ideology long term require an engaged, loyal, consistent, work force.
Develop and Retain Strong Leaders
Good managers are coaches, poor managers are dictators. A good manager will believe in the team concept where every member of the team is important and his/her opinions are valued. A good manager will value his/her employees and realize that for him/her to be successful, the team has to be successful. A poor manger will dictate to his/her employees, which creates havoc! A good, efficient, business unit with high employee morale will fall apart within weeks if a poor manager has taken over. Poor managers fail because they don’t have strong leadership skills. They lack people skills, communication skills, decision making skills, and delegation skills necessary to develop and maintain effective teams. A strong leader must sell the Lean Strategy and realize that ultimately the employees as a team are the ones to make it happen.
Think and act World Class (eve
So, you currently have a job but you are looking for something a little better. You are getting tired, uptight, and maybe just a little stressed out. This is a dangerous time – the time when job seekers can turn into wing nuts and make key mistakes. So, how do you avoid tripping over those pesky landmines, you know - your current boss, workmates, and customers - and still carry out an effective job search?Here are some of the risky situations you are going to want to tip toe around so as to not have your job search blow up in your face:Landmine #1: Oops, I did it again! Ready, fire, THEN aim that emailYou’ve done all the right things: Tailored a cover letter, crafted a killer resume, and found the right contact, Bill Smithers at “The Best Company In The World, Inc.” Now all you have to do is hit Send. So you do, h
Value Your People
Society generally refers to companies as entities. We speak of IBM, GM, and Microsoft as entities; however, they are really groups of people. GM doesn’t build cars, the employees of GM build cars.
To develop that culture as successfully as Toyota Corporation has, companies must first realize that they have to develop, nurture and value their employees. In order to build a culture of people wanting to continuously improve, people have to be engaged in their jobs. They have to feel valued by the company. They have to feel they are noticed and rewarded for their contributions. Ultimately, the company has to value having low employee turnover to create consistency. A company with high employee turnover cannot maintain a successful Lean environment.
To foster this type of environment in today’s business world isn’t easy. There is low loyalty between U.S. companies and their employees for a variety of reasons. Some companies look at employees as an expense rather that an asset that can be easily cut. If employees of a company do not feel the company values them, they will find other jobs. With today’s business world, it’s difficult to implement a long term Lean strategy. Yes, a company can dictate to it’s employees to use Lean tools to cut waste, however, to sustain that ideology long term require an engaged, loyal, consistent, work force.
Develop and Retain Strong Leaders
Good managers are coaches, poor managers are dictators. A good manager will believe in the team concept where every member of the team is important and his/her opinions are valued. A good manager will value his/her employees and realize that for him/her to be successful, the team has to be successful. A poor manger will dictate to his/her employees, which creates havoc! A good, efficient, business unit with high employee morale will fall apart within weeks if a poor manager has taken over. Poor managers fail because they don’t have strong leadership skills. They lack people skills, communication skills, decision making skills, and delegation skills necessary to develop and maintain effective teams. A strong leader must sell the Lean Strategy and realize that ultimately the employees as a team are the ones to make it happen.
Think and act World Class (eve
Part OneIn my opinion no other business venture seems as inviting, or attracts as many people to it, as that of selling via mail order. To all intents and purposes on the surface, it appears to be an easier and faster way to become rich quickly and effortlessly than almost any other method of doing business.After all, all the people in the whole wide world are potentially customers; the great thing is you can work from the privacy and comfort of your own home; you get to set your own working hours; and best of all you have no one to answer to but yourself. That is of course unless your like me and hen pecked and under the wife's thumb for the sake of peace and quite; in that case you have 'She Who Must Be Obeyed', to answer to but hey you can't have everything your own way now can you. (sorry about that last bit, it's a running
To foster this type of environment in today’s business world isn’t easy. There is low loyalty between U.S. companies and their employees for a variety of reasons. Some companies look at employees as an expense rather that an asset that can be easily cut. If employees of a company do not feel the company values them, they will find other jobs. With today’s business world, it’s difficult to implement a long term Lean strategy. Yes, a company can dictate to it’s employees to use Lean tools to cut waste, however, to sustain that ideology long term require an engaged, loyal, consistent, work force.
Develop and Retain Strong Leaders
Good managers are coaches, poor managers are dictators. A good manager will believe in the team concept where every member of the team is important and his/her opinions are valued. A good manager will value his/her employees and realize that for him/her to be successful, the team has to be successful. A poor manger will dictate to his/her employees, which creates havoc! A good, efficient, business unit with high employee morale will fall apart within weeks if a poor manager has taken over. Poor managers fail because they don’t have strong leadership skills. They lack people skills, communication skills, decision making skills, and delegation skills necessary to develop and maintain effective teams. A strong leader must sell the Lean Strategy and realize that ultimately the employees as a team are the ones to make it happen.
Think and act World Class (eve
As a business owner, you have the option of taking several different approaches to handling your Marketing and Advertising. You may choose to handle the responsibility yourself, with the idea that no one understands your business quite the way you do.. You may also consider hiring a full time marketing manager or even assigning the tasks, as they arise, to someone already working within your organization. Consider this… When your business needs plumbing work do you do it yourself? Hire a plumber to be on staff full time? Or ask your accountant to handle it?Call in the Experts.Though some advertising and marketing ventures seems simple enough to be handled ‘’in house’’, nothing is as costly as a marketing misfire. Not only may you be sending out the wrong messages, to the wrong markets, but also by the time you catch it, your bu
Develop and Retain Strong Leaders
Good managers are coaches, poor managers are dictators. A good manager will believe in the team concept where every member of the team is important and his/her opinions are valued. A good manager will value his/her employees and realize that for him/her to be successful, the team has to be successful. A poor manger will dictate to his/her employees, which creates havoc! A good, efficient, business unit with high employee morale will fall apart within weeks if a poor manager has taken over. Poor managers fail because they don’t have strong leadership skills. They lack people skills, communication skills, decision making skills, and delegation skills necessary to develop and maintain effective teams. A strong leader must sell the Lean Strategy and realize that ultimately the employees as a team are the ones to make it happen.
Think and act World Class (even if not there yet!)
To become Lean is to become World Class. When walking into a facility that has an unclean, unorganized work environment, one knows he/she haven’t walked into a World Class facility. There is no need to look at the productivity numbers to determine whether or not the facility is World Class. If a plant is World Class, it looks World Class as soon as you walk into the door.
A Lean facility is thoroughly organized. Every process is clearly defined via standards. Production is operated via very clear Visual Management. A true World Class facility has the discipline to sustain organization. Outside auditors, potential customers and employees will be turned off if the work environment isn’t clean and organized. Keeping a work area clean and organized is simple; however, many companies overlook this simple task.
Make Decisions Based on Logic and Not Politics
Most of the time decisions made senior management are implemented without questioning regardless if the decisions make sense or not. Too many times, decisions are made by senior management without them fully understanding the process and issues. Lower-level managers ultimately implement ideas and strategies that are not based on logic but politics. They will implement ideas even if they themselves do not believe in them. This can create numerous problems which makes implementing Lean Strategies difficult.
Decisions should be made throughout the organization through effective communication. Senior management should not just mandate, but sell their ideas and be open to questioning and suggestions from lower-level managers. Senior management should fully understand the issues and processes by effectively communicating with the managers at the different levels. Major decisions whenever possible should be made as a team vs. an individual.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.added4u.com/article/23080/added4u-Preparation-for-Lean-Manufacturing.html">Preparation for Lean Manufacturing</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.added4u.com/article/23080/added4u-Preparation-for-Lean-Manufacturing.html]Preparation for Lean Manufacturing[/url]
Related Articles:
Six Sigma Training – An Overview
What’s In A Name? A Quick Guide to Naming Your Business, Product, Book or Service
Effective People Management - Here Is How
Bookmark it:
|