Flavor of the day: Terror isn’t just for airplanes anymore
Christmas Day. Terror in the skies! A bomb and a terrorist pass through airport screening undetected. If not for a failure to detonate, there would be
Featured Story
Expert advice on how to deal with difficult people
One of the first people to study difficult employees in the workplace and to assign specific characteristic descriptors to these groups of people was Robert M. Branson. In 1981, he wrote a book called “Coping with Difficult People.” In this book, he identifies seven categories of difficult people: Hostile-aggressive Complainers Silent
Lean Manufacturing
Is a deflationary economy a bad thing? Not from a lean perspective
By Jim Huntzinger • on January 15, 2010
The United States has created levels of wealth well beyond any other civilization in history. Yet, much further potential is sitting right under our nose. This potential lies in lean thinking; that is,
Why improvement efforts fail
By John Crossan • on December 29, 2009
Why do improvement efforts fail or perhaps not sustain the gains? There are many reasons, but those most often stated are “lack of commitment” and not “following the process”. But
Reliability Engineering
An examination of problem-solving and the ‘Error Pyramid’
By Bernie Price • on January 21, 2010
When faced with the task of “improving plant efficiency”, the average plant manager breaks the task down by the five or six existing “departmental silos”. Each silo leader subdivides
Reduce or eliminate waste through training
By Robert Apelgren • on January 14, 2010
Following along with my blog “Reliability is a green initiative”, I would like to talk about waste reduction by training. Waste is seen in many different forms in manufacturing, and many of
People Management
A game plan to resolve conflict in the workplace
By Debbie Zmorenski • on January 18, 2010
Conflict in the workplace seems to be a fact of life. We’ve all seen situations where different people with different goals and needs have come into conflict. And, we’ve all seen the often-intense
Effective strategies for coaching and developing your employees
By Debbie Zmorenski • on November 20, 2009
Performance coaching is not about disciplinary action, nor is it about accountability (although it may promote accountability in the long term). It is really about leadership development - teaching your
Maintenance Excellence
Lean maintenance: Is it a new concept or another ‘acronym’?
By Tor Idhammar • on January 13, 2010
It seems as if new weight loss programs and products come out every week. The latest I saw was a plastic wrap that you place around your stomach called “Sauna Fit”. If you strap it around your
Tips for maintaining a complete and accurate equipment registry
By Bob Schindler • on January 11, 2010
The equipment registry is one of the most important tools in your kit when it comes to maintenance and reliability. It can be the foundation of your planned maintenance, lubrication, training and repair
Other Posts
Go execute the CI plan!
Hello out there, and happy belated Thanksgiving to you! Before I start the actual blog, I wanted to tell you all that I am very thankful to be an American.
Money from honey: Africa lean project generates results
I recently wrote about my trip in August to Zambia in Africa. I was visiting with my friends John and Kendra who have been working in Zambia for the past
Improvements must be generated, implemented on a daily basis
I heard a radio interview some time back with Neil Sedaka. If the name is no longer familiar, he is probably one of the most successful songwriters of
PDCA: Moving from the Plan (P) to the Do (D)
Hello, all you Lean Six Sigma people! I hope this blog finds you all doing fantastic! I have been working on a series talking about the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)
Your CI list is long. Which projects should you pursue?
In my last blog entry, I talked very generally about the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act). In the first blog in this series, I wrote about how too many
Expert tips on successfully planning a CMMS project
A well-planned and executed computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) project can yield a maximum return on your investment (ROI). This return
Manufacturing improvement and the Rolling Stones
If you’re like me, you’ve listened to the Rolling Stones over the years. Their contemporaries, the Beatles, became more artistic and lyrical
Reliability reduces waste of time, talent and resources
Following along with my last blog, “Reliability is a green initiative”, I would like to talk about waste reduction. Waste is seen in many different
Breaking down the components of the PDCA cycle
Since we are all going through the planning process to various degrees, and since I received some feedback about my previous blog, I wanted to follow up
