Featured Story

Effective strategies for coaching and developing your employees

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 team of supervisors, managers and leaders the skills and behaviors that are necessary to perform their jobs as efficiently

No CommentsRead this story »

Lean Manufacturing

PDCA: Moving from the Plan (P) to the Do (D)

PDCA: Moving from the Plan (P) to the Do (D)

By Beau Groover • on November 19, 2009

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) cycle as it relates to continuous improvement

No CommentsRead this story »

Your CI list is long. Which projects should you pursue?

Your CI list is long. Which projects should you pursue?

By Beau Groover • on November 5, 2009

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 organizations get into the Do, Check, Act cycle

1 CommentRead this story »

Reliability Engineering

Reliability reduces waste of time, talent and resources

Reliability reduces waste of time, talent and resources

By Robert Apelgren • on October 23, 2009

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 forms in manufacturing. Some of these wastes

2 CommentsRead this story »

Reliability is a ‘green initiative’

Reliability is a ‘green initiative’

By Robert Apelgren • on September 16, 2009

Demand for products has declined in many parts of the world, and with more manufacturing being shipped overseas, reliability of our existing processes is even more important than before. Many of my friends

4 CommentsRead this story »

People Management

Manufacturing improvement and the Rolling Stones

Manufacturing improvement and the Rolling Stones

By John Crossan • on October 24, 2009

If you’re like me, you’ve listened to the Rolling Stones over the years. Their contemporaries, the Beatles, became more artistic and lyrical as they evolved. (”Not that there’s

No CommentsRead this story »

Effective communication: Turn this weakness into a strength

Effective communication: Turn this weakness into a strength

By Debbie Zmorenski • on October 2, 2009

Corporate leaders are trained in economics, strategy and a variety of other business skills. Few are trained in communication, yet experts agree that communication is one of the most important skills

No CommentsRead this story »

Maintenance Excellence

Expert tips on successfully planning a CMMS project

Expert tips on successfully planning a CMMS project

By Kris Bagadia • on October 28, 2009

A well-planned and executed computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) project can yield a maximum return on your investment (ROI). This return is realized through increased efficiency, productivity

5 CommentsRead this story »

Is there life after the death of predictive maintenance?

Is there life after the death of predictive maintenance?

By Geoff Generalovic • on September 23, 2009

It is sad how quickly a good predictive maintenance program dies, even though the program has gotten a manager promoted, convinced you and others that there is a lot of value in doing PdM to improve maintenance

3 CommentsRead this story »

Other Posts

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

5 CommentsRead this post »

Where do you want your CI initiative to go in 2010?

In the ever-changing world of continuous improvement (CI), we must always remember to walk our own walk. If we, as CI leaders, are teaching and coaching

4 CommentsRead this post »

Are you a leader or are a manager? Do you know the difference?

Leaders who lead by example are mentors and role models, building business results through relationships and integrity. Before delving into the topic

1 CommentRead this post »

Bringing the message of lean to Africa

I just returned from a trip to the country of Zambia in Africa. I was there visiting and helping some close family friends that are missionaries. John

No CommentsRead this post »

Lean evolves: How to make the most of process improvement

Lean efforts used to be 100 percent directed at the shop floor. What we have seen recently is that lean is moving into non-traditional areas of business.

1 CommentRead this post »

The power of a clear, concise vision to improve M&R results

One of the first responsibilities of leadership (of an organization, company, team or country) is to provide a simple, clear view of what the future can

1 CommentRead this post »

Redundancy is not a four-letter word!

In one of my first blogs here, I mentioned my nuclear submarine background. Among the things I mentioned was the redundancy built into their high-reliability

3 CommentsRead this post »

In the M&R business, good enough never is

About 15 years ago, I was fortunate to attend a conference where the keynote speaker’s focus was quality. This person was a successful entrepreneur

No CommentsRead this post »

How to accomplish a lean turnaround at warp speed

How can I accelerate a turnaround, or for that matter any implementation? I can’t wait; I have to do it NOW! The first item on your list is to stop

No CommentsRead this post »

Skimping on the training puts your CMMS project at risk

Training for users of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a multiple-phase process. There are three areas of training needs: 1) Basic

4 CommentsRead this post »