Positioning is a mission critical identity tool for any business. Positioning is how you want to be perceived in the minds of your target audience. Positioning is the behind the scenes structuring of an identity for your business. The customer is not aware of it, but it manages to convey to them...
Takt is the German word for the baton that an orchestra conductor uses to regulate the tempo of the music. Takt time may be thought of as a measurable beat time, rate time or heartbeat. Takt time is the average time between the start of production of one unit and the...
The 12Faces is a buffet of distilled business wisdom presented in a manner that allows managers to quickly review what they do and don't know about a particular issue they are facing and then 'drill down' to solutions to your problem. Most of the information in the 12Faces KnowledgeBase needs you to be registered to use...
There is one thing that every business person will tell you they are short of. That is TIME! Time Management Skills is a way to drive a wedge into, and free up, more time. So much so that you will, rather bizarrely, find yourself with nothing to do from time...
Some businesses that use project management software like the Critical Path Method (CPM) should also take the time to learn about the much less well known Critical Chain Project Management technique as it has a proven track record for dramatically speeding up projects. Blue Belt
Five Whys and its sister Five Hows is a brainstorming tool that drives you to the reasons behind something happening when it is not obvious (5 Whys problem solving) or a desired outcome (5 Hows strategy). Yellow Belt article
There are merits to reducing the size of the batches you manufacture and/or hold in stock at any point in time. This might sound counter-intuitive because of the oft-quoted 'economies of scale' and the time cost of pulling down tool set-ups and changing them to manufacture another project. But, in...
Eight Types of Waste The well-known Toyota car company identified seven types of waste that had an impact on Productivity and Profit. An eighth has been added more recently. By gradually reducing these wastes, you can improve the Productivity and Profit of your business. In Japanese, this is referred to as reducing "muda" (pronounced Moo-da). This article discusses how...
When you are faced with many alternatives, it can often be very hard to choose between them. They will be strong on some things and weak on others; but hardly ever the same things. The sort of problem you face when choosing a car or a new staff member for...