How to Use 5 Whys Problem Solving Technique
Often you are faced with a problem and have no idea what is causing it. You don’t even know where to start looking! Actually, you and your team may know more than you think and 5 Whys is a way to unearth possible reasons from complete unknowns Five Whys and its sister Five Hows is […]
SM2.1 The Amazing 80/20 Rule Tool
Would you be interested in knowing a way to increase your productivity by 16 times!
Got your attention? The following material gives an insight into how this is possible.
How to use Time Management Skills Tools
There is one thing that every business person will tell you they are short of. That is TIME! Time Management Skills are 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 to time. Part one is Yellow […]
Using Weighted Scores Prioritising Technique
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 example. A quick and effective way to work through such a maze is to use a Weights and Scores technique described below. Yellow Belt
SM4.0 Business Efficiency: Waste Reduction Introduction
Eight Types of Waste Business efficiency relies upon managing and reducing waste Here are 8 tested ways for doing this What is Waste? A straight forward explanation of waste is that it is anything that adds no value to the final product or service. This is something that the customer is not willing to pay […]
SM4.1 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 these types of waste might show up in […]
How to Plan Work with Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)
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
How to Build a Positioning Statement for your Business
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 “who you provide what service/product to”.
How to Calculate Time to Produce each Product with Takt Time
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 start of production of the next unit, when these production starts are set to match the rate of customer demand.
In Lean, Takt time is the rate at which a finished product needs to be completed in order to meet customer demand. Blue Belt
Importance of Small Batches Tool
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 the words of the song; “it ain’t necessarily so!” Learn the importance of small batches.