An emergency room went from nearly empty to nearly full in under an hour. The staff sped up, and our care slowed down. What that Sunday, and a receptionist in 1998, teach about finding the step everything waits on.
A time study in a union apparel plant taught me why the people who run and maintain the equipment belong in every process-improvement decision.
I began my working life before computers became part of the everyday workplace. We had paper. We had mimeograph machines and teletypes. We had calculators and thirteen-column pads. The work got done, but much of it was done manually. Then…
Before you improve a process, automate it, or invest in it, there’s a more fundamental question worth asking first.
One of the first things you learn in consulting is that the problem you’re asked to solve isn’t necessarily the problem that needs to be solved. A client may say, “We need more people.” Or, “We need a new system.”…
If I want to understand an operation, I want to talk to management. I want to see the reports and understand the objectives, measurements, constraints, and problems leadership believes need to be solved. Then I want to go where the…
A consulting project can look very good on the day it ends. The new process is in place. People have been trained. The numbers are improving. Management is pleased. The consultants pack up, everyone shakes hands, and the project is…
I’ve worked on a lot of improvement projects over the years. Some were difficult from beginning to end. Others struggled because of technology, processes, budgets, schedules, or resistance to change. And then there were a few where everything seemed to…
“It’s intuitive, but is it truthful?” I looked up at John, my client, with a huge question mark on my face. I’d just told the team how I thought we should handle something, and it made perfect sense to me….