Early job experiences can have a profound impact on how we approach the workday. Here is one of mine from my very first job: When I was twelve years old, using my brother’s social security card because I was too young to work, I got a job at a seafood restaurant hauling trays of breaded… [Read more…]
November 2, 2011
This post is a follow-up to one from September on policy deployment, sometimes called a ‘roadmap’ for improvement.’ It’s more than that in that it not only sets direction and targets, but also identifies the means to achieve them. But ‘roadmap’ is a common descriptor. And it seems logical that when beginning a journey, we… [Read more…]
October 28, 2011
There is an abundance of symbolism in the phrase “passing the baton”. Taiichi Ohno used the analogy of passing the baton to explain the cooperation that should exist between employees, as in a relay race, each gauging the other’s need and self-adjusting to accommodate a smooth passing of the baton. The baton in this case… [Read more…]
October 20, 2011
I’m just returning from a brief sojourn that included: Marrying off my older daughter, Christine, in Disneyworld, followed by A short vacation for our younger kids, and then, A short illness and trip to the hospital for me. No relationship between the third event and the former two is implied, but their sequence afforded me… [Read more…]
September 27, 2011
Before Shigeo Shingo’s chicken there was another well-known fowl by the name of “Chicken Little.” Do you remember the story? Struck on the head by a falling acorn, Chicken Little concludes that the sky is falling and so decides to warn the king as well as everyone else he meets on his way to the… [Read more…]
September 26, 2011
A thoughtful comment to my last post reminded me of one my favorite Shigeo Shingo stories. The writer, who will be at our upcoming conference, expressed concern that only persons who have already bought into continuous improvement tools and philosophy will be at the conference. If you haven’t already read my response to him, you… [Read more…]
September 21, 2011
Gross numbers reflecting American productivity can be misleading. When American companies outsource production, the labor “expense” is replaced with the “asset” of inventories purchased elsewhere. While this results in a gross statistical improvement to labor productivity, its overall impact on economic strength is insidious. Consider, for example, these two graphics in particular for the period… [Read more…]
November 8, 2011
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