Great companies unlock incredible value by simply setting expectations. The lean practitioner will tell you that the value in setting expectations is to recognize and solve problems, but there is a benefit even before solving the problems. A benefit of about a 15% improvement in performance. The 15% of improvement by setting expectations comes from […]

Continuous Improvement is by definition “continuous” and most improvement requires physical change on the shop floor. Reports may need run and a few forms created, but real change that effects the bottom line takes place on the shop floor or where the value is created. Work Class organizations are relentless at pursuing these changes and […]

World Class organizations use a team of trained improvement professionals to unlock value in their organizations. They see this group dedicated to working on the business rather than in the business. But, often when inexperienced or untrained, this team can be the problem rather than solving the problem. They create an environment that feels like […]

Lean operating systems unlock the value in business by working hard to solve problems while they are small. They avoid the slow demise of many operations cursed with “Death by a Thousand Cuts”. It is rarely one big event that causes a good operation to slowly drift into chaos. It is more likely an endless […]

From 1924 to 1932 a Western Electric factory outside of Chicago called the Hawthorne Works ran a series of experiments to understand the impact of certain conditions on productivity. The most famous of these experiments was testing the impact of different levels of light. In this study, as well as their others, the productivity would […]