Kaizen Group

It used to take 34 steps to open a checking account at Great Western Bank.

Via Michel Baudin

"In the Kaizen approach, stealing the ideas of others isn’t a negative thing. If somebody else implemented an idea and you can use that idea in your area, a Kaizen organization ENCOURAGES the borrowing, stealing, adoption, and adaptation of ideas. There’s no shame in that. This idea was being preached at one hospital I visited yesterday, which was nice to see.

But… USA Today had a blurb the other day about one idea you shouldn’t steal. It’s an idea that’s already proven not to work – paying bonuses based on the value of improvement ideas."

Via Michel Baudin

How a Creative, Innovative Culture impacts your Continuous Improvement efforts. When one initially thinks about a continuous improvement environment they think about standardizing and streamlining with the focus entirely ...

A leading manufacturer supplying products into multiple sectors including automotive has a requirement for Business Improvement specialist to join their business as Continuous Improvement Manager at t (Continuous Improvement Manager - Staffordshire...

Successful leadership can sometimes be reduced to a small number of fundamental choices. Once those choices are made, they guide decisions and behavior in dozens of situations each week. One of tho...

A Drive for Productivity Last week I wrote a post entitled Value Creation for Private Investors that went largely ignored as it was one of my lowest viewed posts of the new year for a Monday when most of you tune in.  The idea about which I wrote...

In the fall of 2009, I launched Gemba TalesTM in anticipation of the Kaizen Event Fieldbook. Truthfully, it was something that I was told authors do – “You need to have a blog to promote your book.”
Well, sort of.

Look up W. Edwards Deming on the Internet and you will learn that he revolutionized manufacturing practices If you’re a small business owner  there’s a concept Deming popularized that you can apply. It’s called PDCA, for plan / do / check /act. It’s a way to improve the processes a company implements by making sure those processes produce ever-better outcomes. Let’s say you want to increase profitability by doing three things: Schedule better, train current field employees, and make sure all materials are on the job when needed. So you write a six-week plan calling for you to buy and learn a scheduling program, set up an on-site training to train workers, and start ordering materials four days ahead of needing them. Suppose you did all those things. Congratulations: You accomplished the “Plan” and “Do” parts of PDCA.

The key to success in PDCA lies in the last two components: check and act. This cycle is repeated continuously as the company matures and different problems arise. That’s why Deming’s PDCA cycle also is called “continuous improvement.”

Via Ashok Ramachandran

one2onetracker is a Cloud based Progress and Performance Evaluation tool (Empowered by engagement, role clarity and continuous improvement http://t.co/n8fSoToEes #Leadership #TChat #HR Software)...

JT 150x150 Song Parody: You Say You Want a Kaizen Culture lean With apologies to The Beatles and Dr. John Toussaint: “Kaizen Culture” (sung to “Revolution” by The Beatles). You say you want a kaizen culture.