The manufacturing industry has undergone a number of changes over the decades. According to Innovation Excellence, one of the most pressing concerns of manufacturers nowadays is the nurturing of talented individuals as a means of continually improving the quality and efficiency of production. Implementation of a Kaizen culture is widely seen as a way to
Continue reading »Monthly Archives: "November 2012"
Four factors for a successful Kaizen transformation
Many businesses are turning to Kaizen practices and philosophies to help streamline operations and improve efficiency. That being said, Kaizen mindsets represent a radical paradigm shift in the way companies are traditionally operated. To ensure a swift and seamless transition, organizations should aim to create these four mindsets as they go into the transformative period.
Continue reading »Lean is perfect for a young startup
Established businesses tend to have the capital to make mistakes, such as running inefficient factories or utilizing supply chains with needless movement. While these companies can become more productive and profitable by leveraging Lean, they also have the resources available to make these mistakes. For young startups, however, Lean is particularly vital. Lean revolves around
Continue reading »No need to smudge the numbers with Lean accounting
Accountants are always carefully auditing and analyzing everything, from money spent to billable hours devoted to specific projects. Ironically enough, analyzing various business costs also ends up taking a lot of time itself. By applying Lean manufacturing concepts to their own jobs, accountants may find they are better able to complete their responsibilities in a
Continue reading »Lean Tours to Japan are your way of improving your competitiveness
Competition is a very real threat to many modern-day businesses. This is especially the case given how the internet has figuratively shrunk the size of the world. Now, it isn't unusual for customers in one country to buy products and services from somewhere else in the world. For businesses, this means that competition has never
Continue reading »The levers of eco-efficiency and how they impact green operations
Many companies understand that going green can be beneficial for business. However, they are often unsure of how they can accomplish that goal. It's one thing to adopt sustainability as an organization, but another to put the practices in place to actually achieve that objective. As Accenture notes, there are several “levers” of eco-efficiency that
Continue reading »Police department cracks down on waste
The police department that governs Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, has turned to Kaizen practices and philosophies as a way to crack down on wasteful processes and procedures that cause the unit to run over budget and out of time. More than 17 employees of the General Directorate of Abu
Continue reading »Football coaches score a touchdown with Kaizen mindsets
One of the leading principles associated with Kaizen is that of “continuous improvement,” or the notion that everything can be made better and nothing should be considered sacred. Even if businesses have what they believe to be an optimal set of processes for workflow, there are likely still ways to further bolster productivity and efficiency.
Continue reading »Improving employee engagement by understanding what it isn’t
Every business wants to have a worker base that's fully “engaged.” But what does that mean? While there are a variety of ways to answer that question, perhaps one of the easiest approaches is to first come to terms with what employee engagement is not. 1. Happy A common misconception is that an engaged employee
Continue reading »Georgia training agency stresses the importance of Lean for manufacturers
Lean manufacturing is the norm in Japan, but other countries are just beginning to utilize these practices. After realizing the importance of waste reduction and efficiency, many factories across the world are transitioning to Lean work processes that follow the core tenets of Kaizen. Quick Start, a Georgia-run workforce training agency, is helping companies throughout
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