Applying Kaizen to packaging practices

When you look at rows of products at grocery stores, malls or any other retail setting, there are dozens of items competing for your attention. What catches your attention, and how can you make your packing compete in the competitive retail shelf space? Packaging design is an important concept for any business that creates a physical

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Core tenets of Lean retail execution

Retail, like most other industries, can benefit by integrating Lean processes and mindsets. If retailers are looking to maximize their budgets while minimizing waste and improving efficiency, then embracing a Kaizen work culture may be the best way to go. If merchants do go this route, they must observe the three core tenets of Lean

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What VSM brings to the healthcare table

Hospital-VSM-Value-Stream-Map

Running healthcare organizations is no easy task. Everyone from doctors to secretaries frequently needs to juggle a variety of tasks at any given moment. At major hospitals, the chaos of everyday operations is even more apparent. Busy waiting rooms, unhappy patients and stressed staff are common occurrences due to the pace of work at these

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Accruing leadership experience to become successful

Leadership is a difficult thing to train for. Management classes and seminars can help, but when it comes down to it, developing successful leadership skills is a matter of getting the requisite experience. All the business tools and strategies in the world can't replace real-life management experience and being in the front lines of a real

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Lean manufacturing is a diamond in the rough for one mineral company

K. Girdharlal International, a diamond company that employs more than 2,000 people at its factory in India, has identified Lean manufacturing practices as being pivotal in the business' efforts to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness. Up until recently, K. Girdharlal had been using more traditional top-down management techniques. However, the organization is now looking to continuously

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Warning signs of disengagement

How do I engage my employees? For many businesses, that's the million-dollar question to which they are still trying to find the answer. While there may be no clear cut ways of truly engaging and empowering workers, employers should always be on the lookout for signs that their workforce is unengaged – this is much easier to

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A Lean product is a green product

Businesses are always looking for ways to reduce their environmental footprint, with the hope that doing so will improve their reputation amongst consumers. A 2011 report from Cohn & Wolfe 60 percent of consumers globally would rather buy products from environmentally responsible companies, highlighting the fact that going green can help businesses secure more sales. The

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Introducing Lean as a major driver of change

The benefits of Lean are manifold – companies using these mindsets and practices are able to reduce waste, improve efficiency and effectively engage their employees. As such, many businesses are now considering undergoing Kaizen transformations in an effort to embrace these new operational strategies and philosophies. Lean is a major driver of change and can

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