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Understanding the Causes of a Jack in the Box
Updated:You may remember seeing or having a Jack in the Box toy when you were a child. It looked much like a box and would have a crank on its side that you could turn. It would play a little song, and suddenly the top would fly open and the head of a clown (or […]
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Leveraging Key Process Input Variables for Success
Updated:Complex products and processes can often yield significant variation in output, with resultant poor customer satisfaction, especially when process inputs are not well controlled. By understanding and controlling our key process input variables, we have the perfect approach to keep output variation in check.
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Increase Your Process Capability with L2 Spreadsheets
Updated:When it comes to process capability, the more tools you have, the better. An L2 spreadsheet can help to make working with your capabilities a simpler endeavor. L2 Spreadsheet An L2 spreadsheet is just one of many spreadsheets that can help you be more knowledgeable about the ins and outs of your business. Overview: What […]
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Best Practices for Facilitating Successful Meetings
Updated:Sometimes we need the input of others in order to make a process easier. We also often could use someone who can bring a group together when working toward a goal. When this is done, that person is someone who facilitates. In a meeting, it can be easy for a group to lose direction. Having […]
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How Goals Drive Purpose, Direction, and Efficiency in Business
Updated:Goals are pretty simple. In sports, reaching the goal adds points to the scoreboard. In business, reaching the goal means doing what you set out to do. In your personal life, it’s finding a sense of purpose, belonging and completion. Overview: What is a goal? Even though the concept is easy to define and understand, […]
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Ensuring Excellence from the Start: The Role of Incoming Goods Inspection
Updated:An in-depth look at how IGI can help businesses become more efficient, profitable, and less wasteful by helping managers keep track of incoming good compliance issues while ensuring incoming goods meet quality standards set by the company.
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Building a Knowledge-Based Community: An Overview
Updated:The pursuit of knowledge is not relegated solely to the individual. Businesses regularly gather staff and other stakeholders with the intent of working together to gain knowledge that can assist in the goals of the organization. When an organization puts together a knowledge-based community, it shows that it is not only invested in the advancement […]
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How Employee Empowerment Benefits Your Business
Updated:Virtually every business decision is a matter of investment and success is based on how companies deploy resources like employee time, capital and brand image. The authority to make independent decisions is also a type of resource that can and should be invested by delegating it to team members. Overview: What is empowerment? Employee empowerment […]
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The Danger of Instant Pudding in the Workplace
Updated:Instant pudding may make a great snack, but it’s a terrible approach to managing quality and productivity in business. Unlike the average domestic kitchen, there are very few things that you can simply whip together in the business world. Overview: What is instant pudding? In the context of business and process management, the term “instant […]
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The Importance of Knowing Your Indirect Costs
Updated:Having a clear comprehension of all the costs you incur when creating a product is integral to running a successful business. This includes both your direct and indirect costs. When making a product or providing a service, it may be obvious what your direct costs are since you are paying for parts, labor, and so […]
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Information Communication Technology: The Tools for Building a Stronger Business
Updated:The landscape of how business is done is ever-evolving. The way that businesses interact with customers and how those customers purchase goods and services is unrecognizable from how things were done just a couple of decades ago. A big component of these changes is the rise of information communication technology. Any time you make a […]
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Interactional Data
Updated:Marketing is crucial for most organizations in their efforts to acquire new customers and maintain their relationships with their existing ones. There are many factors involved in developing proper marketing strategies. One of them is the collection and proper analysis of interactional data. Interactional data is not used to its full potential by many organizations […]
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Essential Strategies for Identifying Key Business Requirements
Updated:Key business requirements are everything. They are the measure by which your product, process or company lives or dies, so ignorance is not an option.
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How to Find and Fix Frequently Committed Errors in Your Processes
Updated:Frequently committed errors (FCE) are anomalies in a particular process that have a negative impact on the outcome. Essentially, anything that falls outside of the established, value-added activities within each process is an error. Identifying, recognizing and addressing frequently committed errors is essential to good business management. Overview: What are frequently committed errors? Every process […]
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Securing Your Business: The Importance of Encryption for Data Protection
Updated:In business, there are times when you may be transferring sensitive data. Working with software that provides encryption services can help keep your data secure. Many now associate encryption with modern technology, but the practice likely dates as far back as 1900 B.C. During this time, one scribe used unorthodox hieroglyphic characters instead of the […]
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Improving Quality and Employee Relations with Error Cause Removal
Updated:In 1979, Philip B. Crosby wrote what came to be seen as a landmark in quality management theory. The book, “Quality With” focuses on a managerial style that focuses on delivering quality in business, often in ways that are of little to no cost. One of the 14 steps listed on the way to quality […]
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From Problem to Solution: The Power of Gap Analysis
Updated:Keeping one step ahead of the competition whilst consistently meeting customer requirements makes a lot of business sense. Using gap analysis, we have a methodology that helps to understand and achieve full business potential whilst driving continuous improvement.
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Fenwick-vanKoesveld Test: Ask Three Questions to Find One Root Cause
Updated:When something goes wrong in your organization, it is important to know what the cause of the issue is in order to prevent it from happening again. Luckily, there are several failure analysis tools available, one of which is the Fenwick-vanKoesveld Test.This test is relatively simple and serves to find the true reason for a […]
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The Global Commerce Initiative Empowers Businesses of All Sizes
Updated:If you are working with supplies that come from a myriad of international sources, it is important to know that you are getting materials that you can trust and that there are safeguards in place. The Global Commerce Initiative is meant to address this concern among businesses as well as consumers. The Global Commerce Initiative […]
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How to Measure Efficiency and Increase Productivity
Updated:When you hear the word efficient, you probably think of the words waste, productivity, inputs, and outputs. An efficient process will allow you to provide your customers more and better products for less effort.
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The Benefits and Drawbacks of Globalization: A Comprehensive Guide
Updated:With most major corporations, in order to get their products into your hands inexpensively, the work does not all happen in one place. More often than not, various aspects involved in the manufacturing process occur across more than one country. This would be very difficult to achieve if not for the advancement of globalization.Globalization plays […]
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Improving Product Quality and Efficiency with FMEA
Updated:Overview: What is FMEA? When it comes to risk assessment in Lean Six Sigma, one of the most useful tools you can use is FMEA. FMEA stands for Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. It’s a tool used to identify and prioritize potential failures of a product or process through a systematic approach that involves identifying […]
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The Role of Continuous Improvement in Addressing Erroneous Data
Updated:The concept of “erroneous” in Six Sigma emphasizes the importance of accuracy and reliability in data collection and analysis. Erroneous data can lead to incorrect conclusions, poor decision-making, and negative business outcomes. To address erroneous data, organizations can implement best practices such as defining what constitutes erroneous data, implementing robust data validation processes, using statistical […]
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Unlocking Project Insights with Gantt Charts
Updated:Utilization of project management tools helps ensure the success of a project. One such tool is the Gantt chart. At the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Gantt created a chart for recording the progress of workers when assigned to a task. His work revolutionized the field of project management, and his innovations are still […]
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