Tag: continuous Improvement

A competitive and successful business needs to critically evaluate all the opportunities for improvement and deploy valuable resources strategically. By identifying low-hanging fruit, high-impact, low-effort activities can be addressed creating a solid foundation for continuous improvement.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape industries, organizations are increasingly integrating AI-driven solutions into their continuous improvement programs. AI has the potential to revolutionize these programs by automating repetitive tasks, uncovering patterns in data, and offering predictive insights that can accelerate decision-making. However, AI’s implementation introduces new considerations for businesses aiming to […]

The Harada method helps individuals achieve self-reliance which in turn facilitates a company’s process improvement journey. Part One provides an overview of the method and its genesis. Subsequently, part Two presents five templates to use to plan a goal, measure the goal’s progress, and assess success. An example helps illustrate their practical use. […]

Total Quality Management TQM is a management approach that originated in the 1950s and has steadily become more popular since the early 1980s. Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude, and organization of a company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires […]

Isn’t it amazing how there’s “the next big thing” everyday? Headlines from blogs, sales websites, newspapers, even Twitter and LinkedIn, carry this headline continuously. How many of these “things” really are new? Years ago when I started my continuous improvement journey, I read about Deming and Juran. Quality Circles and SPC were big. Then Total […]

“Before cars, make people.” – Eiji Toyoda, former chairman of Toyota. Jidoka is one of the core principles of the Toyota Production System, one that empowers production workers to stop the assembly line and solve problems at the moment they occur. Jidoka integrates the two guiding pillars of the Toyota Way, “Continuous Improvement” and “Respect […]

In these difficult economic times it is vital now more than ever that organizational leadership understand and implement the best defense against all types of waste. Value added analysis and percentage increases to the overall value added activity must be among the top measurements for all employees. Non-value activities need to be reduced and cultural […]

Let’s start off by defining Lean manufacturing. Lean (as described on multiple on-line resources) is described as a production practice that focuses on the elimination of wasteful elements in all process to increase the value to the customer. Sounds great! What organization wouldn’t want to implement a program to eliminate waste? The problem is that […]

Union Pacific has named D. Lynn Kelley, Ph.D., vice president in charge of continuous improvement, effective July 1. She succeeds Richard R. McClish, who is retiring, and will report to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Young.

Many times in our industry, organizational leaders spout that they desire and believe in continuous improvement. They use the latest buzzwords and seem very serious when they communicate the new direction that they want to take. I don’t know if CI is truly understood by many organizational leaders due to the fact that most of […]

Finch Paper, based in Glen Falls, N.Y., USA, has named Black Belt Ken Chartier as its new director, quality and continuous improvement.

In a recent study of 100 senior manufacturing staff, British magazine Works Management (WM) found that the largest barrier to the adoption of continuous improvement (CI) programs is lack of cooperation from their staff.

Macy’s, CVS and Best Buy. Oh my! Those were just three of the companies that shared their stories of process improvement success during the afternoon session on Day 2 (Tuesday, March 29) of the iSixSigma Retail Forum for Process Excellence. The conference is being held through Thursday, March 31, at the Westin Edina Galleria in […]

Stealth Components, a distributor of electronics equipment, has added Andrée Kiser to its team as director of operations and quality control.

Lauren Manufacturing, a supplier of extruded and molded sealing products, has announced the promotion of Halle A. Norris from plant manager to vice president of manufacturing.

Delta Faucet Co. has promoted its continuous improvement (CI) manager Todd Shadburn to the position of senior CI engineer.

Remcon Plastics Inc. has hired Master Black Belt and Lean sensei Benjamin F. Wittich to run the rotational molding firm’s continuous improvement program.

RS Precision, a manufacturer of a wide rnge of machine-tooled parts, has hired Allan Brill, a certified Lean expert and Six Sigma Black Belt, to the newly created position of continuous improvement manager.

Plastics firm A. Schulman Inc. has hired Greg Agnew as its new director of continuous improvement for the Americas. Agnew, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, will start at Schulman on Jan. 1, 2011, focusing on Lean manufacturing operations, and stronger sales and operating planning processes.

Nordson Corp., a manufacturer of adhesive and sealant dispensing equipment, has announced the appointment of James E. DeVries to the newly created enterprise-level position of vice president of global continuous improvement. DeVries will be tasked with driving profitable growth in all operating segments through the elevation of Nordson’s ongoing continuous improvement and margin enhancement efforts.

When the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was ratified in 2002, requiring strict financial reporting standards for publicly owned companies, the law was regarded by many in the business community as an administrative burden. In the eight years since SOX has been in place, however, the reporting rules have helped some companies drive continuous improvement efforts, according […]

The Missouri National Guard’s adjutant general is changing the way business is done in his home state.

Kimberly-Clark announced that it has named Jan Spencer, currently president of Kimberly-Clark Professional, as its new senior vice president, continuous improvement, sourcing and sustainability, according to a company press release.

Now, more than ever, Corporate America is suffering from a growing lack of commitment, loyalty, creativity and ideas from its own employees. Called employee engagement, this unseen, unquantifiable and unbudgeted influence has long been a powerful contributor to American business success. Sadly, with more than 2,000,000 employees lost to downsizing in the last 18 months, […]