Your staff members complain about having too much work, the proportion of people on short-term sick-leave is consistently above average and the turnover rate is disturbingly high. However, comparing takt time and processing time does not show to any obvious issue. So, what is the problem?

Have you ever considered how much unnecessary paper you receive from banks, you immediately feed into the bin? Rethinking the process from time to time does not seem very popular in banks. Just doing the same old thing over and over again is much easier. In banking lies the real productivity gold mine.

On a recent trip to Japan, I took a Shinkansen high- speed train from Kyoto to Tokyo. The train was scheduled to arrive at Tokyo Station at 9.03pm. Since I had made an appointment to meet a good friend after arrival, I asked the train conductor whether we would be on time. The conductor looked at me, […]

Lean Government. Even to the seasoned Lean practitioner, this idea sounds far-fetched. Governments are traditionally seen as the epitome of bureaucracy and red tape, incomprehensible forms and endless queues. But there are workable Lean strategies for governments seeking to reduce waste. Eight are outlined here.

No one delivers defective parts, wrong information or even typos in emails intentionally. It is usually our processes that allow and sometimes even enforce mistakes to happen. If we were able to help our staff in improving and simplifying our processes, they would do their job in good quality. Poka Yoke would help.

At least once a month, we “go” shopping grocery – in the convenience of our living room. Logging onto the website of our favourite supermarket is easy, selecting the goods with a click on the mouse supported by predefined shopping lists is very comfortable, payment is done online as well and the merchandise is delivered […]

“We need to increase productivity!” What sounds very reasonable on a country scale could be damaging on a company level. Now, after nearly two years of recession the economy is back on track, i.e. companies of all sectors sell more. This is good news, isn’t it? It brings our productivity to new heights, meeting and […]

Increase in productivity can be achieved in multiple ways. The myth of implementing IT support as cure-all for productivity problems has generally proven wrong. Sometimes IT is being used to speed up broken processes … to generate the same old problems, but faster. Focussing on the process, rethinking the way the work gets done, redesigning and improving the flow of activities in all kind of functions will more likely produce results. As a side-effect, it will contribute to staff development and enforcing leadership.

Besides business and functional know-how, a successful leader must have competencies in leading change and improving, designing and managing processes. A Six Sigma program helps prepare leaders by providing on-the-job training through project work. A recent survey by iSixSigma Magazine of more than 1,300 business professionals whose companies are using Six Sigma revealed that leadership […]

New undertakings or experiences are always challenging at first. This is no different when Schenker Singapore (Pte) Ltd, a transportation & logistics company, decides to embark on something new like Lean Six Sigma. It might seem to be even more demanding at the outset since the number of 3rd party logistics providers rising to this […]