Warehousing is one area where productivity has risen steadily over the last couple of decades.This has been partly due to the rise of the ‘super retailer’, the boom in online purchasing - and the boom in online grocery sales. All of this was energised by the COVID pandemic when customers were, or felt, unable to
When firms are looking at automation (or AI) to find other ways of changing and improving what they do), the approach should always be to look at what you do now and how you do it. You can then automate an already-improved version of your processes and working methods. Those who don’t do this end
Most of us have been in a situation at work where rules have been enforced which are clearly stupid to anyone with common sense. If you doubt this, you need to read ‘Dilbert’ more. Do you want your employees to obey rules which, to them, are ridiculous …. or do you want them to challenge those
Spoiler alert!. Yes, it does! Manufacturing, in spite of continual productivity gains over several decades, is a large employer. But it also employs a multiple more (often several multiples more) in the wider supply chain - those providing parts, components and ancillary services to the large main manufacturing organisations - the factories themselves. Manufacturing often supports
Occasionally we see an organisation that has pulled itself back from the brink of extinction. There are two main routes to such survival - one is to find a different product/service (product innovation) ; the other is to drastically change how you do things, reducing time/costs of production/delivery (process innovation). (Doing different things and doing things
We all know people who are perfectionists. They strive in everything they do to be the best, to out-perform all others, to be number one. In some walks of life, this can be a great attribute. If you want to be a professional musician (especially a classical musician) perfectionism is a good goal. Lang Lang didn’t become
I read a report recently which suggested that the workforce in Pakistan lacks both appropriate skills and the work ethic needed to significantly improve productivity. (This is not of course exclusive to Pakistan - it is true of a quiet a few places - or even industrial sectors.) The report then simply moved on to
How does a government kickstart productivity improvement? Well one possible answer Is to benchmark and challenge. A government can set up benchmarking across specific sectors it thinks are important for future growth. It starts by asking firms in the sector what is important in creating future growth - and then setting up a measurement scheme
Most business people are aware that the culture of an organisation has a direct and significant impact on performance and productivity. What is organisation culture? At its most simple, it is the collection of beliefs and values held and promulgated by the senior members of an organisation via their policies, decisions and behaviours. This in turn drives
Over the last several decades, especially since the second world war, we have been encouraged, and exhorted, to be more productive - to meet ever-stretching targets. And we have done it. Productivity figures over these years have been quite good. But what happened to those gains? In most of the Western world, there has been a