I wrote a week ago about the danger of thinking that (productivity) improvement is always about increasing speed. I thought this week about an example that sums this up quite nicely. I went recently to a performance by a small group of classical musicians - playing a variety of materials from several composers. (This
I have talked here before about the danger in concentrating on speed of operation as the primary focus of improvement efforts. It can, for example mean a drop in quality…. and it can mean a team or line becomes unbalanced. What we should try to do is to improve the speed of an entire unit or
Sometimes when looking at problems or searching for innovation, it is a handicap to have too much knowledge of the context of the problem. For example, if you give the problem of spanning a river to a bridge-builder, you will get a bridge as the solution. It might be a great-looking bridge and/or one with little
I don’t like aphorisms such as “There are no problems, only opportunities”. This Is sometimes true but is so vague as to encompass real problems and disasters which require being treated as such, Can you imagine, "Houston, We have an opportunity."? However, I have identified one such problem/opportunity arising from the growth of remote and hybrid working
If you work in an environment where everyone is busy and working hard you will tend to work hard yourself. There will be fewer distractions and your work level will be visible to others. At break time, you can take a trip to the water cooler or coffee machine and have some social interaction with others
It is commonly accepted that money is a prime motivator for employed people [ie - they come to work earn money to live and will leave for another job if its pays more. Of course, people work to earn money to live - but that is certainly not the only reason … not necessarily even
I was talking to a distant relative the other day who has been working from home for more than 2 years - and loves it. He told me about the various co-ordination meetings he had to make sure he was up-to-date in relation to his various projects. I asked him how his firm managed the process
An online survey of American workers suggests that they feel at their most productive on Monday mornings. The week is new, memories of the weekend cast a rosy glow and the world feels good. So, why do so many firms insist on holding Monday morning meetings - just when employees are at their most productive. Try to
We are constantly urging firms to communicate effectively with their employees - letting them know what is happening … and why. This is particularly true of issues that affect those employees. Communicating should be easy as the range of media and tools available has grown substantially over the last couple of decades. However effective communication only
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