Only 30% Initiatives Succeed, 70% Fail: Most organizational change efforts cost more and take longer than leaders and managers anticipate; two of three transformations fail. But why? Research by John Kotter in Leading Change (1996) and a large survey of 3199 executives by McKinsey (2008) … [Read more...] about Managing Change: The 7 Key Factors that Make Projects Succeed or Fail
Designing a better factory: automotive suppliers producing commodity products need to win on cost and scale, find new niches, and go beyond the automotive core. And those in highly differentiated segments need to lead performance innovation and find a new path into the future (Deloitte). … [Read more...] about Factory of the Future: Assessment and Workshop for Automotive Japan
Visual management refers to the placement of tools, parts, processes, indicators in view, so the status of the system can be understood at a glance. Visual management devices relay information through signals (cards, marks, lights, bins) instead of reports. Visual management is often faster, … [Read more...] about Visual Management Tools: Higher Efficiency from Total Transparency
Defining next steps on its Lean Journey the team in Utah benchmarks its operation against world-class references, assessing maturity level and identifying next improvement opportunities. The program is part of the 'fresh-eyes review' initiative for the leading automotive safety supplier. The … [Read more...] about Operations Diagnostics: Assessing Automotive Factory in Utah
To take effective actions, we need effective metrics so we can recognize successes to learn from and issues to quickly correct before growing into major problems. In reverse this means that, without capable metrics, we can’t manage or improve anything. "Measurement is the first step that leads to … [Read more...] about The 3 Golden Metrics for Effective Performance Management
A growing stack of "things" is waiting for many of us when returning back to the office after the holidays, pending work to be processed. A big pile, despite of all efforts to clean up and complete all pending tasks by year’s end. Starting the new year with high ambitions and a high backlog is not … [Read more...] about Strategy Deployment Roadmap: Plan Path To Destiny To Get There
Implementing just-in-time (JIT) principles "flow-takt-pull-leveling" at a high-mix batch operation raised labor productivity 288%, freed up 33% process inventory, and permanently lowered cost-per-unit by 28%. Those breakthroughs were achieved without any capital investments, solely by applying … [Read more...] about Black Belt Project: Just-In-Time Doubles Productivity of High-Mix Batch-Operation