Kai – “rapid change” Zen – “for the better” Masaaki Imai CEO of Kaizen Institute also says that Kaizen means Continuous Improvement. Many organizations practice kaizen […]
Know Your Kaizen Events
By Christian Wolcott
By Christian Wolcott
Kai – “rapid change” Zen – “for the better” Masaaki Imai CEO of Kaizen Institute also says that Kaizen means Continuous Improvement. Many organizations practice kaizen […]
By Christian Wolcott
People closest to the work have the best ideas of how and what to change. Let’s examine this simple yet powerful statement. First people, which ones are we talking about? […]
By Steven Hirt
In meeting with a new president of a company over a cup of coffee this morning, it dawned on me how hard creating a “one company” culture really is. Reflecting over […]
By Christian Wolcott
I was traveling last week and overnighted at a swanky hotel at my client’s suggestion. It was new, modern in that glassy, sanitized way with lots of hard surfaces, funky […]
By Roger Wolfe
In this case Simple means the bare essentials to get the job completed. Most machinery manufacturers create base equipment that has some extras that will never be used in our […]
By Chris Schermer
No matter what sector of business you are in, there is some degree of variation. We set out to design reliable, repeatable and capable processes that flow but, reality doesn’t […]
By Laurie Stoveken
Optima facilitates a Safety Special Interest Group that meets periodically to discuss safety related topics. Events are free to attend if you are a CI Alliance Member. Our next event […]
By Roger Wolfe
When you hear right sized you are probably thinking of the overall dimensions of the machine. That is one element of Right Sized, but there is another very crucial element […]
By Laurie Stoveken
At Optima we have a resource library of books, cd’s and videos available for Continuous Improvement Alliance members. Ramp up your knowledge on various subjects from strategy, leadership, to continuous […]
By Steven Hirt
I recently had a health scare, nothing imminent but a wake-up call for sure. It became crystal clear that I needed to change, that I needed to improve my health situation […]
Optima’s Leaders Roundtable group provides Executive CI Leaders an opportunity to meet other CI Leaders and learn from one another. Members of each Roundtable group are from non-competing organizations who have been on the Continuous Improvement journey and are willing to share their successes and their struggles along the way. Discussions help members to determine strengths and weaknesses in their organization’s CI journey and to gauge where their organization is at on the CI journey. Members not only get the chance to share their knowledge and experience, but also get to “sharpen the saw” by benefiting from others’ knowledge and experience. Roundtable groups meet quarterly.
The Paradigm President’s Group in MN and the Paradigm Group in ND were designed to foster strong relationships between our members and to unlock the value of real-world best practices. We meet monthly for ½ day at a member site and this is an opportunity for each member to benchmark the best practices (and the not so best practices) of other companies. Members, in utmost confidentiality, discuss their successes and failures and ask their fellow members for advice and analysis.
The Lean Product Development Network was launched to introduce lean and continuous improvement methodologies and concepts into the product development process and to provide a networking group to assist in the transformation. Members determine the events, discussion topics and host companies.