By Matt Lemke, Optima Associates, Inc.
Recognizing the context of our work: Many organizations find themselves in a position where they are in constant reaction to issues that disrupt the work being carried out. Repeatable and predictable output becomes a condition that does not happen as often as desired. Our people end up working in an environment, where to be successful, […]
Optima’s Continuous Improvement Alliance is pleased to welcome Laforce Inc., Bryant Products, Inc., Kohler, Leer Inc., Harley-Davidson Corporation, Grande Cheese Company and Plastics Ingenuity into the Alliance. The Alliance connects Lean and CI practitioners in a local peer network facilitated by world class professionals.
By Steve Hirt, Founder/President Optima Associates, Inc
In today’s highly competitive business environment, driving operational excellence and using it as a strategic advantage continues to gain traction. Top performing companies all over the world are aggressively pursuing improvements that lead to higher levels of customer service and innovation while improving productivity, cash flow and the latent capacity of the organization. To enable […]
By Matt Lemke
The 5S process is just about cleaning up and getting things neat and orderly, right? So, what’s so special about that? How can something so simple have a large effect on my business? Many of us have asked these same questions about 5S, so let’s talk about what makes 5S so special and how it […]
By Dave Lange, Optima Associates, Inc.
Current Condition Regardless of your current situation, whether your management team doubts the need for CI efforts or its credibility suffers due to ineffective CI efforts in the past, success still depends on continuous improvement and employee development and involvement as the primary means of responding to changes in customer expectations and other business challenges. […]
By Matt Lemke, Optima Associates, Inc.
If you are reading this, then you have likely taken many steps down the path of continuous improvement. Some of these steps may have been forward and some may not have been. This is part of the journey, but is there a way to reduce the numbers of steps “backwards”? Pascal Dennis in, Getting the […]
