By Christian Wolcott
What is your standard as a Manager or a Leader? Some insight; in vibrant, progressive organizations that strive to integrate continuous improvement with running the business, you need to be both an effective manager and leader fundamentally becoming a Lean Leader. The challenge is creating a standard that comprises both sets of skills and approaches. […]
By Steven Hirt
Thinking about how the Lean Business System and its principles can influence your business is paramount and a key component of establishing your True North. Lean, although filled with tools, is by its very nature a people system. At its very foundation is respect for people. This does not mean just “being nice”, it means […]
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 and that is good, especially when kaizen is practiced on a daily basis. But sometimes the scale of problems and the complexity of solutions become unwieldly to manage. Let’s have a […]
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? The employees. Which employees? The hardworking folks that directly handle and build the products and provide the services your customers receive. They are the people […]
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 my years of helping organizations envision, develop and execute strategy, I considered how difficult it is to make these simple words reality. I don’t think […]
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 furniture with music cooler than traveling really is playing in the lobby. After checking in I walked the long moody, hallways with helter skelter carpet […]
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 application, but they are trying to create as much value for a large range of customers as possible. Not only do these “extras” create additional […]
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 always reflect that. Meetings are scheduled at various intervals, weekly, monthly, to review and address the variation experienced within the processes but, could you do […]
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 is scheduled at Grande Cheese in Fond du Lac on April 9, 2018, with the discussion topic being, safety observations. For more information contact Laurie.Stoveken@Optimanow.com
