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Too Spicy

2 April, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

An Australian cook book, “The Pasta Bible” has a rather unique ingredient.  One recipe calls for “salt and freshly ground black people“. A small proof reading error cost £12,000 in pulped stock. If you regularly send customers letters you will know proof reading is hard, if not impossible. There are three ways to deal with […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: capability, cost saving, error proofing, rework

Max your Meal

25 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Many if not most business processes have two parts to them. First make a decision: – Should I hire this person? – Is this an acceptable payment? – Can I give this employee access to the system? Second carry out the actions: – Send an offer letter. – Reject the payment. – Provide a password. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, customer requirements, error proofing, fast food, good service

Need Another Drink

24 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

E&J Gallo, the Californian winery has been caught in a scam, a 7 million euro scam. A group of wine producers from the Languedoc region have passed off 18 million bottles of plonk as Pinot Noir.  This has been bottled and sold  under Gallo’s “Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir Single Grape Wine” brand. The fraud came […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: accountability, error proofing, over-processing, process control, video

Illegal Immigration

24 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Virgin Media have sent a promotional pack offering cable TV to Aaron Needham in Nottingham. The letter from the Executive Director of Customer Care Mark Davidson (no less) was Addressed to: Illegal Immigrant, Cranwell Road, Strelley, Nottingham And started “Dear Mr Immigrant”, Apparently the marketing data that Virgin bought was corrupted, though Virgin (who have […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: poor service, waste

The Rear End of a Horse

23 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

There is an urban myth that the design of the rockets that propel the shuttle into space is constrained by the size of a horses bum. The logic goes something like this: 1.  The rocket diameter was constrained by the width of the railway tunnels that the train that delivered the rocket passed through. 2.  […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: constraints, continuous improvement, innovation, reinforcing behaviour

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