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How to Improve (At Just About Anything)

3 May, 2015 by James Lawther 15 Comments

There are two ways to improve: 1. The classic way: Do – make an improvement Do – change a process Do – implement some training Do – install a system When you have been through the 4 do’s keep right on doing. 2. The recommended way: Plan – develop an idea or innovation, work out how […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: continuous improvement, plan do check act, video, W. Edwards Deming

Where is Your Pilot Plant?

22 March, 2015 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Pilot Plant Experiment

To improve you must learn Unfortunately, you only learn when you mess things up.  You only learn how to ride a bike by falling off one.  If you didn’t fall off, then you didn’t learn (I guess you already knew how to ride it). If you try something new and it works first time, fresh […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, innovation, no substitute for experience, service improvement, test and learn

Strengths and Weaknesses

12 February, 2015 by James Lawther 9 Comments

Harry was not a well man He was in a terrible state of health.  Cancer had eaten away at his digestive tract, it was so bad that surgeons had removed three-quarters of his stomach. He was constantly in and out of hospital, surviving on a diet of caffeine, nicotine and blood transfusions. A friend’s daughter […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: assumptions, continuous improvement, human nature, learning, management style, performance management, reinforcing behaviour, World War 2

The Sure Thing

28 September, 2014 by James Lawther 4 Comments

white elephant

Pain and despair Imagine you run a servicing centre. You have a staff of 100 who fill in forms to order things for customers. Maybe they process applications Maybe they fill in patient’s details Maybe they capture the details of car repairs You get the gist of it… Lots of people, lots of information and lots of screw […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: assumptions, capital investment, continuous improvement, devil is in the detail, information technology, listening, office productivity, root cause analysis, systems thinking

How to Win the F.A. Cup

30 May, 2014 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Football Manager

I don’t know much about football As a teenager I used to play in the school yard. When they picked teams I was always the last poor sod standing there. I was usually dismissed to the other team with a “Oh you have him“. I was fat I was slow I lacked talent (Keep your thoughts […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: accountability, blame, continuous improvement, management style, performance management, systems thinking, trust

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