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The Rules of the Workplace

27 September, 2015 by James Lawther 3 Comments

The 20 rules: Prioritise the work Don’t make your customers wait There is always more work than people Study the work Understand how the work works Standardise the work If the work is important write it down Train your staff Make the work easy Build systems Stream line the work Find the bottleneck Clean the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Tools & Techniques, Wild Cards Tagged With: bottleneck, communication, customer focus, effective meetings, error proofing, five s, gemba, lean thinking, learning, process mapping, service improvement, SlideShare, standardisation, systems thinking, visual management

Rule 7: If the Work is Important Write it Down

3 July, 2015 by James Lawther 6 Comments

I have a file on my laptop It is a rather sad file, it is called “Sunday Night”. I travel for work and on Sunday nights I pack a bag for Monday morning.  The file reads a little like this… Sunday Night: Taxi, Train Times, Water Bottle, Hat, Scarf, Gloves, Coat Monday: Shirt, Jacket, Trousers, Belt, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: best practice, gemba, process mapping, standardisation, video, work instructions

A Splendid Waste of Time

14 September, 2014 by James Lawther 7 Comments

HMS Ocean

Is management by wandering around a good thing? I was talking to a friend of mine today.  He used to work for the Royal Navy. He navigated ships in his 20’s. Apparently getting H.M.S. Ocean around the Isle of White and into the Solent without sinking some fool in a yacht is no mean feat.  Particularly […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: business process management, management by wandering around, management style, process mapping, work instructions

The Dreadful Secret About Process Maps

8 June, 2014 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Process Mapping

Boxes and Arrows It is one of the greatest quality management tools… And you all know how to do it.  You all know how to draw up a process map or create a flow chart.  It’s easy, you write the activity in the box and then link it to the next box with an arrow.  Simple. And […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: business process management, culture, process mapping, systems thinking

Good, Better, Best Practice

19 January, 2013 by Bill Flury 4 Comments

Continuous Improvement

This is a guest post by Bill Flury A good idea We were discussing how we could get started with the business of process improvement.  Somebody said: “Hey! I’ve got a great idea! The Quality folks are always telling us that we should lookout for better ways to do things. Let’s hold a series of […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: best practice, business process management, continuous improvement, process mapping

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