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Productivity for Productivity’s Sake

15 May, 2016 by James Lawther 7 Comments

stock waste

The obsession We love to make things more productive. We strive to be cheaper, more efficient, higher yielding.  It is the holy grail, taking up most of our working hours. More for less in itself isn’t a bad goal, but who decides if we are being productive? Myopic measurement Imagine you flip burgers for a living and you […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: lean thinking, McDonald's, measurement, office productivity, over-production, stock, systems thinking

Do You Need Lean Thinking?

10 July, 2012 by James Lawther 5 Comments

waste paper

The term “Lean Thinking” first came into use in 1996 when James Womack and Daniel Jones published their book of the same name.  The book distilled their thoughts after studying the Toyota manufacturing business.  A lean, waste free organisation. Since then, those first lean ideas have come on a long way.  They are no longer […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: defects, lean thinking, over-processing, over-production, stock, transportation waste, waiting, waste, wasted intellect, wasted motion

Jumping to Conclusions

12 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Scanner

Today there was a news article about the Student Loans Company.  If you remember there was a scandal last year when they failed to get students their loans before the start of the academic year. The National Audit Office has stated that they believe there is a “substantial” risk of delays again this year. The […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: information technology, rework, root cause analysis, stock, tampering, waiting

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