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Introduction to Operational Excellence For most of us, Lean is a common concept by now. By extension, we're also familiar with the idea of continuous improvement; the way we run our business should ultimately be reflective of a chain of efforts to change for the better and reach more perfect efficiency. That's all well and good, but we've seen more and more businesses shying away from simply relying on "continuous improvement" in recent years and instead throwing around the term "operational excellence." While the two terms do ultimately work in tandem, and even though there's some overlap, it's important to understand where the two differ. A good way to think about operational excellence is as the answer or endgame to your continuous improvement actions, it's a state you want to attain through your workplace improvement endeavors. Unlike continuous improvement, however, where you're simply trying to 'always get better', operational excellence has a more clearly defined point where it can be said you've reached your goals. One of the biggest criteria for operational excellence is a horizontal and vertical (so throughout all levels and teams of a company) understanding of how workflow should look and how to correct problems when something isn't flowing correctly. This creates operational excellence because employees are now able to solve their own problems without relying on specialists or management, drastically decreasing downtime and putting them into a preventative rather than a reactive mode when solving problems. Furthermore, operational excellence then frees up your management and executives to focus on advertising and brand/market expansion planning and projects. In short, operational excellence allows a company to achieve continual improvement while still having the resources to put an emphasis on bottom line and market share growth. Operational Excellence Question Posed Sounds pretty awesome, right?! We think so, but you

Your facility probably has many written safety procedures-hazard communication or emergency response, for example-but do you have a comprehensive health and safety management system (HSMS)? OSHA mandates many kinds of safety plans, but there is no federal mandate regarding a health and safety system that covers all other safety plans (though some states do require one). This system governs how safety works in your facility and gets everyone involved. If OSHA doesn't require an HSMS system in your state, then why bother implementing one? While a safety system does require a lot of work, the benefits are numerous. Not only will employee morale improve, the number and severity of injuries will be reduced and production may actually increase. Safety, it turns out, is good for business. OSHA also recognizes businesses that have used effective HSMS to achieve lower-than-average injury and illness rates through their Voluntary Protection Programs. Data suggests companies that have developed these kinds of safety systems have seen positive results. According to OSHA: "Companies in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program, VPP, all of whom have implemented comprehensive safety and health management systems, experience lost workday incidence rates that are 60% to 80% lower than their industry counterparts. They also experience reduced absenteeism and turnover, improved productivity, and lower Workers' Compensation costs. Safety and health management works and adds to the company's bottom line profits." Getting a health and safety system started at your workplace takes a lot of legwork, so let's take a look at how to begin and how to get everyone from management to employees on the work floor involved. Management Leadership Business-Meeting-1 For a health and safety system to be effective, it can't just be left entirely up to a safety manager. Management needs to set the tone for the program and demonstrate their commitment to it by providing necessary polic

Lean systems are meant for producing the best products and services with little or no wastage of various kinds of resources. Lean supply chain management purports to create a well designed supply chain management system where all the resources are effectively utilized. The people, processes, technologies and suppliers will be optimized at the beginning of the implementation and it will be an ongoing process. The best of the best features will be implemented and there will be no room for waste. Lean supply chain helps companies deliver high quality products quickly and efficiently. What is expected from lean supply chain management? In fact, lean supply chain management is a new way of thinking to understand the supplier networks. It is required to have cooperation with various suppliers and should be able to balance it with the competition present in the market. There is a great deviation between lean supply chain management and traditional methods. There will be less number of structures in lean model whereas they are more in traditional systems. Most of the lean supply chain management principles are derived from the basic lean principles. How companies will be benefited by the lean implementation? By implementing lean methods in a systematic way, companies will be benefited to the greatest possible extent. The winning business strategy realizes the importance of the relation between the supply chain management and the overall financial status of the company. By streamlining the supply chain management with all the other core aspects of the company, the business will emerge into a profitable enterprise and will be able to deliver cutting edge solutions. Strategy for lean supply chain management In order to implement the lean supply chain management in an effective manner, it is required to build the core infrastructure and should be collaborated internally and should be executed externally as well. The next step would be the selection of the right kind of

According to the Insurance Information Institute, 40% of businesses affected by a natural or human-caused disaster never reopen. When disaster strikes, consumers can only wait so long before moving on to another supplier or service provider if you are not able to get operational in time. Insurance might help to recover some of your loses, but it will do little to replace your customers. More importantly, the safety and well-being of your employees as they cope with disaster is a hefty task in itself to take on. In light of recent events, many organizations are left wondering, are they ready and prepared when disaster strikes? So just what does it mean to be ready? Investing in a preparedness program can make all the difference in the world when disaster strikes and promote an internal belief that your company is ready for disaster when it strikes. This policy should reflect the mission and values of your organization that can be implemented seamlessly throughout the company. Focal points of your preparedness program should detail specific goals including: The overall safety and protection of your employees, visitors, and any other persons that may be at your facility when a disaster occurs. Don't forget to account for persons with disabilities and special needs. Keeping customer service operations functional Protection of assets, both in the physical and electronic form Environmental protection and contamination prevention Companies image and reputation Having a team to help continue the improvement and implementation of your program is vital to its success when needed. Your team should meet regularly to continue the development and focus of the program. Each individual will have their own role and responsibilities when disaster strikes, a proper preparedness program will identify these, insuring an accountable team to help in the recovery process. How do you know what to plan for? It's impossible to predict what the next disaster will be, but accounting f

The cutting edge platforms for today will be the commoditized platforms of tomorrow. As the technology matures and evolves, the previous generation of technology becomes easier to build and deploy enabling a rush of vendors to capitalize on it by making it accessible to the largest possible customer base. This puts enterprises in the nontechnology sectors in an awkward position. Often not ready to consume the latest and greatest technology due to parts of their stack unable to leverage new technology and requiring upgrade to and deployment of the stepping stone technology, these enterprises have to choose between vendor lock-in in a multi-year software and service contract or risk building and implementing a version of the older technology in-house. Business Drivers of Infrastructure-as-a-Service The biggest risk in building technology platforms in-house is the risk of commoditization. The argument played out with the debate over internal vs. public clouds. Initially, enterprises were hesitant to leverage public clouds with several of them opting to build internal, private clouds. Building a cloud is hard. Operating and maintaining a cloud is even harder. Ensuring that the cloud is running on and leveraging the best in class technology requires dedication to the cause. This is often missing in non-technology enterprises by design given they are driven by different and separate business drivers and considerations. A cloud service provider is motivated to ensure the best in class service and technology because that drives revenue for them. An enterprise whose main business is not offering cloud or software services will not be motivated by the same drivers and thus there will be an inherent difference in their approach and success with building and delivering an internal cloud. Business Drivers for Platform-as-a-Service The same argument (public vs private clouds) applies to platforms. Building the best in class platforms that offer the ability to develop cuttin

Lean Management - A Guide To Starting Out Right Much like anything over-used and spread before those singing praises have done a lot of research, Lean is a concept that sometimes, despite the best of intentions, misses its mark. Lean principles aren't particularly tricky, but with many offshoots and brands of the ideology, it can be easy for new Lean managers to get caught up in misinformation. At its core, lean is about eliminating all kinds of waste from your business. It sounds simple enough, but one of the biggest problems for many newbies is changing your concept of just what "waste" is. Once you've got a grasp on that, you need to move onto individual strategies that can help you eliminate that waste. In this article, we're going to go over how to accomplish both of these tasks as a manager who may be new to Lean by exploring unique facets of this management type and how they interact with elements of your business. One of the largest differences between Lean management and traditional styles of management is that in a traditional methodology your primary (and nearly sole) concern is the end of the line result. While Lean is of course concerned with achieving superior end results, its focus is on the processes that get you there. In this sense, what you learn and practice as a Lean manager is more about making individual pieces work together efficiently than having a tunnel-vision focus on numbers and figures at the end of the cycle. The Relationship Between Lean management, Waste Elimination, and Continual Improvement "If someone tells you that "lean management is this" and not something else, if someone puts it in a box and ties a bow around it and presents it in a neat package with four walls around it, then that someone knows not of what they speak. Why? Because it is in motion and not a framed picture hanging on the wall. It is a melody, a rhythm, and not a single note." - Lawrence M. Miller, Management Meditations While perhap

OSHA Steps Up Chemical Safety HAZMAT Team Members Discusses Chemical Disaster Unfortunately, thousands of U.S. workers continue to get sick or die from occupational exposures to the many chemicals used in the work place each and every year. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched two new web resources that are directly aimed at reducing these figures by assisting companies with keeping their employees safe. Chemical Safety Gets A Boost The new tools from OSHA are designed to help employers in every industry sector select safer, alternative chemicals to substances they currently use, as well as adopt more protective exposure limits. We know that the most efficient way to protect workers from hazardous chemicals is by eliminating or replacing those chemicals with safer alternatives whenever possible. Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health Administration Chemical safety Both tools were announced during a brief news conference on Oct. 24 by Dr. David Michaels. The first being a toolkit for employers to identify safer chemicals that can be used in place of more hazardous ones. This toolkit will walk employers step-by-step through information, methods, tools and guidance to either eliminate hazardous chemicals, or make informed substitution decisions in the workplace by finding a safer chemical, material, product or process according to OSHA's press release. The new toolkit for identifying safer chemicals can be found here. The other online tool OSHA announced is a resource; the Annotated Permissible Exposure Limits, or annotated PEL tables. This will enable employers to voluntarily adopt newer, more protective workplace exposure limits. The PELs set mandatory limits on the amount or concentration of a substance in the air to protect workers against the health effects of certain hazardous chemicals. Since 1971, when OSHA was first formed, many of their PELs ha

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Digital Transformation is tough, even for seasoned technologists. This is because it is a transformation of an organization at its core. Everything from culture, technology, ideation, development, integration, delivery, and support needs to fundamentally shift to be more customer-centric, service driven, automation first and experimental in nature. No wonder that a lot of organizations take a long time and a lot of investment to see ROI from their digital transformations. Here are 5 signs that your digital transformation might be in trouble. Culture mistrusts the core digital transformation team You are spawning new initiatives before completing previous ones Decisions are top down with low accountability at the leaf nodes You tend to focus on technology stacks with little focus on customer value Inter-organization politics stifles cross-organization scenarios Culture mistrusts the core digital transformation team It is almost impossible to make an entire organization aware and participate in digital transformation at the same time. There are exceptions but in our experience, starting out with a core digital transformation team is a much better strategy than otherwise. This team should be enabled to attack a limited set of important and business relevant problems, build cutting-edge solutions and use them as examples to train and evangelize digital transformation strategies to the rest of the organization. However, the more entrenched an organization in the old way of doing things, the harder they might this central team. Resistance can be active and passive such as refusal to share data or provide the relevant context of the problem. An organization that does not set up the early crusaders for success almost always has a much harder time showing value from their digital transformation activities. You are spawning new initiatives before completing previous ones Executing on a digital transformation strategy is much harder than defining the strategy especially fo

One of the most common misconceptions out there is the belief that technology equates innovation. Innovation is the creation of new value through a better solution for a problem that either does a better job in solving the problem or does so in a manner that the solution is accessible in a larger set of circumstances by a larger number of people. On the other hand, technology is simply the tooling that holds the promise of new solutions but by itself, is meaningless. Enterprises can become enamored by the promise and hype about technology and go down long, complex journeys, invest millions in upgrading technology and still come out empty on the other side because they built technology for technology's sake. Even in well intention boards and C-suite, industry peer pressure and hype around technologies can force action that ultimately leads to massive investments in people, software, technology, and vendors but does not yield the ROI promised by the technology. Leadership The problem can be accentuated when not enough due diligence is done on the applicability of the technology to the enterprise given the current state i.e. the point in time when the technology is being introduced, the customer's propensity to accept the technology-driven solution i.e. are the users ready to embrace, adopt, learn and utilize new solutions and burning problems that necessitate the adoption of new technology to better solve the problem. When the timing of new technology introduction is gotten wrong, it almost always fails to deliver on its promised ROI. Leaders need to rise above the hype and peer pressure and ensure that they understand, first and foremost, the burning problems that plague their customers or make the bedrock of their future strategy. Next, leaders need to ensure and validate that the technology in mind can actually be used to solve the problem through rapid prototyping and minimal investment. Once customer feedback on the prototype has been validated, then only

Lean has been helping companies streamline their production, eliminate waste, and generally improve the way things are done for many years. Initially, the concepts behind lean were primarily used only in companies and facilities that were directly involved with physical product creation, such as manufacturing plants, factory floors and things of this nature. However, over time the lean methodologies have been adapted and implemented in almost every other type of business, ranging from health care to information technology, and many more. When done properly, lean can help improve virtually any work environment to help eliminate waste, improve communication, and to help ensure that the products or services being developed are indeed something customers will be interested in. For instance, when working in an information technology environment, it is important to be able to understand how lean strategies can be implemented, and why they are so important. The following are some of the most significant reasons why lean IT strategies should be taken seriously by any company that uses technology in their business (which is almost all of them!). Lean Promotes Ownership One of the things about lean strategies in an IT environment is that virtually every task completed is owned by an individual. Even if a person does not do all the work for a particular project, he or she will be directly responsible for overseeing it. This creates a sense of ownership, which can help in a variety of ways. It will give other teams a single point of contact for obtaining updates, providing feedback, or requesting changes. This will also allow the owner of a specific project to drive the progress directly, rather than having to rely on large committees or other types of groups to receive pertinent information. It is important to note that just because one person owns a process or project does not mean that he or she can simply dictate things to other groups. Instead, that person is there to

The Adventure of Reducing Risks and Hazards in the Workplace Whenever starting a new job, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what you should be doing, and how it needs to be done. When I started working at a new facility as a safety manager, I began my first day with a meeting with the facility manager. The meeting was set up so he could tell me what was expected of me in my new role, and provide other details of the job. I was quite surprised when the meeting took less than two minutes, and the only objective I was given was to 'reduce risks and hazards in the workplace.' I asked for some clarification or guidance in what exactly he was looking for, but he simply said that I was hired to improve safety, and he was leaving the task of finding out how to do it in my hands. He gave me a sheet of paper with some information about what resources I had available, including my annual safety budget and told me to get to work right away. I should point out there that I had several years experience as a safety manager at a large company, which is why I was brought in to this new facility. The facility had recently been cited by OSHA for a variety of safety hazards, and there were even some fairly severe injuries that occurred in the previous months. The facility owners made it clear that safety was a priority for them, and they were willing to do whatever it took to pass inspections, and keep the employees safe. Planning My Safety Program While that initial meeting was unique, to say the least, I was also quite excited about the opportunity. It is quite rare that a safety manager is given such flexibility, and I wanted to make sure the manager wouldn't regret that decision. I got to work right away planning my safety improvement program. OSHA Safety Sign Guide I wanted to make some quick changes to help improve safety in the short term, and then also plan out ways to create a culture change within the facility so everyone would be more safety focused. I kne

By Michelle Graham on February 9, 2017 Approaching an Infertility problem needs to be met in a series of steps. If we look to nature to discover why infertility prevails in populations we find an increase in infertility when there is a famine of sufficient nutrients for that population. The birth rate goes down dramatically in response to the lack of sufficient nutrient resources in the environment. This is a natural response to preserve the strength of each species. Lack of essential nutrients ultimately contributes to birth defects, so Nature protects the species by preventing reproduction until the nutrient deficiency has been addressed.

One of the top reasons for digital innovation and transformation failures can be summarized as the enterprise trying to reinvent the wheel. This is the tendency of the enterprise to attempt to create technology, platforms, and applications that have already been implemented, scaled, optimized and almost perfected. This tendency almost always ends up a failed one as it does not create any net new value for the enterprise but comes with a massive opportunity cost as the enterprise spends crucial resources on reinventing the wheel than innovating for the customer. How The Wheel Is Reinvented Nontechnology enterprises can get trapped in a reinvent state where they conclude that homegrown technology is the only path towards customer and business value. This in itself is not entirely false however the type of enterprise and their decision-making process along with the capabilities they have in house have a very large impact on the success of the strategy.eRaaadada Reinventing the wheel happens when a non-tech enterprise discovers a technology trend towards much later in the hype cycle almost towards the end when the technology is hitting the mass market and decides to recreate or reinvent its own version of the technology. This is often done with the assumption that with some investment, the enterprise can have a home grown version of technology or platform that is designed specifically for its needs and is thus a better fit. However, enterprises assume that the state of the technology will remain constant and while they are attempting to home grow a version that can match the current state of the art. In reality, the state of the art shifts and the enterprise is not able to bridge the gap. Who Reinvents The Wheel Typically, technology teams often decide to go down the path of reinvention when they are allowed to make technology upgrade or technology creation decisions without business KPIs and cost constraints i.e. clear success criteria with fixed cost and clear ti

Almost every workplace is prone to hazards. Be it from falling objects, falls, skids or opens electric wires, there are dangers everywhere. According to statistics there are immense injuries and even deaths resulting from work related hazards. Organizations often lose a lot in terms of compensation and lost human resource opportunities. There is no telling when an accident can occur but the good news is that most of these hazards can be minimized through the use of line marking tapes and floor tapes. Safety in the construction site Construction sites top the list of the most hazard prone areas. With so much going on safety standards might fail to be strictly adhered to and this can expose the workers and passersby to great risks. It is hence crucial that they maybe adequately informed of the areas to avoid. Line marking tapes can be used to forewarn any passersby to exercise caution when approaching a certain site. Floor tapes can be used to indicate the safest pathways to use so as to avoid falling objects or other dangers characteristic of a construction site. If it is a renovation project being carried out in the office temporary line marking tapes can be utilized to warn the occupants of the potential hazards. They can also be used to redirect people towards am alternative entrance or exit. Warning people of danger zones Various colors of line marking tapes portray different messages. In the workplace, there is a need to warn people of the existing dangers. In the industrial organizations where there is possible exposure to hazardous materials if it important to erect permanent measures to ensure that all those concerned are adequately aware of the danger lurking within. Relevant floor tapes can be used to reflect danger. A tank that contains oil products should be conspicuously marked to warn any persons within the organization to avoid bringing flammable objects near the site. Warning tapes should also be applied in areas close to the chemical labs and pi

Improving and Implementing Safety Lean Manufacturing Safety Lean ManufacturingWhen people look at facility improvement opportunities they often look at process improvement methodologies, such as Lean Manufacturing. Another thing that is commonly reviewed is facility safety improvements. In many cases, however, they don't see that using lean manufacturing techniques can often also provide safety improvements. Thinking about safety lean manufacturing will allow you to make improvements throughout your facility in a way that will not only reduce waste and increase profitability, but also help improve safety at the same time. The following are five examples of how lean can directly improve safety within your facility. According to DesignSafe's document on, Integrating Safety and Lean Manufacturing Safety must not be viewed as a separate activity that is a non value-added effort with objectives contrary to lean concepts. Elimination of waste can also be interpreted as the elimination or minimization of risk that adversely affects wasted human resources and lost time from injuries. Lean imperatives of faster, better, and cheaper must encompass the issue of running safer as well. Safety Lean Manufacturing - Top 5 ways to Combine Them 1. Eliminate Overproduction to Reduce Unnecessary Interaction with Machines Safety Lean Manufacturing OverproductionOne important focus for lean manufacturing is the elimination of over production. While this is mainly done to help eliminate waste, it will also make for a safer facility because people won't be working on the machines as much. Any interaction with the machine is an opportunity for an accident, so this is a good move for safety too. Look also at the fact that when people are spending more hours working at a machine, they are likely to be more fatigued, which increases the risk for accidents and injuries. 2. Listening to Employees Improvement Ideas One of the trademarks of a good lean manufacturing program is t

In the business world, there is a constant need and desire for improvement. It doesn't matter whether a business specializes in the market of rare auto parts or in making the best enchiladas. The plain and simple truth is that improving business practices to meet the ever-changing and diverse needs of society is essential to the success of any business endeavor. However, with all this change and improvement often comes a little struggle. Sometimes business processes are changed so radically that employees struggle with the changes if they are not adequately informed about what changes are taking place or how the changes actually benefit the specific process or end product. Furthermore, in some cases the problem is not with the employees at all, but instead embedded within the actual process changes. When looking into making improvement changes, it is important to really take the time to evaluate the changes fully to make sure that they are win-win for both the employees and the desired business objectives. Employee Involvement In the improvement process, there are often many things to consider especially such as metrics, data, resources, etc. However, it is important to make sure that employees are also considered within the grand scheme of things. There are times when businesses make essential changes that are needed to stay current with the changing times, but often neglect to involve the actual employees in the process of determining changes, or in the reasoning why specific changes were made. This can leave employees feeling a bit resentful and also leave processes lacking in certain important fundamentals. For instance, the top managers in a business make the decision to improve a production line within the factory because many of the machines were getting older and not handling the work as effectively as needed. In order to update the production line to new standards, new machines were installed and tweaks were made to previous processes in order to help

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Are you looking around for a guide to make a mobile game application? If yes, then you're at the right place. Nevertheless, it's not wrong to say that a sleek mobile application requires a lot of effort and human resources. Developing an application requires months of hard work, whereas developing a website is a short-term project.

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