Category: Continuous Improvement
-
Five Key Elements that Drive Manufacturing Flow
If you follow the Demand-Driven Matters blog, you know we specialize in Demand-Driven Manufacturing and have identified the two key components of this method as synchronization and flow. At an enterprise level, synchronization is all about fully connecting your organization to aggregate and share information in real-time. Data from machines, tools, applications, enterprise systems –
-
Smooth the rough spots with TOC, then Lean – and fine-tune with Six Sigma
What Grade of Sandpaper Will You Use? Part Four Here we are at the final installment of our four-part, Sandpaper blog series about when to use the tools of Lean Manufacturing, the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Six Sigma to address constraints, drive flow and promote continuous improvement. With regard to sandpaper, I talked a
-
Using TOC, Lean and Six Sigma to Become More Demand-Driven
What Tools to Use to Get the Most of Your Demand-Driven Changes Last time, we looked at specific companies that I have worked with and how they became more demand-driven using the Theory of Constraints (TOC) as a first step. As you saw from these real-life examples, TOC works well as a pointer to see
-
When Manufacturing Improvements Have Too High a Price
Engineering design fiascos – spending thousands to save pennies This is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. It’s meant to illustrate how using constraints-based thinking can uncover the hidden price of cost-cutting projects. Several years ago, a friend of
-
How TOC Can Move Your World – and World View
Archimedes once said, “Give me a lever long enough, a fulcrum, and a place to stand, and I shall move the world.” Learn how production professionals use Constraints Management to meet negativity head – on to manage meaningful change Here’s the last part of our three-part series about the Theory of Constraints (TOC). In
-
Using Big Data to Tell Your Story
Three ways narrative can connect the dots between big data and your brand In a recent Forbes article, the writer describes Big Data as “a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for ongoing discovery and analysis.” I love this definition because it describes a