Quality, Value, & Grade – An Exploration
Is Higher Quality Always Better? You don’t have to be in the business world to feel that, intuitively, that better quality, is, well better. Phrases like “quality over quantity” and “you get what you pay for” drive this point home for just about everyone from a young age, but have we ever stopped to think…
Tony Ferraro | September 19, 2014 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Facility Efficiency, Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing | 4 min read
Increasing Warehouse Productivity
Reviewing the Best Practices for Increasing Warehouse Productivity Warehouse productivity lie at the heart of Lean and Six Sigma’s origins, but even today “best practices” are often not followed. At least, that’s the sentiment of Michael W., a poster from within Supply Chain Today, a group within LinkedIn. Michael posted an article on some ways to…
Tony Ferraro | September 5, 2014 | Lean | Warehouse Productivity | 5 min read
Lean In Non-Profits
Lean Six Sigma for Non Profits We always like to hear about people applying business methodologies and mechanics in arguably unorthodox ways or markets, and today I stumbled across a LinkedIn discussion that happens to exemplify exactly that sentiment. User William Falquero seemed to be onto something interesting as he posed a question for other…
Tony Ferraro | September 2, 2014 | Lean | Lean | 5 min read
Why Does Six Sigma Projects Often Fall Short of Expectations
Six Sigma Blues One all-too-common problem in the Lean Six Sigma arena stems from the fact that it’s hard to be a believer in a system when it simply doesn’t work for you. When it comes to Lean, the reasons for a project not coming to a successful completion or meeting expectations are numerous, but…
Tony Ferraro | August 29, 2014 | Lean | Six Sigma | 5 min read
DMAIC Cycle
Improving Facility Processes through DMAIC Cycle If you’re looking for ways to improve virtually any process in your facility, you will want to make sure you are making informed changes that are focused on getting the results you desire. One of the best ways to determine what type of changes to which processes should be…
Tony Ferraro | August 21, 2014 | Lean | DMAIC Cycle | 5 min read
LinkedIn Discussion – The Most Important Lean and Six Sigma Tools
LinkedIn Discussion Unravels Important Lean and Six Sigma Tools Lean and Six Sigma methodology both work together toward the common goal of getting your business into its best shape possible. When conducting Lean operations, you’re looking at ways to reduce waste and variability and, ultimately, to make a work floor or overall business more productive…
Tony Ferraro | August 18, 2014 | Lean | Lean, Six Sigma | 5 min read
10 Best Practices for Inventory Control
Improve the Efficiency of Your Facility with Inventory Control Whenever attempting to improve the efficiency of your facility, one of the best places to start is your inventory control. If this area is not operating properly, it will slow down every other aspect of your facility. For this reason, you should go over the industry…
Tony Ferraro | August 5, 2014 | Lean | Barcoding, Facility Efficiency, Inventory Control, Labeling, Rack Labeling | 5 min read
What We Can Learn From Lean Project Tracking Software
Tips & Tricks for Efficiently Tracking Lean Projects Recently, we wrote about a couple of problems facing many Lean practitioners. These were problems that hindered their learning process and often caused overconfidence. Amongst the advice to help combat these problems arose the need for detailed tracking and note taking with regards to practice and progress.…
Tony Ferraro | July 30, 2014 | Lean | Kanban, Six Sigma | 4 min read
Why You’re Still A Lean Student – Using Lean Practice Routines to Avoid Common Growth Stunting
Linked Discussion Takes Aim at Common Issues with Lean Lean is, without a doubt, a stellar set of strategies and techniques for managing and, more importantly, improving the productions and efficiency of any given workplace. With a number of tools at one’s disposal, a Lean practitioner can, in theory, quickly transform a struggling operation into…
Tony Ferraro | July 29, 2014 | Lean | Lean | 5 min read
Lean Six Sigma Project Closure – A Guide To Seeing Efficiency Improvement Through to the End
Completing Six Sigma Projects Lean six sigma strategies and principles have dominated the industrial workplace for roughly half a century, and for good reason. To put it simply: Lean works, and Lean “blackbelts” or experts improve the flow and efficiency of (primarily but not exclusively) production-based businesses using tools that are time-proven in their effectiveness.…
Tony Ferraro | July 24, 2014 | Lean, Safety Solutions | Lean, Six Sigma | 5 min read
5 Tips for Reducing Downtime
How to Reduce Downtime in Your Facility When managing any facility, one of the biggest problems you need to overcome is downtime. Whether it is a full work stoppage where nothing is getting done, or just one machine that isn’t working properly, downtime can cause a wide range of different problems throughout the facility. Of…
Tony Ferraro | July 2, 2014 | Lean | 5S, Facility Efficiency, Lean Manufacturing, Reducing Downtime | 6 min read
Top 6 Losses in OEE
OEE and Understanding the Most Common Areas of Loss Tracking your facility’s productivity is an important way to keep up to date on how efficient your business is operating, and how to make improvements. The OEE standard helps manufacturing companies keep track of how things are going, and identify where they are experiencing excessive downtime…
Tony Ferraro | June 30, 2014 | Lean | 5S, Facility Efficiency, Lockout Tagout, OEE | 8 min read
What is Lean Management?
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…
Tony Ferraro | June 20, 2014 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Facility Efficiency | 4 min read
Lean Six Sigma – The 3 Most Important Tools for Beginners
A Discussion About Methods and Tools That Are The Most Useful In Lean Six Sigma Lean Six Sigma has absolutely revolutionized the way workplaces and production facilities alike are managed and laid out. Since the mid 20th century, transformations toward making businesses more efficient and less wasteful – measured in time, money, and more –…
Tony Ferraro | June 6, 2014 | Lean | Lean, Six Sigma | 4 min read
Improving Changeover Times – How To Get It Right and Save Precious Time
Lean Six Sigma LinkedIn Group Discusses Changeover Times Five to six decades ago, Toyota quickly realized they had a problem on their hands: Their car body molding process was being bottlenecked. Somewhere along the way, one stage of production was running slower than the others, and couldn’t keep up. Not only did this mean a…
Tony Ferraro | May 30, 2014 | Lean | Changeover | 4 min read
