Blog Archives - The Institute for Strategic Improvement

86,400

11/30/2016

86,400

Do you know what this number is?

It’s the number of seconds in a day - 86,400
When you think about it, it is a fair amount of time.

Do you feel like you’re getting the most out of each day?

Is there sometimes, often, always, not enough day?
Do you feel like you could get more done if things were not so chaotic?
It’s time to grab life by the horns. Make time work for you through organization, efficiency, and equal down time.

Throughout December we will be blogging on personal and business improvement.
If you would like a quick sheet developed for your improvement, efficiency, or productivity topic send us your topic at this link and we’ll send you back a 1 page sheet of tips and ideas for your area of improvement. Free of charge.
https://www.instituteforstrategicimprovement.com/contact-us.html

And as always we respect your email and privacy. No unwanted emails from us – ever.

Cyber Savings for you

11/25/2016

Cyber Savings for you

This weekend you have the opportunity of a lifetime with discounts on quality management training.

Start the New Year out right with a new Certification or Training on Quality Management Systems or Developing A3’s.

Saturday, November 26, 2016 is Small Business Saturday® – is a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities.
Please join the SBA and organizations across the country in supporting your local small business by shopping at a small business. https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-initiatives/small-business-saturday

Through Cyber Monday we will offer

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification normally $297 for only $146.50
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification normally $189 for only $94.50
Quality Management Systems normally $39.00 for only $19.50
A3 Management Training normally $29.00 for only $14.50

Thank you for all of your support- The Institute for strategic Improvement

Thanksgiving Wishes

11/22/2016

Thanksgiving Wishes
Wishing all of our customers a safe and happy Thanksgiving Day. Reminding everyone to be grateful for the good things in your life. Thank you for all you do to support us. The Institute for Strategic Improvement

1 Page Quick Sheets

11/19/2016

Goals, Strategies, and Tactics 2017

11/19/2016

Goals, Strategies, and Tactics 2017

It’s that time of year where we all tend to recount the events of last year and think through our plans for next year. We all hope that the upcoming year will be even better than the last.

We sometimes times here of a quote from Albert Einstein saying that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” and Henry Ford says If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got”. Both of these phrases are somewhat telling of the end result if you don’t make positive improvements for the New Year.

Goals are the desired result that you envision to achieve within a set timeframe.
Strategies are your plan of action to achieve your goal
Tactics are the actions enforced under your strategy

What do you plan to do differently this year? What type of change will you embrace? Do you have a plan yet?

These are some helpful tips:
Write down your goals and become committed to them
Develop some solutions and ideas for things you want to change. This is important, right down the things you want to change, and list possible solutions.
Develop your plan for continual motivation
Take consistent action
Review and modify your goals at least monthly and reward yourself in some form for meeting your goals.

Here’s to hoping for the most quality year yet! Thank you for improving.

KAIZEN and waste reduction

11/14/2016

KAIZEN and Waste reduction

It is important to evaluate the waste in your company’s value stream.

The value stream is the specific activities required to provide your product or service. Activities that may help with this are kaizen and 5S activities, and also a waste walk.

It is these consistent continual activities that allow for the minimization elimination of waste in your systems.

Lean, Six Sigma, and Kaizen are all improvement methodologies which can help you eliminate waste. They vary in application but all help with providing the framework for improvement of processes.

Lean and Six Sigma are longer duration endeavors. Kaizen is more a continuous improvement mindset as opposed to a specific tool. Kaizen uses personal creativity and ingenuity to identify problems and then develop and implement ideas to solve the problems. The best method is whichever method you find is appropriate for your improvement

There are instances where Lean principles are most appropriate, others where Six Sigma is the best fit, and still more where Kaizen is the best application.

Kaizen most often used in the business environment because it is an intensive burst of business process improvement.

A Kaizen event usually lasts anywhere from ½ a day to 5 days in duration.
All stakeholders with a vested interest in the improvement attend the Kaizen event.
It must have clearly defined objectives such as:
Reduce costs by 20%
Reduce waste by 50%
Reduce cycle time of the process by 40%

As you perform your kaizen events you will evaluate process flow and utilization to identify waste and constraints by analyzing work in progress (WIP), work in queue (WIQ), touch time, takt time, cycle time, throughput, etc.

You will eliminate and standardize the work by developing or doing the following:

Value stream maps show the “value stream” of a process and allow project teams to visualize a processes. Value stream mapping is used to identify major sources of non-value added time in a value stream.

Flowcharts show the steps in a process from start to finish.

Procedures are documents (instructions) that specify how a process is to be carried out. They may also indicate standard operating procedures.

Work instructions specify the steps that need to occur for tasks in a process.

Spaghetti diagrams identify potential improvements to a physical layout to remove unnecessary movement or bottlenecks. Spaghetti diagrams are primarily used for lean manufacturing in production facilities.

A flow Diagram using the Critical Path Method (CPM) and Value Stream Mapping can identify “lean” areas where waste occurs and efficiency can be gained. CPM visually models the activities and events of a project as a network. Activities are nodes or stops on a network and events that signify the beginning or ending of activities. CPM provides the following benefits:
              Shows the time required to complete the project
              Specifies the individual activities
            Shows a graphical view of the project
              Determine the sequence of the activities
              Illustrates the precedence and interrelations of each activity
              Identify the critical path

Waste and Wastes always cost your company money and time.

Veterans Day

11/11/2016

Happy Veterans Day to all of the brave men and women who have served in the armed forces.

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard we are all strong because of you.

We thank you for your service.

And to those who have lost family members in the line of duty their sacrifice does not go unnoticed.

From all of us to you , Happy Veterans Day

Vote Today !

11/8/2016

Don't forget to vote today!

Push Versus Pull

11/6/2016

Push versus Pull in lean and your life

Lean supply activities and just-in-time processes are based on supply-chain management and the activities surrounding building customer requirements.

The main goal of supply chain management is to reduce overhead operational cost, reduce lead time, improve quality, improve reliability, improve relationships between suppliers and customers, and reduced inventory cost.
There are two separate supply-chain management cycles which include push systems and pull systems.

Push systems are systems in which outputs are pushed from one station to the next as they are completed.
Pull systems are those are systems where one workstation pulls the output from the preceding station as it is needed.

Pull systems replace items as they are withdrawn used to avoid push. This involves flowing product in small batches, pacing the processes to stop overproduction, signaling replenishment via signals and leveling the product mix and quantity over time.

These are the differences in just-in-time push and pull systems by characteristic:

There are also forms of push and pull in your life but they are somewhat different than the lean terminology.

Push and pull in your life activities are those things that keep you motivated. "Push" are the things that you keep pushing because they have to be done and require will power. Will power never lasts, in the long term you have to have "pull". Pull are those things that attract you and make you want to get going and achieve...these are the things that get you up early and keep you up late because they drive you to success, challenge you, and motivate you to be the best .

What's your pull? Let us know in our survey

https://www.instituteforstrategicimprovement.com/current-survey.html