This article originally appeared in The Fabricator and has been republished here with the author’s permission. I was extremely fortunate to start my manufacturing career as part of a plant startup team for Yamaha Motor Manufacturing. It was Yamaha Motor’s first U.S. …
Sue Nally on the Secret of Change
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” —Socrates Are you always working on something? Striving to improve yourself? Do you frequently experience waves of anxiety, whispering to …
Daniel Goleman, “Leadership That Gets Results”
This article was originally printed in the March 2000 issue of Harvard Business Review. Daniel Goleman is the author of Emotional Intelligence and is considered a foremost authority on the subject. Ask any group of businesspeople the question “What do effective leaders …
Ronda Abrams on Workplace Culture and Values
I recently came upon this excellent article by Ronda Abrams on the ways that workplace culture is defined and the real-world ways it matters to everyone in a workplace. Abrams writes: “When many people think of a company’s culture, they …
Show Me the Money!
Guest post by Sue Nally Simply put, executives have a responsibility to investigate the monetary impact of a continuous improvement project (CIP) on an organization. That means examining benefit-cost ratio, ROI%, payback period, and numerous other factors fully and accurately to …
Lean Tools: Rapid Improvement Processes
A Rapid Improvement Process—or Kaizen Blitz, as it is more commonly called—is a very intense five-day event that results in immediate change and bottom-line results. For greatest impact and cultural change, it is suggested to have multiple events. Some organization …