I’ve spoken extensively about the unheralded — but, arguably, the most important — Pillar of The Toyota Production System: Respect for People. Today, I want to highlight an interesting company that appears to have done an amazing job at Participative Management and in eliminating fear and mediocrity in the workplace: Semco Group.

I was first made aware of Semco Group after watching this amazing video on the MIT website. I sought to learn more about Semco and found some pretty amazing case studies such as the following:

• Harvard Business Review: Managing without Managers

Keep Reading [2396 words, 1 image & 9:35 Average Reading Time]

Motorola (MOT), the inventor of Six Sigma, is in big trouble. Even though it invented Six Sigma, this is a clear example that shows how Lean or Six Sigma are not a cure-all for corporate woes, but that good leadership and a winning strategy are key in a competitive world — Lean or Six Sigma is necessary, but not sufficient.

The Art of Exclusion

Michael Porter (Porter’s Five Forces) argues — I believe correctly –, in his seminal work, What is Strategy, that Operational Excellence is necessary but not sufficient. What is needed — even still and always — is a winning strategy. In his article, he argues that the essence of strategy consist of two related propositions:

Keep Reading [763 words, 1 image & 3:03 Average Reading Time]

What happens after the customer clicks the “Place Order Button”?  For some customers, this is a large black hole.  But, wise companies understand that customers need to be informed and aware of the steps after the “Place Order Button” is clicked.  In fact, customers want to be involved in the end-to-end transaction.  In this article, we’ll discuss how we can better satisfy this critical customer need, thereby ensuring repeat-business, loyalty, and also good, old fashioned, customer happiness.

Keep Reading [831 words, 1 image & 3:19 Average Reading Time]

In some organizations, the Customer Service function is largely viewed as a cost center, draining resources of the firm.  I maintain that this viewpoint is one that less mature companies support.  In what follows, I’ll take a hypothetical iPhone defect case and show how customer service in this example plays a pivotal role in the overall iPhone supply chain — a key player in the overall product value chain.

Keep Reading [1639 words, 6 images & 6:33 Average Reading Time]

It’s critically important in any transaction to be able to answer the question “where’s my stuff” or “where are we in the process?” This requirement is often referred to as Traceability and Visibility; sometimes, people refer to this overall process as Click-to-Ship.

Almost all transactions have Traceability and Visibility as a requirement. From the customer’s perspective, they ought and need to know the status of the transaction. The company, then, needs to provide feedback and status to the customer whenever she needs it. Take, for example, the following transaction types:

Keep Reading [768 words, 1 image & 3:04 Average Reading Time]

On average, most business processes are inefficient  and create an unhealthy amount of waste: once you learn to see the process waste all around — with Lean Thinking as your worldview — you will notice overprocessing, transportation, overproduction, waiting, inventory, motion, and defects.  Aside from our processes producing waste, our processes also create burden on our people and also burden on the earth. 

A company that I once did some work for was very concerned about the burden it was placing on its people and on the earth.  In what follows, I will show that a firm can still be enterprising, care about people, and care about the earth. 

Keep Reading [887 words, 2 images & 3:33 Average Reading Time]

I took the kids to see a movie at a nearby dollar theater many weeks ago.  We saw Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and some parts of that movie has stayed with me.  I thought that the movie was actually very good: it was an overall very good feel-good movie, with a very good message.  One key take-away for me was the role of a good attitude and how that can make a big, big difference in life. 

Pyschology of Queueing - Psychology of Waiting Lines

Mr. Magorium puts a twist on the Psychology of Queueing.  Below are the the non-exhaustive, but general principles of the Psychology of Queueing:

Keep Reading [513 words, 1 image & 2:03 Average Reading Time]

One of my primary goals in life is to teach my kids to be eventually good, productive, and self-reliant adults.  One area of life-skills that my wife and I are focused on in teaching our children, is teaching them the principle of work: how to work, the value of work, to take ownership over their responsibilities, and to be proud of their accomplishments, and to learn to work as a team and family.  One way we are reinforcing the principle of work is through the use of effective Visual Management.

Visual Management has the following purposes:

Keep Reading [1038 words, 2 images & 4:09 Average Reading Time]