We were delighted to launch our new Lean Six Sigma book, “Lean Six Sigma for Leaders” at an evening event hosted at the British Quality Foundation (BQF) offices in London on Thursday 10th May. In true Catalyst style guests were invited to the Cocktail SIPOC – a practical and visual tool for describing the necessary inputs…
Are you coming to learn with us? Better make sure you get a good night’s sleep! According to neuroscientist Matthew Walker, sleeping is the best thing you can do before and after learning, in order to cement the memory and make learning stick. Sleeping before learning has the effect of clearing out the hippocampus…
Happy Easter everyone! Please egg-scuse the pun – but what a great opportunity to blog about Poka Yoke. Poka Yoke is a Japanese term for error proofing. This is key whether designing a new process or improving an existing one. Poka Yoke devices are often simple and inexpensive, sometimes we don’t even notice they are…
In his (awesome) book ‘Learning to See’, Mike Rother writes, “whenever there is a product for a customer, there is a value stream. The challenge lies in seeing it”. We couldn’t agree more, and are enthusiastic advocates of the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) approach. But maybe something in the language of it, or in the…
When creating and growing a business, leaders typically focus most on acquiring and organising the skills, tools and other key resources required to achieve objectives and deliver results. The priority is often the tangible and visible components of structures, facilities, technology, infrastructure, partners/suppliers, customers, products and services. The organisation’s most precious resource meanwhile, its people,…
Have you heard of, or are you taking part in RED January? RED stands for Run Every Day. Those signing up make a commitment to run (or move!) every day in the month of January to help raise awareness of the mental health charity Mind, and open up conversations about mental health. I can proudly…
The Kano Model was developed by Noriaki Kano in 1984 to outline different types of customer requirement. The model shows how the fulfilment of each type impacts on customer satisfaction, and demonstrates that more is not always better. That’s not to say a Scrooge-like approach should be adopted – just that there is a smarter…
The Project Champion (or Sponsor) plays a vital role in a Lean Six Sigma project. The individual – we always recommend that this role is undertaken by one person – is responsible for giving strategic direction to the project team, providing resources, helping overcome issues, reviewing progress and ensuring the team remains focussed. While the…
As a Continuous Improvement practitioner do you find that improving your existing products, processes and services is not always sufficient to meet your organisation’s goals? Do you have stakeholders who are looking for a step change in performance rather than a slow evolution. Essentially, what is required here is a radical re-think of how things…
We are delighted to introduce you to our series of short ‘Friday’ courses to deepen your continuous improvement skills. These short courses have been designed to refresh and top-up your Continous Improvement Skills. The short courses we are offering include: Practical 5S – learn how to make 5S really work Value Stream Mapping – unlock…