Article Acknowledgement: This article was published on the CQI website. It was adapted for CQI’s Knowledge Hub from Lean Six Sigma for Leaders, by Martin Brenig-Jones and Jo Dowdall, Wiley Publishing 2018. “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing”. These words were spoken by the quality…
Earlier this summer it was announced that sales of ice cream and frozen treats were up by over 100% on 2017’s figures. Boozy ice lollies were among the fastest growing product areas, with an increase in sales of 188% reported by Waitrose. Mmmm, G&T for me please! But while a proliferation of flavours and combinations…
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…
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…
Continuous improvement (CI) is not about tools, techniques and projects applied as a formula, it’s about principles and behaviours. The tools and methods of CI themselves, whilst important, too often become the goal itself, rather than the means, leading to a disconnection from the original (higher) purpose and hence fragmentation and disillusionment. Consequently CI,…
As the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics have demonstrated, unlocking our own potential, and that of others, must rank as one of the most powerful and inspiring human experiences. This takes on even greater significance when the achievements exceed, even ‘smash through’, our often unconscious expectations or assumptions. Lean Six Sigma tools like Assumption Busting…
Managing Director Martin Brenig-Jones examines Lean Six Sigma and its application to Human Resources to future proof your business. Martin’s article was published in the August 2016 issue of theHRDirector. Read Martin’s article on theHRDirector website here, and a PDF version of the August issue can be found here. Future proofing your business is one of…
Team GB’s outstanding performance certainly helps dispel the myth that the UK can’t flourish after Brexit. So what can businesses do to keep winning gold medals? A good start would be to recognise that much of what the athletes are putting into practice are the Continuous Improvement thinking and techniques of Lean Six Sigma.…
Right now we have the iPhone 6s, there are strong rumors that the iPhone 7 will be launched in early September. But what about iPhone 8, 9 or even 10? You can be sure they are working on these, behind the scenes. This is a form of Multi Generational Planning (MGP) a technique that…
Here at Catalyst we love Christmas, from the first door on the advent calendar to the last mince pie, we like to feel that its fleeting nature is one of the things which helps to make it special. Mentioning Christmas and Santa brings us to the key point of this seasonal blog, and it’s all…