Process Improvement

What an SME can learn from a BBQ Competition

November 10, 2022

Occasionally you get an opportunity that you can’t say no to. This was the case for me recently when I was asked if I was interested in being a judge at a BBQ competition. This wasn’t any old local fry up, but a collection of the very best BBQ experts from Ne...

Don't Make Your Business Complicated

June 27, 2022

We humans are funny creatures. For some crazy reason we love to try and make things - processes, work, tasks harder than they really need to be. I am making this comment as I reflect on conversations and observations I have had with many different businesses recently. ...

What are the 8 Wastes of Lean?

August 18, 2021

It is mentioned in just about every blog post I write. It is the first thing a person will learn when discovering Lean, especially if they work with me. It is one of the key cornerstones of Lean thinking - so what the hell is ‘it’? Simply, ‘it’ are the 8 Wastes...

What is 'Going to the Gemba' ?

July 20, 2021

I have mentioned it a lot of times, but what the hell does it mean? What am I talking about? The ‘Gemba’. This is a term used widely in the Lean world and it is one of the cornerstones to a successful lean journey for a business. If it is that important...

The $170,000 Opportunity

November 4, 2020

According to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and employment there are 499,944 small businesses in New Zealand who employ 0-19 employees. This makes up a significant part of the economy in this country, employing over 1 million people. That is over a quarter of wor...

Primary Drivers of Productivity

October 5, 2020

So what's important for frontline staff when SME's are focused on improving their productivity? Well a bunch of researchers in the UK asked this very question and the results, well to me they weren't that surprising. Operational process change - 80% very important...

What Would I Do? - Episode Two

August 26, 2020

Another recent experience occurred recently where it prompted me to think once again, “what would I do?”. From a customer perception, this situation wasn’t a terrible howler like the first example in this series. This interaction could be one that as a cust...