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SKL: Lean in de praktijk bij Weir Minerals

by BILL WADDELL

For lots of reasons Henry Ford has been written off as a not-too-bright, mean-spirited guy whose only claim to greatness is the assembly line, and even that is quite often trashed as demeaning to workers and the heart of an out-dated 'mass production' concept. Make no mistake, Ford gave his critics plenty of ammunition, but the simple fact remains: Taichi Ohno, one of the core architects of the Toyota Production System, wrote:

"We see that automation and the work-flow system invented and developed by Ford and his collaborators was never intended to cause workers to work harder and harder, to feel driven by their machines and alienated from their work ... Ford's successors, however, did not make production flow as Ford intended."

And he wrote: "I, for one, am in awe of Ford's greatness. I think that if the American king of cars were still alive, he would be headed in the same direction as Toyota."

Ninety eight years ago today, on January 5, 1914, Ford announced the $5 day. Four days prior to that, on New Years Day, Ford met with his key reports and they played with numbers. Wages in the plant ranged from 26 to 54 cents per hour, or an average of about $3.10 a day. The $5 per day rate that came out of that meeting and was approved by the directors on January 5 was not a flat rate, but the new average, with almost all employees receiving proportionate increases. The $5 average was about twice the average rate for manufacturing work in Detroit at the time.

Why Ford did it is complicated, but one thing is certain - it was not done to combat high employee turnover resulting from the grueling nature of assembly line work. That is a latter day myth and pure hogwash. the company had implemented sweeping reforms in just about every aspect of employee relations and the pay system earlier in 1913 - including an across-the-board 13% pay increase just three months before the $5 day announcement,and employee turnover had dropped from around 48% to about 6%. There was no turnover problem to address, especially one that would justify doubling the payroll.

The impetus seems to have come from four sources. First is the little known but hugely significant experience of Ford's assembly plant director in Manchester, England, Percival Perry. He had recently doubled the wages of his employees to a rate he calculated as a ....................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2012/01/a-momentous-anniversary.html#ixzz1jLoqv38X

By Jon Miller

The kanban has met many adventures on its way to becoming a popular tool for the limitation of tasks, projects and works in process. As superhero origin stories go, kanban has an interesting one. As long ago as 8th century Japan, guidelines were set down for the forms and functions of kanban as corporate logos and shop signs. Just as the study of the use and evolution of forms of kanban as an improvement tool is illustrative as to the development of management various industries from manufacturing to software development, an examination of kanban as Japanese shop signs is instructive of the historical and cultural changes that took place.

The book Kanban: the Art of the Japanese Shop Sign by Dana Levy, Lea Sneider and Frank Gibney, may be of interest to the fan of Asian history, art, kaizen or software development, in decreasing order. If you are a kanban devotee and resident of King County, Washington you can find it in the public library. Frankly there is not much of use in this book to a lean practitioner or coder with a colorful whiteboard. However the book is full of hundreds of beautiful photographs of antique sign boards, each embodying the spirit of the times.

The thirty pages of commentary give a view into Japanese history through the keyhole of the merchant class. One passage which was.....................................

Read more: Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei

by BILL WADDELL

I am an unabashed Michigan State fan which makes me an unabashed Kirk Cousins fan. Their big win over Georgia on Monday was fun to watch, but every Spartan football fan is sad to see Cousins, their record setting quarterback finish his career.

Cousin is not only Michigan State's all time passing leader and the three time captain of the school's best team of all time over his four year career, he is the recipient of Lowe's CLASS Award: "The award, chosen by a nationwide vote of FBS coaches, media and fans, is given annually to the most outstanding senior student-athlete in the FBS. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition." At the Big Ten preseason luncheon this remarkable young man was asked to represent the players of the conference and speak to the coaches and media on their behalf.

The speech he gave showed a level of humility and wisdom far beyond his years. It gets to the essence of leadership and carries a powerful message for everyone who sees him or herself as a success. Cousins does not see his success as validation of his superiority over lesser athletes, but a privilege. He says in part, "It's here in this place of privilege where perhaps danger lies. I have been taught that human nature is such that the place of privilege most often and most naturally leads to a sense of entitlement - the notion that I deserve to be treated as special because I am privileged. The truth is, privelege should never lead to entitlement. I have been raised to believe that privilege should lead to responsibility - in fact, to greater responsibility. The Bible says in Luke 12:48, 'From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from everyone who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.' "

When I reflect on the companies I have come to know that have succeeded over the long haul, they have virtually all been led by people who embody Cousins' message of privilege and the responsibility that comes with it. The less successful seem to be led by people who give themselves a disproportionate share of the credit - 'I deserve to be the boss and I am entitled to more money and better perks because I worked harder, I am smarter, I made better decisions along the way, I, I, I ..."

It seems to me that Cousins has hit the principle of Respect for People that is so fundamental to a true....... .............................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2012/01/privilege-should-lead-to-responsibility-.html#ixzz1jLnrDrUw

Door: Rob Vinke

Lees Meer Op: http://www.gidsonline.nl/?m=generic&f=detail&id=52744

Cees Reincke

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/profiles/blogs/50-beleid-in-tien-stappen

Kritisch denken is essentieel voor leiders in het zakelijke klimaat van vandaag. Een tekort kan leiden tot discutabele beslissingen, in het ergste geval tot een flinke deuk in het vertrouwen dat in de onderneming wordt gesteld. Dat laatste overkwam Netflix, en groot mediabedrijf in Californië.

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=52531

By Kevin Meyer

When Bill makes a point it usually makes the rest of us a bit hypersensitive to similar situations. And so it was with his two posts on the silliness of advertising. Ford spending $3.9 billion on advertising, more than they spent on direct labor? And since ROI on advertising is difficult to quantify it gets a pass while every penny of direct labor or direct manufacturing "cost" is scrutinized. Crazy.

So now we're all on the lookout for analogous examples of value justification screwiness, and this morning's Wall Street Journal smacked us in the face with one.

The big-name rock concert is an annual rite at otherwise geeky tech conferences. Oracle has featured Elton John and Billy Joel in past years. SAP has booked Bon Jovi and Eric Clapton. Microsoft Corp. hired Dave Matthews last year.

Seriously? And guess how much these gigs cost.

Producers and planners say a top band costs a company $500,000 to $1.5 million, before production costs. "It's like a barometer of their health," says Steve Einzig, CEO of BookingEntertainment.com, which brokers private shows by famous acts. "If they don't bring in acts as big as the year before it might hint that they're having trouble."

Now sure, these aren't manufacturing companies, but that doesn't really matter. They are still in the business of creating value for their customers. Supposedly.

It gets even better... sometimes they can't even get those bands to mention their brand.

Rockers help fire up customers, but tech companies would really like their hired.....................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2012/01/wheres-the-value-in-sting.html#ixzz1jLkag4d6

By BILL WADDELL

A wise person, lost in anonymity to the ages, described the platypus as a duck designed by a committee. It is exactly the sort of useless thing a committee would come up with.

Committees can be counted on for two things - delay and compromise. GM demonstrated this point quite ably. While its chairmen and CEO's over the decades made financial decisions with authority everything related to products and processes was decided through the ponderous bureaucracy of its Automotive Strategy Board, and a blizzard of lesser committees - no big surprise that decisions were made slowly, cultural transformation was non-existent and every innovative suggestion was thoroughly watered down before taking effect, if it ever came out of the committees to take effect at all.

Committees are also effective tools for ducking responsibility and accountability. If the decision can be made by a committee, then...............................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2012/01/platypus-leadership.html#ixzz1jLjucfer

By Jon Miller

Many years ago when I was first learning how to drive a car, my dear young aunt Ruth rode with me on an Illinois country road. She taught me the importance of accelerating when going into a curve. This was deeply counter intuitive to me, as I had previously always tapped the breaks when hitting a curve in the road. I'm no race car driver, but this lesson has stuck with me, and I think of her whenever drivers tap their breaks on the local highway S-curves, a cascade creating completely unnecessary traffic slowdowns.

This year, more than any year in memory, is starting off both with curves and increasing momentum. I am looking forward to the challenges and learning opportunities ahead for us in Kaizen Institute. Mentally, I am leaning into 2012. Just as my aunt Ruth taught me, it is a time to be fully engaged in the process of change, driving forward faster even when the road changes course.

This got me thinking about the popular expression of "lean forward" and "lean back" entertainment, and whether the definition of "lean" as a business practice might not benefit from the other definition, meaning to incline in a direction. A "lean forward" medium such as the personal computer or internet requires a certain level of interaction, intent and engagement while a "lean back" medium such as television or radio requires only passive attention, and not even full attention at that. Similarly, lean management is approached by some in a.....................................

Read more: Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei

by BILL WADDELL

In the interest of protecting client confidentiality I won't name the town. Recently, however, I was out west in a beautiful spot in the Rocky Mountains working with a company doing extraordinary things in its commitment to lean. Like a few of my other clients they are making money doing what is supposed to be impossible - manufacturing low-tech consumer products and not only selling them in big quantities in the USA, but exporting them. By coincidence I happened to be staying in the same hotel as a film crew.

Thirty four people - count 'em - thirty four of them - were there to spend four days filming 2012 Toyotas driving in the snow. They were not actually filming a commercial mind you - just creating fim footage for an advertising agency that would sit on the shelf in case either Toyota or its dealers wanted to make a commercial that included Toyotas driving in snow. Most of the 34 were flown in from Los Angeles for the task.

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece that pointed out the fact that Ford spent $3.9 billion on advertising in 2010- a billion more than they did on value adding direct labor. They are right in there with the rest of the auto industry and well behind the spending levels at major league advertisers like P&G - $11 billion plus. Now I am sure there is a lot to the advertising game I don't know, but I do know that 34 manufacturing people working 4 full days would create a pretty impressive pile of valuable stuff and I have to wonder exactly what the value is of the product of these folks work. They are basically creating inventory that may never be used.

More important, I know that 34 manufacturing people would be micro-measured and there would be relentless pressure to challenge whether what they are doing is needed at all and, if so, to see how it could be done with 33 people. I have to wonder exactly where is the value in this - and in advertising in general? It seems to me that advertising spending is driven more by conventional wisdom than by the relentless pursuit of data and the.....................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/12/the-antithesis-of-lean.html#ixzz1jLiZDEZU

"Managementtechnieken: met flitsende powerpointpresentaties worden ze aan de man gebracht, maar op de keper beschouwd halen ze voor veel bedrijven maar weinig uit." Dat zegt Freek Vermeulen, afgestudeerd in Tilburg, nu associate professor aan de London Business School.

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=52496

De programma-aanpak kan een organisatie strategisch als veranderinstrument inzetten om haar doelen te realiseren. Meestal wordt eerst de programmamanager aangesteld die het programma gaat inrichten. Effectiever is het echter om dit andersom te doen: de inrichting en besturing van het programma zijn bepalend voor het functieprofiel van de programmamanager.

Steeds vaker kiezen organisaties voor de programma-aanpak bij het doorvoeren van complexe veranderingen. Met het aanstellen van een programmamanager denken de meeste bedrijven het lastigste stuk al achter de rug te hebben. Niets is minder waar. De keuze voor de programmamanager met de juiste competenties is cruciaal voor het welslagen van het programma.

Eerst zal dus helder moeten zijn wat de strategische redenen zijn om het programma te starten en de te realiseren doelen. Deze moeten nauw op elkaar aansluiten. Dit verkleint namelijk de kans dat een programmamanager het programma gaat inrichten naar de eigen competenties.

Verband strategische redenen en type programma
Verzeker u ervan dat u om de juiste redenen een programma start. Elk van deze strategische redenen leiden tot een bepaald type programma:

1. Inzichtelijke complexiteit
   Er is behoefte aan inzicht en monitoring van samenhang tussen projecten en veranderactiviteiten met een gemeenschappelijk doel. (thema-programma, zie onder)
    
2. Bestuurlijke complexiteit
   Er is behoefte aan het samenbrengen en coördineren van verschillende partijen of organisaties (intern en extern) bij verwachte complexe besluitvorming. (regie-programma, zie onder)
    
3. Inhoudelijke complexiteit
   Er is behoefte aan het bundelen van specialistische kennis. (expert-programma, zie onder)
    
4. Veranderkundige complexiteit
   Door middel van een tijdelijke organisatievorm, los van de lijnorganisatie, wordt een omvangrijk verandertraject uitgevoerd. (integraal programma, zie onder)

Rollen en competentieprofielen
Nadat het type programma is vastgesteld, is de volgende stap het uitwerken van de rol van de programmamanager en zijn vereiste competenties. Op basis van de rolbeschrijving kan......................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=professional&f=detail&id=52375

Niet alleen mensen met een lage opleiding hebben een slechte arbeidsmarktpositie. Er zijn ook hoger opgeleide werknemers die in beroepen werken, waarmee ze slecht scoren op de arbeidsmarkt.

Onderzoeksbureau TNO adviseerde de Raad voor Werk en Inkomen (RWI) om in het kader van duurzame inzetbaarheid te investeren in de ontwikkeling van werknemers met een lage, maar ook met een verouderde hogere opleiding. TNO ontwikkelde voor het advies een nieuwe methode om de doelgroepen voor scholingsbeleid te inventariseren.

Goede opleiding, slechte kwalificaties
Het onderzoeksbureau inventariseerde voor de RWI doelgroepen voor scholingsbeleid. Dat gebeurde niet alleen op basis van het opleidingsniveau, maar ook op de risico`s van `kwalificatieveroudering`. Dat leverde nieuwe inzichten op over kwetsbaarheid van werknemers op de arbeidsmarkt.

TNO stelt drukkers en nabewerkers als voorbeeld van goed geschoolde vakkrachten, die door..............

Lees Meer Op: http://www.personeelsnet.nl/dossier.php?Id=5540&waar=9

by BILL WADDELL

I went online with walmart.com Friday evening – bought a barbecue grill for my son in California to be picked up at Anaheim Walmart. Got an order confirmation, and $160 hold was put on my debit card.

Woke up Saturday morning to an email from Walmart telling me the grill was unavailable at the Anaheim store – order was canceled – the hold would drop off of my debit card within 5-10 days depending on my bank policy. Suggested I try another Walmart nearby.

Thought I can only stand so many $160 holds so this time I would check to be sure grill is in stock before I ordered again. Found five more Walmarts near Anaheim – all had the same grill in stock. In fact, the Anaheim store showed it in stock. Not trusting the computer, I called Anaheim Walmart. Delightful lady offered to check – confirmed they have four of the grill I ordered in stock.

Called walmart.com – asked why my order was canceled due to non-availability when, in fact, they have four at the store. Young lady named Alberta explained to me that walmart.com is a separate company from the store, and store inventory is not the same as walmart.com inventory.

“Really?” I asked. “So you are not part of the Walmart Corporation in Bentonville, Arkansas?”

“Yes we are,” she answered.

“Then the Walmart store in Anaheim is not part of the Walmart Corporation?”

“Well, yes,” she said, “It is.”

“Which part of this deal is not a part of Walmart?” I asked, “And if Walmart Corp owns four grills in Anaheim, and Walmart Corp confirmed that I paid for a grill in Anaheim, why did Walmart Corp cancel my order and tell me there are no grills available for me in Anaheim?”

“We are all Walmart,” she replied. “It’s just that walmart.com is a different department, and the stores decide whether they want to make any of their inventory available for walmart.com or whether they want to keep it for themselves. They might charge a higher price in the store than we do.”

“So Walmart Corp makes promises then each Walmart Corp store manager gets to decide whether he feels like keeping those promises?”

“Walmart didn’t make a promise to you,” she answered clearly not liking where the conversation was going.

“Sure you did, Alberta. You promised me a grill when you sent me a confirmation and reached into my bank account and put a $160 hold on it.”

“No,” Alberta said, “That’s just the way our computer is set up.”

“It sounds like whoever set up the computer set it up for an auction,” I said. “You should have told me that I wasn’t buying a grill – that I was actually bidding on one, and some Walmart guy in Anaheim had the right to reject my bid and take a better offer if he could get one.”

“Would you like to talk to my supervisor?” Alberta asked.

“Does he know anything you don’t know?”

“No, but he can explain it to you better,” she said.

I then essentially repeated the conversation with a guy named Michael.The conversation was........ .................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/12/why-profit-centers-make-more-sense-in-business-school-than-in-reality.html#ixzz1jLeqRfSm

Door: Rob Vinke

Lees Meer Op: http://gidsonline.nl/?m=generic&f=detail&id=52336

Door: Erwin van Leeuwen

Het eerste artikel beschreef vijf ontwerpdilemma's rondom sociale innovatie bij NS. Betekenissen die mensen geven aan het begrip sociale innovatie zijn zeer divers. Bij de aanpak van sociale innovatie spelen vijf dilemma's.

Eerste dilemma: revolutie of evolutie
Dit dilemma heeft betrekking op de snelheid, de impact en de toon van het veranderingsproces. Revolutie leidt tot chaos en mogelijke verstoring van verhoudingen. Ook zijn revolutionair doorgevoerde veranderingen vaak niet duurzaam. Revolutie zorgt voor duidelijkheid, aandacht en energie. Wordt de verandering meer evolutionair aangepakt, dan bestaat het gevaar dat de boodschap onduidelijk wordt en dat mogelijke belangenconflicten worden verdoezeld. De heersende cultuur zal overgaan tot de orde van de dag als ook ‘ deze hype' weer is overgewaaid. Wel geeft een evolutionaire aanpak meer ruimte voor verschillende snelheden binnen de organisatie. Het borgt een diepere verankering van de beoogde cultuurverandering.

Tweede dilemma: project of proces
Een projectaanpak zorgt voor structuur en voorspelbaarheid. Het is geschikt binnen hiërarchische organisaties. De projectaanpak neigt echter naar instrumentalisme waardoor gedrag en waardendimensies in gedrang kunnen komen.

Een procesaanpak is diffuser en minder voorspelbaar. Ze kent een netwerkorganisatie als haar natuurlijke omgeving. Voor een cultuurverandering lijkt de procesaanpak dan ook het meest voor de hand te liggen.

Er is binnen NS zeer uitdrukkelijk gekozen om bij sociale innovatie te werken volgens een procesaanpak. Geen voor de hand liggende keuze omdat NS van oudsher een organisatie is met een duidelijke hiërarchie en daardoor meer gewend is aan blauwdrukken en een projectmatige aanpak. Het is de overtuiging van het procesteam dat een projectmatige aanpak niet past bij de ambitie van sociale innovatie.

Derde dilemma: believers of non-believers
Boodschap en activiteiten richten op believers levert energie op. Zij zijn ontvankelijk voor het verhaal en gaan er graag mee aan de slag. Het idee is om via een olievlekstrategie de dominante cultuur binnen de organisatie te vervangen. Gevaar van deze aanpak is dat plekken met weerstand worden vermeden; het voortdurend herbevestigen van energie tussen believers wordt een opdrogende rivier als er geen dijken doorbreken. Het betrekken van non-believers kan de legitimiteit vergroten en levert nieuwe rolmodellen op voor het veranderingsproces. Nadeel van deze aanpak is dat de kans groot is dat door klassieke tegenstellingen ambities in de kiem worden gesmoord.

Bij de start van het project zijn binnen NS ambassadeurs gezocht bij de verschillende bedrijfsonderdelen die duidelijk in de categorie believers te plaatsen zijn. Energiegevende evenementen zorgden voor extra inspiratie. Belangrijk is dat deze ambassadeurs ook verantwoordelijkheid krijgen en nemen onder het motto ‘practice what you preach'. Dit blijkt in de praktijk niet altijd even makkelijk.

Vierde dilemma: HRM of business
Een cao-afspraak komt de organisatie binnen via HRM. De focus wordt dan gelegd op innovatie van de organisatie. Deze route biedt expertise en mogelijkheden en zet HRM in de lead van het strategisch veranderproces. Als de aanzet voor sociale innovatie uit.............................

Lees Meer Op: http://gidsonline.nl/?m=generic&f=detail&id=52334

by BILL WADDELL

Right from the get-go I want to make it clear that it is not my purpose to bash Ford. I am citing their numbers due solely to laziness. As the only American car company that has not undergone bankruptcy and re-invention, it is a lot easier to get apples to apples data from Ford than the others and I am always in favor of the easy way.

In 2010, Ford paid hourly (UAW) labor in the USA the whopping total of $2.9 billion. Any way you look at it, that is a lot of money. They sold a total of 1,936,000 cars and trucks, so it cranks out to a hair under $1,500 per vehicle for hourly labor.

Let's put that into perspective, shall we? With North American sales of $64.4 billion, hourly labor comes out to 4.5% of sales. Back in 2000, the number was $1,666 per car. So all of the slashing and burning, laying off and re-negotiating resulted in 1% per year in labor cost reductions - going from about 7% of sales down to the 4.5% figure - that's it.

Another interesting tidbit is that Ford spent $3.9 billion on advertising in 2010 - 6% of sales and 34% more than the hourly labor piece. I have yet to read where the auto industry is outsourcing their TV ads from Hollywood to Bollywood, or telling Congress and the film industry unions that the future of the American auto industry hinges on their willingness to cut wages and pensions.

This is where the funhouse effect comes in. The funhouse mirrors make skinny folks look fat and fat folks skinny, short ones tall and tall ones short. Their purpose is to provide entertainment by distorting reality. Someone needs to tell accounting and the management profession it is time to come home from the carnival - they have had their fun seeing value adding labor as a huge deal, and waste as trivial. Time to deal with reality.

Some people seem to like wandering through the funhouse so much they simply will not come out. Case in point: Skip Vallee who runs a convenience store chain in the northeast. The prospect of increasing the minimum wage has him concerned since that..................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/12/welcome-to-the-funhouse.html#ixzz1jLd9QZ00

Ook in uw bedrijf zal dit jaar ongetwijfeld zijn verzucht, dat door de crisis de verkopen achter blijven en dat daar verandering in moet komen. Bestaande klanten nemen minder af en dus zult u nieuwe klanten moeten vinden om uw omzet op peil te houden. En daar hebben de meeste accountmanagers een broertje dood aan. Ze zijn er bovendien niet goed in.

Lees Meer Op: http://zbc.nu/marketing/online-b2b-leadgeneratie/koude-acquisitie-is-toch-fantastisch/

By BILL WADDELL

I rail against the incompetence of the big publicly traded companies as loudly as anyone, however, I have to scratch my head at the notion that small, mom and pop owned businesses are inherently superior, or somehow critical to our continued existence. Some small businesses offer a better value proposition than the big guys - many don't. It seems to me that, sooner or later, big or small, the business offering the most for the money prevails and the rest fall by the wayside.

So along comes Amazon with 'Price Check' and I have a very hard time understanding just how it can be anything but good. Price Check basically enables a shopper to instantly compare the price someone is asking for something with the price Amazon and their third party sellers are asking. That knowledge, apparently, will be the end of local retailing as we know it. It seems to me that, if mom and pop's business model depends on making sure their customers don't know they can find a better deal elsewhere, mom and pop are pretty much doomed.

There is nothing too shocking about two-faced politicians, but it strikes me as hoot-worthy to read Senator Olympia Snowe describe 'Price Check' as "an attack on Main Street businesses that employ workers in our communities." Just a few weeks ago she was touting the Small Business Innovation Research Program, waxing about how innovation creates jobs. Apparently the size of the company doing the innovating has a lot to do with it. Little guys who innovate should get government funding, while big guys who innovate should feel the full wrath of the U.S. Senate ... figure that one out. In the foreword to a book called 'Saving Energy Growing Jobs' the good Senator wrote, "The key to helping business thrive and nurturing a healthy environment is innovation, which has been the bedrock of this nation's growth since its inception." Innovation at Amazon is somehow exempt from that lofty principal it would seem.

The objections of the 'Main Street Retailers' seem to follow two lines. First they claim Amazon is using them as the showroom for folks who will waste their time looking at stuff, then run home and make the purchase on line. Seems just as likely to me that people will use the web as the research lab to check stuff out, then run out to the local store to buy what they want. As fast as on line shopping is growing, in store purchasing still dominates.

The real gripe has nothing to do with Price Check and that is the exemption on line purchases have from sales tax - and the local retailers see Amazon as the greatest ogre in that battle. Maybe Amazon customers ought to pay sales tax and maybe not. Interestingly (and inconsistently) enough Senator Snowe co-sponsored the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007 before she declared Amazon to be so abusive of Main Street mom and pop retailing.

Rather than whine about Amazon and urge higher sales taxes on their competitors (and as a result, their customers), mom and pop might want to learn from Ron and Steve Fusek. Ron runs Fusek's True Value Hardware - as mom and pop as it gets. His boy Steve runs spinoff Ron's Home and Hardware - an Amazon seller. Turns out the Fusek boys don't too much care if you want to use the store as a showroom and buy on line, or if you want to do the research on line and buy in the showroom. Want to avoid the...............................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/12/go-innovate-somewhere-else.html#ixzz1jLbqsc70

by BILL WADDELL

The good ol' folks down in Georgia have a way of nailing things right on the head. This from Alan Barfoot with the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Center.

Thanks Alan .....

A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Small variations in the environment (which can't be controlled in a cost-effective fashion) mean you must have quality assurance checks smartly distributed across the line so that customers all the way down to the supermarket don't
get mad and buy another product instead.

Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.

The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution - on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box would weigh less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done to re-start the line.

A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the............................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/12/a-dose-of-common-sense-goes-a-long-way.html#ixzz1jLbIUr6L

Realistische trainingen in stressvolle situaties met hoge werkdruk geven deelnemers het gevoel dat ze er veel van leren. Maar achteraf blijken zij zich wel minder te kunnen herinneren van de omstandigheden tijdens de training.

Zo heeft een militair na een hoogrealistische schiettraining achteraf sterker het gevoel iets geleerd te hebben dan van een training op de schietbaan. Dat gevoel neemt toe naarmate taken moeilijker worden en de werkdruk toeneemt.

Dit concludeert John Taverniers mede aan de hand van veldonderzoek onder militairen en politieagenten. Op 2 december 2011 promoveert hij aan de Open Universiteit op het onderwerp: Leren reduceert stress? Stress verhindert leren? Dat hangt ervan af!

Hoogrealistische trainingen
In de arbeids- en organisatiepsychologie wordt er vaak vanuit gegaan dat mensen onder hoge werkdruk en met veel autonomie, veel kunnen leren. Taverniers nuanceert dit uitgangspunt en stelt vast dat leren het effectiefst is als er sprake is van voldoende diversiteit aan taken die ook relevant zijn voor leren. Deze diversiteit vermindert tegelijkertijd de stress die door hoge werkdruk kan ontstaan.

Ten behoeve van het tweede deel van zijn onderzoek, Stress remt leren, verrichtte Taverniers uitgebreid veldonderzoek naar de waarden, werking en effecten van stresshormonen bij militairen en politieagenten. De metingen hiernaar vonden plaats vlak nadat zij een stressvolle taak uitoefenden als hoogrealistische schiettrainingen en parachutespringen.
Daaruit blijkt dat de concentratie van het stresshormoon cortisol een belangrijk effect heeft op het cognitief vermogen: hoe groter de stress, hoe hoger de concentratie cortisol, hoe slechter het geheugen functioneert.

Training on the job
Taverniers vindt het opvallend dat deelnemers in intensieve en stressvolle situaties sterker het...............

Lees Meer Op: http://www.personeelsnet.nl/dossier.php?Id=5525&waar=9

Sandra van Dijk

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/hr-en-directie-aan-n-tafel-de-kunst-van-het-naar-elkaar-luisteren

by BILL WADDELL

The end of the year draws nigh and ten or eleven months of ignoring supply chains in general, and inventory in particular is coming home to roost in executive offices around the world. Avon Products is out of cash due in large part to out of control inventories - borrowing money to pay dividends, but that's what you get when you appoint a CEO based on where she went to school and who she is connected to, rather than based on what she knows - and is in even deeper trouble due to a thoroughly muddled ERP implementation.

Research In Motion (RIM - the Blackberry guys) is writing off $485 million of excess inventory - the kind of thing that happens when your business model is based on Buck Rogers technology and absurdly long lead times - bet wrong on the technology and lose big - real big. Stein Mart screwed up its inventory system and, as a result, reported that - oops - we didn't lose $.3 million - we lost $1.8 million.

Of course there are the GM's of the world who screw up the supply chain on purpose. The aforementioned got in trouble as a result of ignorance but GM trashes their supply chain routinely to scam their investors. They are up to inventory levels last seen in the days immediately before its IPO. With 105 days of truck inventory shoved down their dealers throats, look for glowing headlines after the first of the year crowing of banner sales. (Other tell-tale clues: they are in a below the radar layoff of engineers - value adding folks - and pouring money into advertising) Whenever they have the need for better numbers the Wall Street manipulators and financial wizards running GM use the supply chain as their magic button to goose the top and bottom lines. That is ignorance of a different sort - or perhaps apathy. They either don't know or don't care what inventory bloat does to their cost structure and ability to control quality.

Most companies do not foul up inventory on such a grand scale as these - but foul it up many do. I once had a CEO tell me he didn't have time to take a deep dive into the details of how his company's supply chain processes worked. He seemed to have plenty of time to dive very deeply into the accounting system in mind-numbing detail, however. Apparently counting the excess inventory accurately struck him as a more important use of his time than learning how to prevent it.

It seems to happen every year and this one is no exception. Execs who have little concern for much other than sales and finance ten months out of the year go into the.............................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/12/inventory-idiocy.html#ixzz1jLXaSymu

By Jon Miller

In an excellent blog post by Jamie Flinchbaugh today he introduces 4 myths about the principle of "Respect for People", saying:

But respect for people means different things to different people. To some it means avoiding layoffs at all costs. To others it means giving them freedom to do whatever they want, or assume that they are right. To others it means trust. In all, I see the principle of respect for people thrown about sometimes casually, and sometimes in direct conflict of what I believe the principle is truly about.

Building on this theme, I offer a 5th myth.

5. Removing the "8th Waste" means utilizing people's creative ideas for kaizen.

The so-called 8th waste of human potential is often used as an underpinning for employee involvement programs, suggestions systems, and other means of tapping people's unused creative potential. These things are essential, but is this truly respect for the person? This ultimately goes back to a resource utilization mindset, i.e. "What can the employee do to help reduce cost for the company with their creative ideas?" While smart companies like Toyota use kaizen suggestions and quality circles more to develop problem solving skills then to find big cost savings, this interpretation of respect for people via exploitation of the 8th waste only addresses half of human potential at best, the quantitative half.

When we start removing the 8th waste, stop ignoring people as idea generators, listen and put into practice their kaizen suggestions, we are engaging more of a person's potential. It is an quantitative improvement. Instead of only physical ability or trained-in job skills, we are making use capacity for creativity, problem solving and so forth. But more thought and more action does not necessarily mean better throught and better action. In fact if an evil overlord succeeds in removing the 8th waste and in empowering his underlings to find more creative ideas for subjugating the masses of the world, this is a bad thing from the view of the majority of humanity.

It is not so much the productive output, the quality of workmanship or even the number of innovative or cost savings ideas that gives us a true sense of what it means to practice respect for people in the widest sense. We must maximize the.........................................

Read more: Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei

Maaike Huisman

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/hr-moet-vanuit-eigen-identiteit-handelen

De achtste Verspilling volgens Lean Management!

Nederland benut maar 60 procent van de talenten in de samenleving. Dat belemmert de economische groei en verlaagt het rendement van publieke investeringen in onderwijs, zorg en sociale zekerheid. Dat stelt sociaal geograaf Jaap Geerlof in zijn boek De 60%-maatschappij.

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=51703

Managers zijn vaak blind voor lucratieve kansen die vlak voor hun neus voorbijkomen, zegt Donald Sull van London Business School. En hij heeft ook een aantal tips die er voor zorgen dat je de opportunities die zich voordoen wel op tijd ziet.

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=51623

In al het gekrakeel over pensionering en AOW met 65 jaar blijft één ding onderbelicht. Wat als iemand wil blijven werken, nadat hij 65 jaar is geworden? Hoe kunnen dan de voorwaarden worden ingevuld? Dienstverbanden lopen af als mensen 65 worden. Het vergt een aanzienlijke inspanning van zowel werkgever als werknemer om het mogelijk te maken een werknemer langer te laten doorwerken. Er zijn lichamelijk zware beroepen, waarin doorwerken na je 65ste ondoenlijk is. De meerderheid van de ouderen heeft echter een beroep dat niet tot die categorie behoort. Hoe kunnen we dus al die mensen die dat graag willen, na hun 65ste aan het werk houden? Nu durven veel werkgevers dit avontuur nog niet aan door gebrek aan duidelijkheid.

Lees Meer Op: http://zbc.nu/hrm/vergrijzing-en-hrm/waarom-zou-ik-niet-doorwerken-als-ik-65-jaar-ben/

Het nut van vakbonden is nauwelijks bekend bij jongeren. Van de jongeren met een bijbaan, is slechts 3 procent vakbondslid. Er is nog wel hoop voor de bonden, want 40% zegt lid te worden als ze een vaste baan hebben.

Bijna driekwart van de jongeren met een bijbaan weet niet wat een vakbond voor hen kan betekenen, blijkt uit het Nationale Bijbanen Onderzoek 2011 van www.zoekbijbaan.nl onder 2500 respondenten. Hiervan was 70% onder de 25 jaar.

Geen idee wat vakbond doet
Wat een vakbond kan betekenen voor zijn leden, is bij 72 procent van de werkende jongeren niet bekend. Er zijn wel grote verschillen in kennis over de vakbond.

Zo weten meer jongens (30%) dan meisjes (20%) wat zij aan een vakbond kunnen hebben. Naarmate ze ouder worden, neemt de kennis bij jongeren over de vakbond toe. Mbo studenten weten het minst over vakbonden. Een derde (32 procent) heeft geen idee, tegenover gemiddeld 20 procent van de hbo`ers en wo`ers.

Vakbond (nog) niet nodig
Van de jongeren die een bijbaan hebben, is slechts drie procent lid van een vakbond. Van de 97 procent die geen lid is, weet.........................................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.personeelsnet.nl/dossier.php?Id=5517&waar=9

Paul Raaijmakers

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/leren-brengt-licht

By Jon Miller

Fabric is one of the oldest technological artifacts of humanity. Water is essential to our survival and ubiquitous in our daily lives. So it is fitting that these two things come together in a metaphor about kaizen - changing things for the better.

The Wet Blanket

Our friend and contributor S.M. Junaid observed ten deadly hurdles to doing kaizen within in small and medium-sized companies. These he calls "wet blankets". A wet blanket is typically a person who takes the fun out of a situation for others. Perhaps it came from the use of water-logged blankets to put out unwanted fires.

Junaid extends the wet blanket idiom to a set of expressions people use when they feel uncomfortable supporting or participating in change. Such people may purposely put "wet blankets" on the kaizen effort or try to persuade senior management that improvement efforts should be stopped.

Here are some examples of wet blankets that Junaid has heard:

 

1. We have tried it before and it didn't work
2. Nobody else is doing it
3. Nobody is talking about it
4. It's not acceptable to management
5. It's not in the budget
6. You're not the expert
7. Who do you think you are?
8. Let me think about it.
9. Do you know more than me?
10. This is not your concern

Junaid writes:

How will we move towards improvement with these 10 deadly hurdles? It is on your choice and devotion that you will only do your plain job or an effective job in your organization, without kaizen your job is not valuable for you and your organization in long-term basis.

My experience is that it is better to move slowly but continuously towards improvement, not strike or jump the hurdle as this may cause harm. The only a tool you have is determination. If you see any hurdle in your way slightly change your path but don't stop moving forward. Cross the hurdle and again put your feet on track and move toward your destination.

Do kaizen again, again and again at last the wet blanket becomes dry.

The idea of the wet blanket reminded me of a couple of other expressions related to kaizen and the moisture content of fabrics.

The Dry Towel

After decades of kaizen, people at Toyota speak their efforts at cost reduction as being like "wringing the water from of a dry towel". This is...................................................

Read more: Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei

by BILL WADDELL

In most companies sales and manufacturing are two distinct and seperate - often opposing - entities. The sales folks are physically, intellectually, organizationally and every other way set on one side and tasked with increasing sales - growing the top line - by any means at their disposal. Their efforts fall under the umbrella of marketing and brand management, and while some of it is legitimate, most of it is smoke and mirror based. P&G is the universally acclaimed master of this particular art.

On the other side is manufacturing, tasked with reducing costs by any means at their disposal. Lean manufacturing is viewed as one of those means, and seen as an alternative to good old fashioned pounding on direct labor and suppliers, or as an alternative to outsourcing. Lean proponents compete with the proponents of those methods - usually senior managers who come from the headcount and supplier pounding school of thought and accountants who run numbers that make outsourcing - especially offshore outsourcing - look good.

Senior management sits in between the two camps, putting pressure on each side independently to do better at their assigned task, and often acting as the arbitrator of disputes as the sales and manufacturing camps bicker. Manufacturing demands better forecasting, sales has to have lower costs, and both spend a lot of time making the case for senior management to support their particular strategy and want more than their fair share of scarce investment money. In some cases, where the top dog came from the operations side, manufacturing gets the edge in the disputes and lean initiatives are supported, but in most cases these days, the big guy came from sales or finance and the brand management or outsourcing proponents win the day.

Accounting sits at the right hand of the executives, serving the role of impartial official scorekeeper. They are neither for nor against anything - and therefore unaccountable for anything. They merely measure the results and determine winners and losers and when there is failure it in no way reflects on them.

It is from the leaders of such enterprises that articles such as the one we have cited previously are written, in which lean is viewed as a cost cutting 'program' that more often than not comes up short. As simply a manufacturing cost cutting program - an alternative to people bashing and outsourcing - those techniques are usually more effective than lean at reaching a quick 5% cost reduction threshhold that the article cites as the measure of success for such efforts. Occasionally a company achieves the 5% cost reduction through lean - or better - but fails on the sales side of the business. They are the Whirlpools and Delphis - winners of prizes and the subject of glowing articles - but not winners at the bottom line.

And then there are the few who understand and deploy lean as in...............................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/12/a-house-divided-cannot-stand.html#ixzz1gz8JKXpJ

Sandra van Dijk

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/lean-en-hrm-nog-geen-match-made-out-of-heaven

Door: Rob Vinke

Lees Meer Op: http://www.gidsonline.nl/?m=generic&f=detail&id=51989

Op eigen initiatief veranderingen aanbrengen in je baan, waardoor die beter aansluit bij je kennis, competenties en voorkeuren. Dat is het idee van job crafting, een tien jaar oude methode om medewerkers actief en gemotiveerd te houden.

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=51632

Het valt niet mee om een bedrijf dat projectmatig werkt, adequaat te besturen. Of u nu een servicebedrijf, een consultancybureau, een bouwbedrijf, een ICT-bedrijf, een engineeringbureau, een administratiekantoor of een opleidingsinstituut bent, in alle gevallen bepaalt de order van de klant de werkzaamheden van uw bedrijf. De verkoop, het contracteren, de levering, de urenregistratie en de facturering moeten soepel en geïntegreerd verlopen. Als dit niet het geval is, dan komt u bij klanten niet professioneel over. Maar dat niet alleen, het kost u ook onnodig veel geld. En last but not least, u beschikt dan niet over adequate informatie om uw bedrijfsproces naar de toekomst toe te managen. Uw boekhouding alleen volstaat hiervoor niet. Die gaat immers over het verleden. En daarmee weet u nog steeds niet wat er de komende weken en maanden op u afkomt en waarop u moet anticiperen.

Lees Meer Op: http://zbc.nu/management/gewoon-mkb/vijf-valkuilen-voor-bedrijven-die-projectmatig-werken/

By Kevin Meyer

Toyota took the fundamentals of lean from the likes of Ford and Deming and others decades ago, crafted it into TPS in the 60s and 70s which enabled the company to dominate global auto manufacturing, then rapid expansion led Toyota to forget the basics in the early part of this decade, leading to the quality and customer service debacles last year. So the story goes. Over the past few months we've told you how Toyota appears to be going back to their core values, but then there are the occasional stories about Toyota following the likes of GM in bashing suppliers. What gives?

Today's WSJ provides a clue - a description of the internal conflict at Toyota.

One one hand they are battling rising costs in Japan, not the least of which are currency issues coupled with lower demand.

Faced with overcapacity, weak demand and an exchange rate for the yen that makes Japanese-made cars and trucks more expensive around the world, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. are moving more manufacturing overseas, to plants closer to international customers. But Toyota President Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company founder, has long spoken of the company's social responsibility to protect Japanese jobs, as well as a longstanding commitment to annually build at least three million cars in Japan, half for export.

Company executives now acknowledge their allegiance to domestic production is being tested by a strong yen and softening sales in the U.S., still the company's largest market. Even Mr. Toyoda appears torn between fidelity to Japan and profits.

Sounds familiar - but actually laudable that social responsibility is part of a large company's philosophy. Well at least more than the lip service we hear from most. Toyota is looking at moving more production out of Japan - but closer to their customers. Note that although I often rant against moving production overseas, moving closer to customers is generally ok.

But now the article gets interesting - and describes the efforts Toyota is making to become more efficient in high-cost Japan. That's the Toyota the lean world has come to love.

Mr. Niimi and other top executives made the case in interviews for streamlining Toyota's domestic production lines, as opposed to uprooting them. They view Japanese manufacturing skills, known as "monozukuri," as an infallible weapon and expect to fully utilize idle capacity once demand recovers.

Until then, said executives, the company would redefine its economies of scale: shrink production without raising costs.

"High speed and high volume output may no longer be such a good fit for us," said Mr. Niimi, who has a degree in aeronautical engineering. "We need to retool for production with simpler, slimmer and more compact equipment."

Yes, while most companies still believe that to increase...................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/11/conflicted-toyota.html#ixzz1gz3lzFFd

Werknemers met een hbo+ opleiding, vooral academici, zijn actiever op zoek naar een nieuwe baan. Actieve werkzoekenden zijn minder tevreden met hun werkgever en de arbeidsvoorwaarden. Maar verhuizen voor hun baan, dat ziet tweederde van de werkenden niet zitten.

Dit blijkt uit het Nationaal Onderzoek Arbeidsmarktcommunicatie (NOA) 2011. NOA is een onderzoek van uitgevers (van papieren media) over de stand van zaken op de arbeidsmarkt. De uitgevers benadrukken nà het onderzoek hun eigen uniciteit op basis van dezelfde cijfers.

Minder tevreden over arbeidsvoorwaarden
Uit het onderzoek komt naar voren dat 15% van de academici zichzelf `actief werkzoekend` noemt, ten opzichte van 12,7% in 2010. Vooral in de branches Onderwijs en Wetenschap, Financiële Dienstverlening, Consultancy en ICT stijgt het aantal actieve zoekers.

Het NOA toont verder aan dat voornamelijk actieve zoekers minder tevreden zijn over hun huidige werkgever en arbeidsvoorwaarden. Deze ontevredenheid kan werknemers eenvoudiger bewegen om over te stappen naar een andere baan.

Niet verhuizen voor werk
Werkenden blijken nauwelijks bereid om te verhuizen voor een nieuwe baan. Ruim tweederde (68%) is zeker niet bereid te verhuizen. Ook van de mensen die actief op zoek zijn naar ander werk, zegt 62% niet ergens anders te willen wonen.

Onder laatstejaars studenten is de flexibiliteit groter: 68% van deze groep is bereid om binnen of buiten Nederland te verhuizen voor een baan.

Internet belangrijkste wervingsmedium
Het NOA krijgt veel kritiek van HR-bloggers, omdat het tot nu toe steeds als uitkomst meldde dat................. .......................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.personeelsnet.nl/dossier.php?Id=5515&waar=9

Rolf Baarda

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/profiles/blogs/bonussen-waar-sta-jij

By Jon Miller

Bob Emiliani is the author of ten books, six of them in the Real Lean series. The most recent title Moving Forward Faster: The Mental Evolution from Fake Lean to REAL Lean is an executive summary of these six books. It is 100 pages, about half of which is the core message structured around 40 pages of bullets on four themes to aid in the "mental evolution" of executives towards real lean thinking. The remaining pages are closing thoughts, next steps and rich appendices.

The lean management system is, in Bob Emiliani's words, "a non-zero-sum principle-based management system focused on creating value for end-use customers and eliminating waste, unevenness, and unreasonableness using the scientific method." His Real Lean series of books makes its greatest contribution in stressing the Respect for People principle as the least appreciated and least practiced by executives. The Moving Forward Faster book is best read as an introduction to Bob's thinking, and as a reference for diving deeper into his ideas.

Across four chapters Bob debunks 85 commonly held beliefs in the Economic, Social, Political (organizational) and History arenas. Each of these ideas are explained using as few as two and as many as nine bullet points. The sheer number of bullet points across the 40 pages will leave one dizzy if the four chapters are are read in one go. It is possible to open the book at almost any point, read a few sentences, nod in agreement or shake our heads in recognition of fake lean behaviors within our own organizations.

In the section on Economic ideas, Bob asks "Where are the lean economists?" and points out that economics is a social science rather that a hard science like physics or mathematics, and that formal root cause analysis is never used to discern sources of failure of economic theories. This is a big idea, considering that some of the most important decisions in our lives vis a vis our life in "the economy" are influence by social scientists who never practice root cause analysis. In any case some of the most interesting and important ideas are in this section. Here is a sampling of the gems.

E10 - Short-term financial focus

When do you plan on going out of business? If the answer is never, then why have a strong short-term focus?

It's a great point, but misses the fact that executives many times aren't thinking at all about business continuity or the long-term because that is not what they are rewarded for or paid to do. Or perhaps it is not a rhetorical question but an invitation to the reader to list their reasons.

E16 - Fixation on unit costs and unit prices.

Executives say: "Every cost element a company faces needs to be examined." Executives should instead say: "Every process a company uses needs to be examined." Costs are subordinate to processes.

And Taiicho Ohno said, "Costs do not exist to be calculated. Costs exist to be reduced."

E20 - Cost is not real if it is not on a spreadsheet.

Cost = measured cost + unmeasured cost. Unmeasured cost is always greater than zero. Just because some costs do not show up on a spreadsheet does not mean they do not exist.

Taiichi Ohno would have....................................

Read more: http://www.gembapantarei.com/2011/11/review_of_moving_forward_faster_by_bob_emiliani.html

By Jon Miller

I haven't kept up so well with reader questions over the past few months so here is a batch of answers. Better late than never, hopefully.

A question posted to Quick changeover and SMED for the office:

in point "1. Separate internal and external time" A knowledge work example of external set up could be as simple as having the next task or project prepared and waiting for you in a folder so that you could get to it right away, rather than having to go seek out the instructions and information to start the next project smoothly. But my question is how can we balance between this and over processing (from 7 wastes)?

- Mazen

All set up, planning, preparation, work instruction documentation or for that matter management activity could be called non value-added. However, these activities serve the purpose of limiting waste caused by being not prepared, not having clear instructions, etc. so they are not waste per se. I would not say that set up is an example of over processing waste, unless the set up process itself was done with more resource or more complexity than absolutely required. It is a difference between qualitative and quantitative. A process is either waste or value-add / non value-add. If it is one of the latter, it may still contain waste, such as over processing. The difference is that if the process is a complete waste (qualitative) the goal is to cut it out while if it is quantitative (complexity, ambiguity etc) the goal is to reduce inputs to the process but not cut it out completely.

Two questions posted to How to calculate standard WIP:

My question is: How can I use lead time and takt time in hospital warehousing of medical supplies? I currently have a team of 9.5 FTE's. The average scan time (order materials) per person is 31.4 minutes The average time to replenish the patient units are 45 minutes, 277 Par locations. All other tasks total 284 minutes.

- Laurie

First of all, to answer the "how" question, lead time and takt time can be used in hospital warehousing of medical supplies to a) balance employee workload to customer demand, b) improve on-time delivery from the warehouse, c) set stocking quantities at point of use locations based on replenishment lead-times, etc. The implied question is "how specifically do I do this based on the team, processing times etc?" but it is completely impossible to answer your question based on the information provided. In order to calculate takt time we need to know net available working time per shift and customer demand per shift. Neither is provided in your question. In order to determine lead time we need to know consumption rate, i.e. customer demand. Once we have that information we will be happy to help.

So, my process has a "batch auto cycle", like #4, but my auto cycle is five separate batches due to cycle time limitations. How do I use your calculation for SWIP? Do I divide by five?

- Randall

This depends on whether you mean 5 separate sequential batches that are run across multiple shifts or 5 batches that go into a process such as an oven at one time. The simplest way to answer this question is to count how many pieces are in your 5 batches currently. Unless you are consistently running the................. .....................................

Read more: http://www.gembapantarei.com/2011/11/batch_of_reader_questions_answered.html

By Jon Miller

The Visual Management webinar with Kaizen Institute consultant Mike Wroblewski was immensely popular, and we are pleased to announce the next free webinar from Gemba Academy.

Webinar: Putting the Continuous Back in Continuous Improvement

Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 1400 - 1500 (Central Time, GMT -6). Sign up for the webinar

Many organizations have understood the word kaizen to mean "kaizen events," or focused week-long improvement workshops. Innovative healthcare organizations, such as ThedaCare and Virginia Mason Medical Center have learned that kaizen events are not enough, that kaizen must also involve a large number of small, low-cost improvements driven by front-line staff.

Mark Graban, who is author of the award-winning book Lean Hospitals, a popular speaker, blogger, a consultant to........................................

Read more: http://www.gembapantarei.com/2011/11/free_webinar_continuous_improvement_dec_7_2011.html

Oktober 2011 liet een lichte stijging zien in het aanbod van HR-vacatures. Maar er blijft minder aanbod voor HR-professionals op HBO-niveau, terwijl er meer werk is voor duurdere HR-specialisten.

Dat blijkt uit de HR-vacaturemeter oktober 2011 van Personeelsnet.nl. Voor de HR-vacaturemeter houdt Personeelsnet het vacatureaanbod bij van HR-functies op belangrijke vacaturesites voor het HR-vakgebied. Deze informatie wordt aangevuld met arbeidsmarktinformatie van andere HR-websites en van sociale media. De HR-vacaturemeter geeft geen absolute aantallen, maar laat trends zien in het aanbod van HR-vacatures.

Minder aanbod HR-functies met middensalarissen
De ontwikkelingen in het salarisaanbod van HR-functies, laten zien dat opvallend minder HR-functies worden aangeboden voor lonen onder de 2500 euro per maand. In januari 2011 lag het aandeel HR-vacatures met een salarisaanbod onder 2500 euro per maand nog op 43,8%, terwijl dat op 31% ligt in oktober 2011. Dat geldt ook voor de middelhoge HR-salarissen van 2500-3500 euro: van 36,1% in januari 2011 naar 33% in oktober 2011.


Ontwikkeling HR salarissen in 2011, bron: HR-vacaturemeter Personeelsnet ™

Het aandeel HR-vacatures met een salarisaanbod boven de 3500 euro, stijgt sinds januari 2011 van 19,9% naar 32% in oktober van dit jaar. Het aandeel salarissen boven de 5000 euro staat in oktober 2011 op 6% (tegen 4,9% in januari 2011). Deze ontwikkelingen passen bij het HR-vacatureaanbod: er zijn relatief meer gespecialiseerde functies op HBO+ of WO-niveau.

Aan de onderkant van de arbeidsmarkt worden HR-functies al jaren buiten de deur geplaatst. Maar nu stagneert ook het aanbod van de HR-functies op HBO-niveau: dat raakt dus bijvoorbeeld de Senior HR Consultant, de ervaren Personeelsadviseur of de brede HR Officer.

Nog steeds minder HR-vacatures voor HBO`ers
De meeste HR-vakgenoten werken op...........................................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.personeelsnet.nl/dossier.php?Id=5507&waar=9

By Jon Miller

I'm honored once again to contribute to the Management Improvement Carnival series which John Hunter at the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog has kept going now to its 149th round. As I looked back over some of the blog posts and articles that caught my attention recently, a surprising theme emerged among many of them: motivation.

Motivation is something everyone shares. It is at the root cause of why we do many of the things we do, directly affects our attitude, our effort, our level of success, and therefore eventual happiness. Some organizations measure employee engagement scores, track the number of kaizen suggestions or otherwise attempt to track the level of motivation of people. Motivation is an incredibly valuable input to the success of a team but too often only the results are recognized. Where do we start in building a highly engaged, highly motivated organization?

Addressing the question of "Where do I start?" in learning lean thinking and putting it into practice, Mark Rosenthal suggests adopting the find the bright spots advice from the book Switch. Finding brights spots is always good advice. While companies fail at thing for a wide variety of local and specialized reasons, success tends to cluster around a handful of factors; motivated people; removing waste, variation and burden; a long-term view. We need to drill a level deeper in each one of these. Simply saying "remove waste" is not enough, we need to dig deeper to understand the best practices and "bright spots" at organizations we benchmark to the level where we can put them into practice. We need to learn not only what works well, but why. We need to ask, "What drives or motivates their most successful systems?"

As things are when it comes to understanding cutting edge management practices, the secret to motivating people is simple, age-old and often counter-intuitive at first glance. One article explains why you don't have to do anything special to motivate employees. Rather, it is a matter of not ......................

Read more: http://www.gembapantarei.com/2011/11/management_improvement_carnival_149.html

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/gerichte-feedback-als-prestatiedriver

By Jon Miller

There are not two but three definitions of the Japanese word jidoka, which students of kaizen and the Toyota Production System are likely to encounter. In fact there are two different jidokas. Coined by Taiichi Ohno as a play on words to turn the Japanese word for "automation" or "self-moving" into "autonomation" or "self-working", the word jidoka and jidoka are pronounced identically, though written slightly differently in Japanese. Please see previous article for more on jidoka.

The "self-working" or "autonomation" term is used to kaizen two distinct problems.

First, to separate human work and machine work so that humans can do less non value added and more value added work within a given period of time. For example in a machining process that requires a person to open the door of a CNC machine, unload a part, loads another part and close the door, three out of four of these steps can be done by the machine. The only work that requires the human touch is loading the part, and perhaps doing a visual check. This type of automation is typically done in a low-cost manner. Automating the final step of loading and inspection is higher cost, and not the kaizen way.

Second, autonomation is used to prevent processes from making error after error by building in en error prevention or detect-and-stop functions. Jidoka gives the process the equivalent of the human autonomic nervous system, which can respond to stimuli without conscious thought. This can take the form of sensors on a machine, lines of code that mistake proof a data entry field, or a button pressed by a person to alert the supervisor that the process cannot be performed correctly.

This photo from the kitchen of an apartment-hotel is an example of the first type of jidoka - low cost automation eliminating a step of human work.

When the door of the kitchen cupboard is opened, the lid of the trash can is lifted due to tension created in the string attached between the lid and the cabinet wall.

These types of 2-in-1 processes or mechanisms are called....................................

Read more: http://www.gembapantarei.com/2011/11/kitchen_jidoka_low_cost_automation_example.html

By Kevin Meyer

Here I naively thought perhaps we had moved on. Over the past several months we've had story after story of companies realizing the folly of following the the lemmings to supposedly cheaper overseas locales and coming home. And over the past several years we've told you story after story of companies in all kinds of industries being globally competitive and successful manufacturing from North America.

Furniture, apparel, even toys - companies are succeeding from U.S. plants by focusing on improvement and creating customer value.

But leave it to Industry Week to jolt me back to reality, to how far we still have to go. Another article on all the horrible hurdles and barriers American manufacturers face. The usual stuff.

The single most significant drag on manufacturing competitiveness is the United States' high corporate tax rate -- an average federal-state statutory rate of 40% that has not changed in decades. On a trade-weighted basis, the U.S. rate is 8.6 percentage points higher than its nine largest trading partners. This represents the single most important piece of the total structural cost burden on U.S. manufacturers.

And as usual it doesn't take into account how the U.S. tax system, more than that of any other industrialized nation, has loopholes and offsets galore. Right GE? However I do agree that the U.S. system is also far more confiscatory of overseas profits that the others, and that does need to change. And simplification would remove incredible cost.

The article goes on in similar fashion with regards to regulatory, legal, health care, employee benefits, and other costs. Same old thing. Bottom line?

While manufacturers face a host of challenges, the data demonstrate that domestically imposed costs -- by commission or omission of government -- further undermine our ability to compete by adding at least 20% to the cost of making stuff in this country.

Yes 20% is a big number and I'm................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/11/still-waiting-on-the-whambulance.html#ixzz1f1euRJPE

Een goede relatie met collega's staat stipt op nummer één als het gaat om de factoren die geluk op de werkvloer bepalen (63 procent). Ook ruimte voor humor (58 procent) en een goede werk-privé balans (50 procent) dragen hieraan bij. Opvallend is dat dertigers hun werkgeluk gemiddeld een 6.8 geven, terwijl 60-plussers dit een 7.4 waard vinden. Dit alles blijkt uit onderzoek van trainings- en adviesbureau Van Harte & Lingsma onder 524 werkenden.

Nederlanders zijn over het algemeen gelukkig op hun werk: 75 procent van de werknemers waardeert het geluksgevoel op het werk met een cijfer 7 of hoger. Het overgrote deel van de ondervraagden geeft aan dagelijks plezier te beleven in het werk (66 procent) en zegt er niet tegenop te zien om weer aan het werk te moeten na een vakantie (59 procent).

Opmerkelijk is dat voor mannen en vrouwen verschillende factoren het werkgeluk bepalen. Zo is voor mannen voldoende uitdaging in het werk (45 procent) duidelijk belangrijker dan voor vrouwen (35 procent), terwijl de juiste hoeveelheid werkdruk voor de vrouw (36 procent) meer van belang is dan voor de man (25 procent). Ondanks dat het merendeel gelukkig is met zijn werk, zegt bijna de helft van de mannen (46 procent) dat hij zou stoppen met zijn baan als financiën geen rol zouden spelen.

Dertigers minder gelukkig
Uit het onderzoek blijkt ook dat dertigers zich het minst gelukkig voelen op het werk: zij geven hun werkgeluk gemiddeld een 6,8. 'Doordat dertigers vaak een...............................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.vkbanen.nl/banen/artikel/Dertigers-minder-gelukkig-dan-60-plussers-/820184.html

Door: Rob Vinke

Lees Meer Op: http://www.gidsonline.nl/?m=generic&f=detail&id=51754

Door: Erwin van Leeuwen

Bezoekers van het Europese Distributiecentrum van Nissan Europe zien 200 man aan het werk die zorgen voor een smetteloze levering van alle onderdelen die dealers in Europa bestellen. Dat is hun duidelijke missie en gevoelde verantwoordelijkheid. De verschillende teams hebben zelf bedacht hoe die missie te realiseren. Medewerkers zijn trots op hun prestaties en op de verbeteringen die ze bedenken en doorvoeren.

Hygiënefactoren voor duurzame inzetbaarheid
‘Die intrinsieke motivatie die medewerkers hier voelen is één van de pijlers van ons beleid om medewerkers inzetbaar te houden'. Aan het woord is Martien Heeremans, hoofd personeelszaken van de Nederlandse Nissan bedrijven. ‘Ik geloof sterk in Herzberg's hygiëne - motivatie theorie. Neem instrumenten als ouderenbeleid, ergonomie, levensfasebewust personeelsbeleid enzovoorts. Allemaal instrumenten die naar voren worden geschoven om duurzame inzetbaarheid te vergroten. Prima, maar dit zijn wat mij betreft allemaal hygiëne factoren. Maar geef medewerkers duidelijke doelstellingen en geef ze de vrijheid, verantwoordelijkheid en de juiste middelen, dan bepalen ze zelf wel het pad om die doelstellingen te behalen. En dat zorgt voor een enorme trots en motivatie. Dan willen ze blijven werken.'

Kaizen als vliegwiel
Deze opvatting past binnen de Kaizen-managementmethode die aanvankelijk was geïntroduceerd als tool voor middenmanagement. ‘Nadat we deze hebben vertaald tot een praktisch bruikbare tool voor de werkvloer ging Kaizen echt leven. Het model vraagt om een duidelijk richting (missie), maakt de organisatie transparant (fouten worden makkelijk opgespoord), verleidt medewerkers zelf na te denken over oplossingen en oorzaken (rationaliteit).

Het Ajax van halverwege jaren ‘90
Heeremans denkt dat Kaizen als een katalysator kan werken waardoor het team zichzelf blijft verbeteren. ‘Het lijkt op het Ajax van Van Gaal halverwege de jaren '90. De trainer had een team samengesteld met enorm potentieel. De spelers hadden zich het spelconcept volledig eigen gemaakt, voelden een missie, verantwoordelijkheid en ook heel belangrijk, ze maakten deel uit van een sociaal verband waardoor ze elke uitdaging aan konden. Totdat er spelers vertrokken.'

Gevaarlijke vergrijzing
Vertrek van ‘spelers' was ook één van de gevaren die de dynamiek bij het distributiecentrum zou kunnen verstoren. Er is weinig verloop. Daardoor is zestig procent van de bevolking in het distributiecentrum ouder dan 45 jaar. Behoorlijk........................................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.gidsonline.nl/?m=generic&f=detail&id=51741

Michiel Cobben

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/profiles/blogs/geen-versoepeling-maar-verduidelijking-van-ontslagrecht

Verantwoord leiderschap in het bedrijfsleven betekent niet alleen economisch gewin nastreven met oog voor duurzaamheid van de leefomgeving, maar ook verantwoordelijk zijn voor het welzijn van werknemers. Volgens prof. dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer van Stanford University moet het bedrijfsmanagement meer oog hebben voor het fysiek en psychisch welbevinden van werknemers, dat steeds meer onder druk komt te staan.

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=51683

Geen enkele grondstof is in zo ruime mate beschikbaar als kennis. En in de meeste gevallen is deze grondstof via internet ook nog gratis beschikbaar. Toch wordt er wereldwijd enorm geïnvesteerd in het verkrijgen van kennis, en dan in het verkrijgen van de goede kennis. Traditionele onderwijsvormen echter gaan juist daar vaak de mist in. Wanneer het om jongere kinderen gaat, kun je nog zeggen, dat ze een hoeveelheid basiskennis moeten bezitten. Maar als het gaat om gespecialiseerd onderwijs aan volwassenen, als bijvoorbeeld werknemers, dan zijn op kennis gerichte cursussen of trainingen niet meer van deze tijd. In traditionele vorm hebben hooguit vaardigheidstrainingen nog nut.

Lees Meer Op: http://zbc.nu/hrm/competentie-management/kennis-is-geen-asset-maar-wel-noodzakelijk/

by BILL WADDELL

I came across a great quote the other day attributed to Fulton Sheen. he said, "The time one has for anything depends on how much we value it. Thinking determines the use of time; time does not rule over thinking."

The old Arch-Bishop was talking about theological matters, of course, but his principle is pretty much universal. Kevin and I pound on companies to the point that it begins to sound like a broken record. They are struggling to compete, so they lay people off. Then they move to China. Then they buy a monstrous ERP system to keep track of the inventory they have scattered all over the globe oozing at a snail's pace through absurdly long supply chains. Then they file for bankruptcy, get broken up, or otherwise end up in bigger trouble then they were at the start. It is very, very predictable.

I recall once writing rather cynically (imagine that!) about a company that pursued basically this layoff/China/ERP strategy, suggesting that I could have developed the strategy they adopted for $20 and mailed it to them on a post card ... blacks belts, layoffs, China, etc... There was nothing to it that was not straight from the same formula every other big company seemed to be following.

While I disagree with his focus - too much product and too little process - I have to give Steve Jobs credit for original thinking. Too many -most, it seems - leaders seem to be either far too busy or far too risk averse to put an original thought into the business. But whether it is perceived lack of time or fear of coming up with the wrong thoughts, the good Bishop was right. Not taking the time to learn and think directly reflects the value many leaders place on such activities. They do not see creative thinking on their part as an important element of their job.

They are masters of other people's thoughts, and see their role as one of executing that plagiarised thinking. Leaders know the thoughts of others that were drilled into them in school, and lessons learned from watching others as they progressed through the ranks. Then when they reach the top, learning and thinking slam to a halt and they run the company with absolute conviction in what they have learned from others. If original thinking is needed, they hire a consultant - but most often a very predictable, reliable consultant like McKinsey who can be counted on to copy and paste the latest consensus elite business school thinking. The notion of setting aside time to learn more for themselves, think deeply and broadly, and devise a creative direction for the business never crosses their minds.

I have come to believe that one of the reasons many privately held companies pursue and embrace strategies and modes of operating that successfully buck the high labor cost, over-regulation, excessive taxes and other constraints that 'force' big companies to layoff, off-shore and outsource is the Hernando Cortes effect. Cortes is the conquistador who arrived at Vera Cruz Mexico in July of 1519 with 11 ships and 700 or so guys with the goal of confiscating the wealth of the million plus member Aztec empire. Upon his arrival he promptly destroyed his ships. By that act, he..........................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/11/think-about-it.html#ixzz1f1Zf7ZST

De komende 2 jaar verwacht 41% van de bedrijven een overschot aan personeel. Maar door de vergrijzing, ontstaat daarna alweer een tekort. Strategisch HR-beleid moet een oplossing bieden, terwijl HR-taken buiten de deur worden gezet.

Dat blijkt uit de Raet HR Benchmark. Dit jaarlijkse onderzoek is dit keer onder 454 organisaties is gehouden door TNS Consult en TNS Nipo in opdracht van HR softwareleverancier Raet.

Strategisch HRM
Door de recessie is op korte termijn een dalende vraag naar arbeid zichtbaar: 41 procent van de organisaties verwacht dat het personeelsbestand in de komende twee jaar krimpt. Op de middellange termijn houden bedrijven echter al weer rekening met een tekort aan personeel, mede als gevolg van de vergrijzing, waardoor veel gekwalificeerde werknemers in de komende jaren zullen uitstromen.

Organisaties overbruggen deze tegenstelling tussen een arbeidsoverschot nu, en het tekort op de middellange termijn, door in te zetten op strategisch HRM. Hierbij wordt vooral ingezet op strategische personeelsplanning en flexibilisering van het personeelsbestand, maar ook worden meer taken uitbesteed. Zo heeft (of gaat) maar liefst 59 procent van de organisaties één of meerdere HR-taken uitbesteden.

Samenwerking met de financiële afdeling
De noodzaak van strategisch HR-beleid heeft geleid tot een verdere professionalisering van HR en een toenemende aandacht in de directiekamer. HR neemt en krijgt steeds meer de ruimte om een leidende rol te spelen in de concrete invulling van de nieuwe organisatiestrategie.

Steeds meer HR-medewerkers hebben een bedrijfskundige in plaats van een sociale achtergrond. Deze andere achtergrond resulteert in een meer cijfermatige benadering, waardoor van nature meer samenwerking ontstaat tussen HR en Financiën. Zo geeft 40 procent van de HR-professionals aan dat zij samen met Financiën zorgen voor business cases en return-on-investment analyses.

HR-kengetallen nodig, maar weinig gebruikt
De samenwerking tussen Financiën en HR wordt gedreven door de noodzaak tot kostenbesparing en effectiever investeren bij een groot aantal organisaties. Daarnaast moet HR meer..................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.personeelsnet.nl/dossier.php?Id=5499&waar=9

Gabrielle de Sain

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/heb-jij-al-een-roze-badjas

Bas Spaapen

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/interne-communicatie-een-hrm-zaak

by BILL WADDELL

Admittedly I do not have the moral authority to comment on the hair business. The honest answer when I am filling out a form that includes a box that says 'Hair' is 'Yes, but just barely'. The story in the Arizona Republic about a hair salon called Mane Attraction is not about hair, however, so much as it is about business and customers so I am not on quite as shaky ground in writing about it.

It seems, when the economy is tough, people have a tendency to stretch the time between hair cuts. Instead of going to Mane Attractions every four weeks, people tried to save money by getting their hair cut or colored every six to eight weeks. Faced with such a decline in business on the order of 33-50%, most businesses would take one or more of a couple of predictable actions. They might discount prices in order to get people to come in more often - a coupon that expires in 30 days, for instance, might create an incentive to not wait so long. They might launch some sort of a scary ad campaign in an effort to convince people that their appearance would drop to levels that would take a toll on their careers and love life if they got too shaggy. Failing those strategies they would lay off staff by a corresponding percentage.

Not Kendall Ong and his wife, however. Instead of the typical responses that are aimed at convincing customers to do something other than what they have decided to do, or turning a declining market into employee problems, the Ongs went in the opposite direction. He started giving customers lessons in how to make their hair cut or coloring job last longer. He had his staff start tilting their recommendations to coloring and styling techniques that would hold out better for longer times. In short, when he saw that customers wanted to go longer between hair jobs he gave them the best products and services he could to accomplish that goal.

There are a couple of great lessons here: First is the..............................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/11/when-customers-want-lemons-sell-lemonade.html#ixzz1f1X92eDl

By Kevin Meyer

I really have no words. Well, you know that's impossible. But Austin Weber's article on Assembly Magazine's website that glorified the supposed lean accomplishments at Whirlpool nearly made me sick. I won't quote any of the article except suffice it to say it included lots of talk about tools. Not people.

The oft-forgotten second pillar of lean, respect for people. Forgotten by Whirlpool. Forgotten by Assembly Magazine.

We've followed the disaster at Whirlpool for several years. Back in August of 2006 we told you about their plans to lay off hundreds at their Evansville plant, while saying that "the company will continue to have committees explore lean manufacturing or efficiency practices." Sorry, that's not real lean.

As that post predicted, those committees didn't exactly do much good as in December of that same year we told you how they were adding a couple thousand people at their Clyde, Mason, and Amana facilities while losing a thousand at Fort Smith thanks to chasing lower labor costs to Ramos Arizpe in Mexico. Trading tens of thousands of years of experience for newbies and the associated huge training costs and quality curve... oh and a buck or two per hour in labor "cost." Sorry, that's not real lean.

A year or two later we updated the story, comparing Whirlpool to a company that does understand the value of brains - Rockwood. September of 2009 then brought the news that Whirlpool's Evansville factory was finally being closed for good - an expected but unnecessary death. In March of 2010 we were a little amused to learn that Whirlpool was now looking for trained lean folks... at a facility just a few miles from a facility they had closed... which had been filled with trained lean folks. Seriously. I can't make this stuff up. Sorry, that's not real lean.

Bryan Zeigler at the Lean is Good blog quoted Evolving Excellence in its own analysis of Whirlpool last year, but then added a comment that hits the nail on the head.

Yes, Mr. Colburn [Whirlpool VP] is giving the Evansville plant accolades but at the same time each employee has to deal with the slow agonizing pain of slowly seeing their factory move piece by piece.

Yep, as if that knucklehead version of lean stands even a tiny chance of being successful.

Real lean companies understand that success results from..........................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/11/assembly-mag-thinks-whirlpool-is-lean-really.html#ixzz1f1WHNhV3

Tom Eekelder

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/de-jaarlijkse-beoordelingscyclus-levert-niets-op-afschaffen-dus

Hoera, een klacht: een goudomrande kans om een klant voor eeuwig voor je te winnen. Het Britse HR-bureau The Mind Gym vertelt hoe je het tij ten goede keert:

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=51570

Als leiders vooral dienend moeten zijn, wie dienen ze dan? Zichzelf? Hun organisatie? De samenleving? Het verschilt per persoon. Mitch Maidique (Florida International University) ontwikkelde een model dat het dienende element van leiderschap op zes niveaus definieert.

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=51012

By Jon Miller

Transparency is a key word these days, especially when it comes to the mishandling of vast sums of other people's money by smart people who already have lots of it and should know better. Governments, institutional investors, corporate boards, I'm looking at you. Perhaps someday we will think back on these days as the sunset of the era when we put our money in fuzzy things called social insurance or individual retirement accounts, instruments which like a black box flight recorder we couldn't really look inside until it was pulled out of the flaming wreckage.

Luckily in some areas we have woken up from the state blissful trust in non-transparent processes. In the more down-to-earth business of making things, whether these things are food, durable goods, people healthy, or code, we increasingly demand to understand not only what goes in the process and what comes out, but what's happening in the process itself. Lean practices built on visual management and problem solving are increasingly taking root in manufacturing, healthcare, and the public sector processes, but still not enough at the level of the most critical level of making decisions.

One of the clients with whom I have had the pleasure of working for over a decade started out as a typical small factory filled with walls dividing office from office, office from factory, one factory area from other areas. Naturally, this also divided people. Special systems and processes were required to bring people together at specified times for specific purposes. These events were called meetings. None of these walls were transparent, none of them helped make problems visible or to solve them. Each time my friend Jeff knocked down one of them, the biggest question was "What took you so long?" Now Jeff and his management team sits in a ring of desks in the middle of the shop floor.

At the local and personal level, we know very well that looking someone in the eye is the best, if not the only way, to know what they are really thinking. Humans process 85% of sensory information through vision, the other 15% through touch, smell, taste, hearing. For dogs, smell plays the dominant role in their senses. In the parallel universe where dogs are people, this article is all about olfactory management and odorant-permeable walls. But I digress. We know that seeing is believing, yet we are comfortable erecting walls between ourselves and the truth, whether it be the facts on the gemba or the questionable purposes to which our trusted political leaders and financial advisors are putting our money. What odd behavior. Would a blood hound follow a trail of quarry it couldn't smell?

In the bookstore in Milan, pictured above, the mechanics of the escalator are exposed through glass walls. This creates an attractive visual effect when combined with the weathered brick of the building which was centuries old. Many lean thinking organizations replace opaque equipment covers, doors and walls with glass (or plexi glass) to make the condition of the working interior visible. Others do it to make the workspace appear more......................................

Read more: http://www.gembapantarei.com/2011/11/visual_management_and_glass_walls.html

By Kevin Meyer

One of the first things you notice upon landing in India, especially Mumbai, is the traffic. Rules? What rules? Every conceivable type of vehicle combined with people and bikes and even cows, all jostling for another inch. A visual is always better than words, so watch the first few seconds of this video and you'll understand.

India's concept of rules is interesting. On one hand they love bureaucracy and rules - the list we received for our trade show booth spelled out every possible contingency under the sun, plus the associated fines and penalties for not following them. On the other hand... well there are no traffic rules.

This isn't the first time I've encountered such chaotic traffic. Italy was very similar. And just as with India it was a little eye-opening. It looks like mayhem and out of control, but traffic moves. Slowly, but nearly continuously, and perhaps analogously to the tortoise and the hare you almost seem to get to your destination faster than you would with traffic light after traffic light.

After the Italy experience I discovered there's actually a...............................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/11/control-or-chaos.html#ixzz1f1Rm8wKe
at Evolving Excellence

By Jon Miller

The development team at Gemba Academy has been hard at work to bring you the latest online training course, Hoshin Planning. Currently the course includes 11 video modules, 1 quiz and 11 downloadable files. This brings the total number of videos to 211. While this might seem like an intimidating number, each video is focused on one main idea delivered in no more than 10 to 15 minutes of visuals and explanations.

The Hoshin Planning course follows the breakthrough planning process at the fictional Treetop manufacturing company. The 11 modules are organized as follows:

Module 1: Hoshin planning overview
Module 2: The mission statement
Module 3: Values and metrics
Module 4: The vision
Module 5: Treetop mission, values and vision
Module 6: Breakthrough objectives
Module 7: Annual objectives
Module 8: Catchball
Module 9: Hoshin review process
Module 10: Problem solving
Module 11: Reflection and organizational learning

Hoshin Planning is also........................................

Read more: http://www.gembapantarei.com/2011/11/hoshin_planning_-_new_online_course_from_gemba_aca.html

Lees Meer Op: http://www.intermediairpw.nl/artikel/vakinformatie/285287/vier-tips-voor-ontslag-in-goede-tijden.html

Maaike Huisman

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/competentiemanagement-op-de-schop

By Kevin Meyer

I just returned from two weeks in India punctuated by the culture shock of going straight to Singapore. Lots to see and think about, and others are right when they say that India will really change you - in many ways. It will take some time to digest what I saw and experienced, but eventually I'll share my thoughts with all of you, like it or not. In the meantime I thought I'd start with something a little less serious - but hopefully still thought-provoking.

Out here in California wine country - and in Texas and innumerable more rural states for that matter - well, heck just about everywhere in the U.S. - the truck is considered the vehicle de regueur. Even in these days of green thinking, high gas prices, and downsizing you still see hoards of huge empty pickups, vans, and SUVs all over the road. When you ask why you usually hear something along the lines of "you never know when I'll need to haul something" or "it's more safe." Some of us have gotten past such mental blocks and have downsized - in my wife's case from an SUV to a hot little Volvo C30. And yes, some do legitimately need to haul stuff, or kids, on a regular basis. I'm not knocking them.

Of course value means different things to different people. For some the value of a quiet ride with lots of space is important. For others there may actually be some strange value in showing off unnecessary wealth. Or value in a lot of extra, perhaps unnecessary, steel around the most valuable parts of their lives.

But seeing the opposite in India made me wonder about this particular waste of transportation - or waste of unnecessary transportation capacity. How much are we spending on "just in case" not to mention even when you do need it it is hauled in a very inefficient manner? Do you need to a big truck to haul a basket of eggs? What is the true cost - to you, your family, your fellow drivers on crammed motorways, to society?

So here are a series of photos. Obviously this is the other extreme and I'm not promoting going that far. But think about it next time you crawl into your big vehicle and then wonder why the traffic is jammed thanks to so many people transporting air.

Let's start with one that truly disturbed me - a mother nursing her baby on the back of a moped going 60 kph without holding on. If you've seen the chaos of Indian traffic you'll know why I was triply concerned.

This type of thing is not unusual - here's an entire family of four on a moped. Note the adults wear the helmets.

How about if you need to move a few inner tubes?

Or a few.................................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/11/another-waste-of-transportation.html#ixzz1f0sTKonV

Flexwerkers en zelfstandige ondernemers willen liever meer sociale bescherming dan een grotere mate van keuzevrijheid. Vooral een betere bescherming bij werkloosheid, staat hoog op het verlanglijstje.

Dat concludeert socioloog Fabian Dekker in zijn proefschrift ‘Flexible Employment, Risk and the Welfare State’, waarop hij donderdag 3 november 2011 promoveert aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.

Dekker onderzocht hoe flexwerkers en zelfstandigen denken over sociale zekerheid. Hij maakte daarbij gebruik van (inter)nationale data en diepte-interviews onder flexibele werknemers en ZZP`ers. Flexwerkers blijken een grotere behoefte te hebben aan sociale zekerheid, vooral als het gaat om compensatie van het werkloosheidsrisico. Het onderzoek van Dekker laat zien dat de risico’s die samenhangen met flexibele arbeid vooral terecht komen bij groepen die al relatief kwetsbaar zijn op de arbeidsmarkt.

Zelfstandigen willen ook sociale zekerheid
Uit het onderzoek blijkt verder dat zelfstandigen niet...............................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.personeelsnet.nl/dossier.php?Id=5480&waar=9

By Kevin Meyer

As regular readers know, I'm currently traveling in India for a couple weeks. Some business, some pleasure. Today I'm in Jaipur, the pink city of Rajasthan, and this morning we visited the Amber Fort high on a hill overlooking the city. Yes, we even rode elephants to to the top.

A painting on one wall of the fort, coupled with the explanation from our guide, made me stop and think. This is Ganesha, Hindu "elephant-god" and Lord of Beginnings and Wisdom.

The symbolism behind Ganesha is interesting:

Think about that. Listen more. Talk less. Peacefully digest all............................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/10/leadership-lessons-from-ganesha.html#ixzz1f0rB0jQZ

by BILL WADDELL

Every product has its life cycle, most of them not too terribly long. It seems to be a human reality that not too many people are good at taking a clean sheet of paper - a completely empty space - and conjuring up something entirely new; but once someone has done that, it is easy for others to see what has been conjured up and improve on it. So Chrysler creates the concept of the mini van and has a few years in the sun, but soon enough every other car maker takes the initial idea and makes mini vans that are better or cheaper. On the other hand, processes to continuously improve existing products, and processes to produce them have no practical limits. They also are much harder for competitors to discern and imitate. The whole world knows what product is being sold, but who knows what is happening in the bowels of the factories and engineering offices to make them?

For years - decades, in fact - this basic reality was Toyota's key to success. I can't recall a single time when the auto world or the consumers were wowed by one of Toyota's new products. Their products were never bad, of course. They were stylish enough and had enough new features so as to be competitive, but there were never screaming headlines from the car shows marveling at the breakthrough in car styling from Toyota. What they did was made a steady stream of cars that were 6's or 7's on the design scale and ran them through processes that were virtually 10's on the cost, quality and delivery scale. A Toyota may not have turned many heads when it passed by, but the price was right, and the quality and reliability were off the charts.

The business press and the politicians don't understand this because they don't don't know much about the processes it takes to make things. They know companies primarily as a set of products. The one with the coolest, most exciting products seems to them to be the best company. Wall Street probably doesn't understand either, but more important, it doesn't care. A fantastic new product can have a bottle rocket effect on profits even if it is produced via lousy processes, and Wall Street loves bottle rockets. During Chrysler's brief mini van run, profits soared and stock prices rose dramatically. The profits and stock prices soon returned to their dismal levels once the innovative product run was over because profits are a function of processes in the long haul - but no one on Wall Street cares about the long haul.

The pharmaceutical companies are another great example. They are all about innovative new drugs, and use patent protection to shield them from the consequences of lousy manufacturing processes. As a result, they lose the long term value from their products to generic manufacturers who thrive on good processes, and the big pharmas live and die (more often dying lately) with their product innovation.

This basic principle is at the heart of my criticism of Apple a few weeks back that generated the first out pouring of genuine hate mail I have received since I began writing on Evolving Excellence over six years ago. They were written by people who were passionate fans of Apple products, but not too well tuned into the.. .......................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/10/products-versus-processes.html#ixzz1f0qXbKqu

Marjon Bohre

Deze week zag ik op tv een theoretisch biologe die onderzoek doet naar spreeuwenzwermen. Een fascinerend gezicht is het, zoals die grote zwermen vogels door de lucht bewegen alsof het één lichaam is. Ze vliegen in een hoog tempo en maken schijnbaar willekeurige bochten en kiezen steeds een andere richting. Maar steeds zonder botsingen. Bijna onmogelijk om je voor te stellen dat dat kan.

In moderne organisatietheorieën wordt ook steeds meer gesproken over zwermen, zwermorganisaties. Dat kan betekenen een groep van zelfstandigen die samen werken, maar ook groepen van kleinere of middelgrote organisaties die met elkaar producten of diensten leveren. In soms wisselende samenstellingen en met wisselende projecten en doelen. Misschien wel net als de spreeuwenzwermen haast willekeurige richtingen kiezend.

Hoe kan zo’n organisatievorm werken? Een paar dingen vielen me op aan de biologische uitleg, die volgens mij ook opgaan in zwermorganisaties.

- Er is geen leider in de zwerm. Wie op het ene moment achteraan vliegt, kan op het volgende moment aan de zijkant vliegen en dan opeens weer voorop. Zo ook met zwermorganisaties. Er is geen sprake van een formele hiërarchie. Een tijdje kan iemand de leiding nemen, maar dat is niet gebaseerd op positie of macht, maar meer omdat die persoon of groep (toevallig) voorop vliegt in die richting. Kun je dat niet accepteren of wil je je leiderspositie behouden dan kun je na een tijdje merken dat je de zwerm uitgevlogen bent. De richting is veranderd zonder dat je het in de gaten had.
- Allemaal dezelfde snelheid: als iedereen een constante snelheid aanhoudt dan is er geen kans op botsingen. Pas als snelheden verschillen wordt het risico van ongelukken groter. Werk je in een zwermorganisatie, dan is het van belang dat alle partners elkaar kunnen volgen en bijhouden. Dat vergt veel van het delen van kennis en inzichten. Bewust tijd..............................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/profiles/blogs/zwermorganisaties-vliegen-op-dezelfde-snelheid

Door: Rob Vinke

Lees Meer Op: http://www.gidsonline.nl/?m=generic&f=detail&id=51226

Er zijn veel mensen die enthousiast beginnen met het inzetten van Social media voor hun bedrijf. Er zijn er ook veel die een tijdje gedemoraliseerd afhaken. In deze blog wat tips over hoe je dat kan voorkomen. Hoe kan je van Sociale Media een succes maken voor jezelf?

Tip 1 Elk Social Medium is een middel
En dus geen doel op zich. Ik kom nog wel eens wat mensen tegen die zomaar beginnen met als doel te gaan Twitteren. Ik vraag me dan altijd af wat het hogere doel is wat deze mensen voor ogen hebben. Waarom Twitter jij? En wat wil je er mee bereiken? Schrijf dat nou eens op.

Tip 2 Maak een plan
Het zakelijk inzetten van Sociale media is onderdeel van je campagne-, marketing en/of communicatieplan. Heb je dat niet. Ga daar dan eerst mee aan de slag. Anders wordt het risico dat het een rommeltje wordt te groot.

Tip 3 Met wie ga je delen?
Bepaal wie je gaat volgen; of te wel welke doelgroep bedien je. Bepaal dan ook welk Social Medium voor jouw het meest interessant is. Schrijf je in op een aantal en ga eerst eens neuzen. Bepaal dan welke je actief gaat gebruiken. Begin met een enkel medium; ook interactie is belangrijk en wordt gewaardeerd. En dat moet je wel aan kunnen!

Tip 4 Wat wil je delen?
Bepaal voor je gaat zenden wat je wilt delen. Heb je al een blog of een e-book of whitepaper geschreven? Of heb je dat niet? Steek je tijd primair in het.................................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.nononsancy.nl/blog/34-een_succes_maken_van_social_media

Sander Oldenkamp

HR zou de kaarten moeten uitdelen als het gaat om veranderingsprocessen.

Strategische HRM
‘De afdeling HRM of personeelszaken moet zich door de veranderende arbeidsmarkt steeds meer bezighouden met strategische bedrijfskeuzes. Waar zij tegenwoordig vooral bezig is met korte termijn zaken, zoals het verzorgen van een goede personeelsadministratie en het ondersteunen bij het personeelsbeleid, wordt dit in de toekomst anders,’ dit concludeert salaris- en HR-dienstverlener ADP in haar white paper.

Dode hoek
Innovatiekracht is een gebied waar de HR’r van de 21e eeuw de spil van zou kunnen zijn. Innovatie-goeroe en auteur Stephen Shapiro wijst erop dat veel bedrijven een enorme ‘dode hoek’ hebben als het gaat om de inzet van medewerkers op het gebied van innovatie. In zijn boek Personality Poker wijst op het.................... .........................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/de-invloed-van-hr-op-innovatie

Het werken buiten de reguliere kantoortijden is in veel gevallen funest voor de relatie. Wie al dan niet weloverwogen veel 's avonds, 's nachts en in de weekends werkt, loopt een verhoogd risico op problemen, blijkt uit het promotieonderzoek van Kadri Täht aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

In ongeveer een op de vier gezinnen in Nederland werkt iemand buiten de standaard arbeidstijden. Dat heeft vaak te maken met de aard van de baan, maar soms kiezen mensen ervoor vanwege de zorg voor kinderen. Als een van beide partners buiten standaard arbeidstijden werkt, komt er meer tijd voor kinderen vrij, in het bijzonder voor vaders. Maar de winst in zorgtijd voor de kinderen gaat ten koste van gezamenlijke tijd van de ouders, toont Täht aan in het onderzoek. Hierdoor is er een verhoogd risico op een slechtere relatie en uiteindelijk zelfs een verhoogde kans op het uiteenvallen daarvan.

Men zou waarschijnlijk inderdaad verwachten dat mensen overdag hun zorgtaken overdragen en zich richten op hun werktaken zodat het op deze manier niet nodig is om te werken in afwijkende tijden. Täht laat zien dat mensen het zich niet kunnen veroorloven of het niet willen om de zorg uit handen te geven. Dit is natuurlijk alleen een optie als het werk uitgevoerd kan worden in kantooruren, voor de gezinnen waar de afwijkende schema's het gevolg zijn van beroepsmatige redenen blijft het probleem van de kinderopvang.

Financiële compensatie
Toch zijn de Verenigde Staten - waarin de conclusies van het onderzoek van Täth al eerder werden getrokken - en Nederland lang niet in alle opzichten hetzelfde wat betreft niet-standaard arbeidstijd. In de VS is avond-, nacht- en weekendwerk veel sterker verbonden aan banen die wat betreft beloning en status niet zo aantrekkelijk zijn, terwijl ook de financiële compensatie geringer is dan in Nederland.

Verder zijn er in ons land veel.........................................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=research&f=detail&id=51185

Kwaliteitsprofessionals in de zorg hebben vele verantwoordelijkheden. Met minder kosten moet betere zorg geleverd worden. Eenvoud lijkt het nieuwe toverwoord. Roos Vonk is een van de sprekers tijdens het Kwaliteit in Zorg-congres op 9 november met als thema Alles draait om eenvoud.

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=51131

By Jon Miller

Imagine my disappointment, upon hauling my gardening implements across town after a long and difficult season of tilling the soil, to be informed by the store proprietor that they could not in fact help with the repair of my hoes. It's no longer easy to find a good repair shop in this disposable, consumerist America.

If the adage of the cobbler's children going without outdoor footwear holds true, the root cause of this situation may be that the sign repairman is................................

Read more: http://www.gembapantarei.com/2011/10/ambiguous_visual_controls_ignage.html

Dick Klinkhamer

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/ncd-versoepel-het-ontslagrecht-ok-maar-is-dit-eigenlijk-wel-zo

By Kevin Meyer

As regular readers know, I'm currently traveling in India for a couple weeks. Some business, some pleasure. Today I'm in Jaipur, the pink city of Rajasthan, and this morning we visited the Amber Fort high on a hill overlooking the city. Yes, we even rode elephants to to the top.

A painting on one wall of the fort, coupled with the explanation from our guide, made me stop and think. This is Ganesha, Hindu "elephant-god" and Lord of Beginnings and Wisdom.

The symbolism behind Ganesha is interesting:

Think about that. Listen more. Talk less. Peacefully digest all good and bad in life. Actually our guide, a Hindu, described.....................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/10/leadership-lessons-from-ganesha.html#ixzz1d2mc8700

By Jon Miller

One of the world's leading efficiency trends monitoring agency, the Organization of Practitioners in Lean Enterprise Advancement and Sustainability (OPLEAS) issued a statement today revising the expected date of peak lean from 2089 to as early as 2027. Reading a prepared statement, OPLEAS Chairman Jacques Schpratz said:

"With the advanced exploration major deposits of muda in nearly every known industry on all continents, based on the current rate of muda removal, and projecting the continued rapid worldwide pace of buildup of muda reduction capacity, our studies have concluded that half of the global supply of muda will have been exploited before the end of the next decade."

First proposed in 1939 by amateur Swiss economist Henri Medé Miller, peak lean is the halfway point in the exploitation of the global muda supply. Viewed for over half a century as a purely theoretical model with no practical application, the Miller Curve was only rediscovered and brought to the attention of the lean conversion community by Prof. Emilio Roberts of the Northeast Institute for Lean Studies in 1989.

Pressed for clarification by OPLEAS members on what the date revision meant in practice, their PR department issued a follow up statement, "We do not wish to be alarmist, but we are advising all OPLEAS members to prepare, well in advance of the previous guidance date for peak lean, for a future without enough room for improvement to supply their professional needs."

Lean manufacturing, which was first practiced in crude form over 100 years ago, involves the conversation of muda into a wide variety of resources including energy, space, time and customer satisfaction. The lean conversion process spread slowly after World War II from Japan, beginning in the automotive manufacturing sector and moving into other countries and sectors over a half century. The pace of muda reduction accelerated dramatically with the adoption of the so-called "Toyota method" of lean conversion by Western corporations in the early 1990s.

"It's unbelievable how quickly lean exploration has expanded in the past 10 years," says Justin Thyme, an independent lean efficiency consultant based in Clearwater, Florida. "We have seen lean manufacturing turn into lean healthcare, to lean IT, lean banking, lean government, even lean dentistry! In the developed world, chances are if you use it, it has lean in it."

In the early days of muda exploitation (1980 - 2010), the lean conversion industry believed the global supply of muda to be virtually inexhaustible. Based on a limited supply of muda extraction capacity, and a lack of effective models to apply these extraction techniques to government and service sectors, the problem of "peak lean" was seen as a faraway concern. However today the mood has changed.

An recent survey of 7,000 independent lean conversion professionals conducted by the North American Consortium for Holistic Organizational Synergies (NACHOS) appears to support the peak lean advisory from OPLEAS. "The findings confirmed what our members have been telling us for the past few years. They are tapping reserves of muda in peripheral regions and sectors, in some cases ones they thought they would not need to drill into for at least another two, maybe three decades." said Ameliora Conti, a spokesperson for NACHOS.

As a result of the expected shortage of new fields for muda extraction and the oversupply of lean conversion capacity, in July of this year the average price of the unrefined lean consulting billable hour (abbreviated blb) dropped below $81.49 for the first time since 1985 and continues to hover between $82/blb and $91/blb in the U.S. exchange.

"We thought the hybridization of lean with six sigma would delay peak lean by at least 10 to 15 years," said F.T. Lavaleurdépée, Director General of 6SSA, a coalition of the top six Six Sigma associations in Europe and North America, "but we were wrong. Oh là là."

A mysterious phenomenon of "sector jumping" may also be speeding the approach of peak lean. Anders Davidsson, founder of the Society for Limiting In-Process Stock (SLIPS) revealed, "Kanban has leaped like a monkey virus from painted lines on the factory floor to lines of ink on office walls. We never thought kanban could cross the concrete-carpet barrier. SLIPS researchers are in the field looking for correlations of this phenomenon with drops we are seeing in-process stock across all sectors levels worldwide."

Some have lobbied the government to open up uncharted sectors of the economy to exploration of significant hidden reserves of muda, particularly those so-called black and grey markets. Others have warned against the clear dangers of doing this. The business community has argued that government spending is the best way to create additional reserves of muda, while others advocate unrestrained entrepreneurship.

According to technology columnist Cris Erie, "Innovation is the..........................................
Read more: Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei

De zzp’ers, interimmers, uitzendkrachten en payrollers rukken op. Een op de drie Nederlanders heeft al geen vast contract meer. De manager krijgt de aansturing van al deze flexibele mensen op zijn bord.
 

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=news&f=detail&id=51016

Er zijn veel methoden voor leiderschapsontwikkeling, maar helaas stellen de meeste bij nader inzien nogal teleur. Misschien bieden de recente opbrengsten van de neurowetenschappen nieuwe, bruikbare inzichten in de relatie tussen brein en leiderschapskwaliteiten.

Hersenonderzoek is hot, en levert steeds meer toegankelijke kennis over menselijke gedrag en leren die in het dagelijks leven relevant kan zijn. Wij zijn ons brein van neurobioloog Dick Swaab staat niet voor niets al maandenlang in de boeken-toptien.

Drie Amerikaanse managementwetenschappers vroegen zich af of al die recente neurowetenschappelijke kennis aanknopingspunten biedt voor het beoordelen en ontwikkelen van inspirerend leiderschap. Ze onderzochten of en zo ja hoe de werking van iemands hersenen invloed heeft op diens leiderschapskwaliteiten.

Coherentie
In sociaal-cognitief neurowetenschappelijk onderzoek wordt vaak de factor coherentie – de samenhang of communicatie tussen verschillende delen van de hersenen – gebruikt als indicator voor gedrag. David Waldman, Pierre Balthazard en Suzanne Peterson bekeken van vijftig topmanagers met verschillende visies de coherentie in de frontale rechterhersenhelft. In dit deel van de hersenen zetelen die eigenschappen (fantasie, creativiteit, beeldende vermogen, emotionele reacties) en processen (reguleren en uitdrukken van emoties, doelen stellen, visionair gedrag) die bij uitstek van belang worden geacht voor goed leiderschap.

De uitkomsten van het onderzoek lieten een opvallend patroon zien: leiders die hoog scoorden op coherentie in de frontale rechterhersenhelft hadden sterk maatschappelijk getinte visies, leiders met een lage rechter frontale hersencoherentie hadden een visie met een laag maatschappelijk gehalte. Volgens de onderzoekers biedt deze uitkomst ten minste twee perspectieven voor de ontwikkeling van leiderschap:

• bepaalde ‘gebreken’ in de hersencoherentie kunnen wellicht worden aangepakt met neurofeedback (hersenen blijken namelijk vrij ‘buigzaam’ te zijn), waardoor belemmeringen die goed leiderschap in de weg staan worden opgeruimd;
   
• uitgebreider en specifieker onderzoek naar de neurologische component van inspirerend leiderschap kan een meer realistische en op de unieke neurologische blauwdruk van het individu gerichte leiderschapsontwikkeling opleveren.

Wat is een inspirerende leider?
De onderzoekers hielden zich ook bezig met de vraag wat een inspirerende leider nu.......................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.kluwermanagement.nl/?m=professional&f=detail&id=51034

Jacco van den Berg

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/profiles/blogs/leidinggevenden-kunnen-niet-coachen

Marjon Bohre

http://www.hrbase.nl/profiles/blogs/hr-superhelden-hoe-dapper-ben-jij

By Jon Miller

We in the West waste nothing so prodigiously as food. One could argue time, but it's hard to say what purpose time serves and whether it's possible to know the way in which we spend it is wasteful or meaningful. That quickly becomes a philosophical or religious question, while squandering good nutrition is more practical matter that is hard to deny.

There may be a billion people in the world who not regularly have access to enough food. They are hungry. Yet we do not have a capacity problem on our planet in terms of food production, we have a minor problem of logistics, and a major problem of political will. As individuals, we can become the change we want to see in political will by raising awareness of how we waste food every day.

Borrowing the 7 wastes of production from Taiichi Ohno and the Toyota Production System, here are the ways we waste food.

Overeating. Akin to overproduction, we consume more than we need. This may be enjoyable in moderation, but outside of it creates various personal and social costs, not least of which is illness and medical bills.

Overstocking. This is the waste of inventory of food, of buying in bulk and stockpiling. Warehouse discount store volume buying creates a spike in demand which amplifies backwards along the supply chain in what is known as the bullwhip effect, causing producers to make and supply in batches. The demand-supply signal is dulled, since our actual pace of consumption may only be one pack of yoghurt per day but we are forced to buy packs of 16.

Transportation. We consume foods produced so far away that it requires sophisticated supply chains to get the food to our door. Never mind the hidden costs of inexpensive, all-season fruit from faraway places, we are exposing ourselves to truncation of supply lines in the event of natural disasters. If there were a major disaster that prevented food from arriving by ships and trucks, where would most of us turn?

Overpackaging. The more layers of paper, cardboard, metal or plastic that needs to be removed before handling the edible stuff, the more material and energy we are throwing away. We need packaging because we.........................................................

Read more: Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei

By Kevin Meyer

A hallmark characteristic of GM, Ford, and Chrysler was and for the most part still is their propensity to try to bash suppliers into submission on pricing. Forget partnering with suppliers, the primary tactic was to threaten in order to obtain the lowest short-term price. This inevitably led to a reduction in quality and overall supplier performance. In contrast there was Toyota which had a reputation of working with suppliers to obtain mutual benefit.

"Had" is perhaps the operative word. For it seems even Toyota is succumbing to competitive pressure and is changing... and not for the good. From SupplierBusiness:

Toyota to suppliers – reduce prices or face being replaced. Toyota’s stark message to its supply base is a sign that relations between suppliers and OEMs are becoming increasingly strained. In a sign of the increasingly adversarial relationships currently being seen between OEMs and suppliers, Toyota is reportedly now telling parts suppliers in Japan to drastically reduce prices or face being replaced by overseas rivals.

The conditions reportedly came at an August meeting in Nagoya between Toyota and members of its 219 strong ‘Kyoho-kai’ of domestic suppliers, a group that includes Denso and Aisin Seiki.

Times they are a'changing. Unfortunately. Toyota's rapid growth led to a leadership that is not fully steeped in the Toyota culture. This is what created the missteps during the recent quality crisis - a focus on........... ..................................

Read more: http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2011/10/toyota-follows-the-detroit-three.html#ixzz1d2hXM2Mx

Successen op het werk moeten benoemd en gevierd worden. Daarover is 65,8 procent van werkzoekend en werkend Nederland het met elkaar eens. Daarentegen blijkt aandacht voor persoonlijke gebeurtenissen aanzienlijk minder relevant. Deze resultaten komen naar voren uit onderzoek van Unique onder 4.000 respondenten, waarin werd onderzocht wat een werkgever aantrekkelijk maakt.

Andere gewoontes die hoog scoren op het gebied van interpersoonlijk contact op kantoor zijn: dat de deuren van de leiding altijd open staan en dat iedereen elkaar met voornaam mag aanspreken. Deze gewoontes worden gezien als een belangrijk onderdeel van de bedrijfscultuur. Eerder onderzoek toont aan dat sfeer en cultuur bepalend is voor het werkplezier van medewerkers.

Persoonlijke gebeurtenissen belangrijk
Raymond Puts, algemeen directeur bij Unique zegt hierover: 'In ons onderzoek naar aantrekkelijk werkgeverschap brengen we in kaart welke gewoontes het meest op prijs wordt gesteld. Successen vieren en benoemen is.......................................

Lees Meer Op: http://www.vkbanen.nl/banen/artikel/Successen-moeten-benoemd-en-gevierd-worden-/707414.html

Arjan Hamberg

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/forum/topics/nu-nog-even-niet

Max van Liemt

Lees Meer Op: http://www.hrbase.nl/profiles/blogs/een-blauwe-hr-oceaan

Standplaats

Rijkevoort

Jij bent ondernemend, enthousiast, vernieuwend en inspirerend. Je weet al veel, maar je bent altijd op zoek naar meer. Zo is het ook met Royal FrieslandCampina. We willen de meest professionele, succesvolle en aantrekkelijke zuivelonderneming ter wereld worden. We zijn, ook na 130 jaar ervaring met melk, nog steeds gefascineerd door onontdekte mogelijkheden. Ruim dertig internationale merken zijn daarvan het levende bewijs. Innovatie staat centraal bij alles wat we doen, maar onze innovaties komen niet alleen uit onderzoekscentra. Integendeel, ze ontstaan in de hele zuivelketen. Denk aan Operations, Marketing & Sales, Research & Development of Finance & Accounting. Bij elke stap streven we naar het verbeteren van onze prestaties. Dat kan alleen als jij bij ons goed op je plek zit. Met volop ontwikkelingsmogelijkheden en opleidingen op maat. Wij bieden kansen aan starters én aan ervaren professionals. Nu is het aan jou om die kansen te benutten.

Functie-omschrijving

Onze kaasfabriek in Rijkevoort verwerkt met ongeveer 60 medewers in volcontinu (24/7) jaarlijks melk tot ca. 30.000 ton merken kaas. Om dat zo te houden, hebben we jou nodig. Want jij bent een stevige en inspirerende verandermanager, die iedereen mee krijgt om het continu verbeterprogramma in te bedden in onze organisatie. Door je kennis en ervaring met verbetermethodes en -technieken, gecombineerd met praktische toepasbaarheid binnen de locatie én jouw doortastend optreden weet je mee te bouwen aan de structuur van van Continuous Improvement en betrokkenheid van onze medewerkers. Je bent de aanjager van het verbeterprogramma en fungeert als sparringspartner voor het locale managementteam. Om op koers te blijven plan en coördineer je de verbeteractiviteiten, neem je deel aan of faciliteer je meetings én bewaak en analyseer je de bereikte resultaten. In de door jouw georganiseerde audits laat je met de betro! kken medewerkers graag de voortgang zien en heb je ervoor gezorgd dat alle benodigde documentatie eenduidig beheerd is. Binnen de locatie, maar ook over de locatie heen draag je bij in het (beleid van) continu verbeteren en deel je best practices. Ben jij deze inspirerende Continuous Improvement manager en heb je de ambitie om op termijn door te groeien tot bijvoorbeeld Continuous Improvement Specialist? Dan kijken we graag uit naar een onderhoud met jou.

Functie-eisen

• WO/HBO werk -en denkniveau, bij voorkeur in de richting van technische bedrijfskunde
   
• Kennis van Continuous Improvement programma's, bij voorkeur WCOM
   
• Ervaring met het leiden van verbeterprogramma's
   
• Ervaring in een productie omgeving

Aangeboden

Je salaris wordt gebaseerd op de zwaarte van de functie, je ervaring en opleiding. Maar FrieslandCampina beloont niet alleen in geld. We vinden het belangrijk dat je blijft groeien. Want die ontwikkeling komt zowel onze producten als jouw carrière ten goede. Daarom investeren we in relevante opleidingen en trainingen binnen jouw vakgebied. Ook op de werkvloer merk je dat de nadruk ligt op het uitwisselen van kennis tussen collega's onderling. Zo leer je ten slotte het meest.

Solliciteren

Heb je vragen over bovenstaande functie of wil je gewoon wat meer weten over FrieslandCampina? Neem dan contact op met Sander Frijters , Corporate Recruitment Consultant a.i. 06-38326106. Klik hier om te solliciteren.

Hoofdtaken & Verantwoordelijkheden

• Het zelfstandig opzetten en succesvol uitvoeren van projecten binnen een operationele divisie, waarbij de doelstellingen binnen de afgesproken termijn wordt behaald.
• Het mede verantwoordelijk zijn dat het behaalde succes behouden blijft.
• Ondersteunen, begeleiden, coachen en opleiden van de Green Belts.
• Het kunnen omgaan met alle niveaus en functies binnen de organisatie.
• Het actief communiceren over de projecten en Business Improvement binnen de organisatie, conform het Business Improvement communicatieplan.
• Meten, analyseren en optimaliseren van bestaande processen.
• Uitvoeren van goedgekeurde projecten door het coördineren en controleren van de activiteiten van de betrokken partijen, volgens de Business Improvement methodiek.
• Uitdragen van de waarden en de filosofie van Business Improvement binnen de organisatie.
• Creëren van acceptatie in een veranderingsproces.
• Signaleren en rapporteren van stagnaties tijdens de realisatie van een project.
• Het Business Improvement beleid mee opstellen, uitdragen en verbeteren.
• Het begeleiden van de selectie en de definitie van Business Improvement projecten.
• Voortgang en financiële resultaten (samen met Financial Controller) van projecten formeel rapporteren in de Project Selection, Tracking & Reporting Tool en in project reviews.
• Organiseren en geven van Awareness -, Yellow Belt - en Green Belt training.
• Het aandragen van voorstellen tot het verbeteren van het Business Improvement training materiaal.
• 3-5 jaar relevante werkervaring Lean of Six Sigma. Indien Black Belt niveau niet geheel is afgerond bestaat er de mogelijkheid deze te behalen. HBO/Academisch niveau. Technische omgeving.

Contact info:tel: +31 [0]6 3832 6106 |sanderfrijters@witte-raven.nl

Contact info: tel: +31 [0]6 3832 6106, sanderfrijters@witte-raven.nl

Europa/Azie .interessante process improvement projecten doen op industrieele plants voor multi national; Master degree, ervaring in manufacturing/engineering.Vloeiend in Engels en/of andere Europese taal. Vaste positie met doorgroei mogelijkheden.

Contact info: tel: +31 [0]6 3832 6106, sanderfrijters@witte-raven.nl

Profiel: net afgestudeerd in wiskunde of econometrie, met de ambitie en het talent om te promoveren aan de universiteit, en de ambitie en het talent om zich te ontwikkelen tot consultant; Amsterdam en bereidheid tot reizen (NL)

Contact info: tel: +31 [0]6 3832 6106, sanderfrijters@witte-raven.nl