measurement

If your lean journey is important, shouldn’t you measure it? How should you measure it? This is a common question I receive from my advisory clients. I don’t think there is one right answer, because in part you need to be clear about what question you’re trying to answer, who

Last week my IndustryWeek column titled Don’t Waste Your Metrics was released. It has generated a significant amount of discussion, as many companies find themselves in the situation of measuring far too many things, yet still not feeling like they know what is going on. I plan to build on

In my last post on the theme of looking at metrics as either valid or reliable and the balance between them, I wanted to examine the impact on decisions in the board room. So far we have covered the following: Valid or reliable – take your pick Valid or reliable

Yesterday I wrote about how measurements are often in conflict between being valid indicators and reliable indicators in Valid or reliable – take your pick. How can we possibly break this tension so there is no tradeoff? One method, staying within the domain of measurement, is a stronger use of

Last week we had an interesting conversation. It started as a discussion about projects, particularly how you make sure you projects are going in the right direction. Ideally, you should choose how you’re going to be measuring yourself before, during, and after the project. If you wait to the end

On our LinkedIn Group we get many good discussions and questions. We had one from Roger Cook that I thought was worth repeating and expanding upon. Here is the question: I’m curious if any of you have foolproof ways of insuring your metrics (which lean folks are famous for measuring

How do you talk about time? Time is like money. We invest both time and money. We spend both time and money. We should (although most do neither) budget time and money. We waste both time and money. The only difference between them is that I can always get more

Do you know what your supply chain really costs you? Most companies don’t. They do know how much they spend on suppliers, but that’s just the transaction costs. There are many other true costs in your organization that are affected by the design of your supply chain. The design affects

I recently received a question about measuring andon, which I’ve extracted here: Based on your experience, when a company is trying to implement an “Andon” system, what are the key measurements you would use to evaluate the effectiveness of the escalation and help system?