Happy Easter everyone! Please egg-scuse the pun – but what a great opportunity to blog about Poka Yoke. Poka Yoke is a Japanese term for error proofing. This is key whether designing a new process or improving an existing one. Poka Yoke devices are often simple and inexpensive, sometimes we don’t even notice they are…
DetailsIn his (awesome) book ‘Learning to See’, Mike Rother writes, “whenever there is a product for a customer, there is a value stream. The challenge lies in seeing it”. We couldn’t agree more, and are enthusiastic advocates of the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) approach. But maybe something in the language of it, or in the…
DetailsWhen creating and growing a business, leaders typically focus most on acquiring and organising the skills, tools and other key resources required to achieve objectives and deliver results. The priority is often the tangible and visible components of structures, facilities, technology, infrastructure, partners/suppliers, customers, products and services. The organisation’s most precious resource meanwhile, its people,…
DetailsHave you heard of, or are you taking part in RED January? RED stands for Run Every Day. Those signing up make a commitment to run (or move!) every day in the month of January to help raise awareness of the mental health charity Mind, and open up conversations about mental health. I can proudly…
DetailsThe Kano Model was developed by Noriaki Kano in 1984 to outline different types of customer requirement. The model shows how the fulfilment of each type impacts on customer satisfaction, and demonstrates that more is not always better. That’s not to say a Scrooge-like approach should be adopted – just that there is a smarter…
DetailsThe Project Champion (or Sponsor) plays a vital role in a Lean Six Sigma project. The individual – we always recommend that this role is undertaken by one person – is responsible for giving strategic direction to the project team, providing resources, helping overcome issues, reviewing progress and ensuring the team remains focussed. While the…
DetailsThe CQI’s International Quality Awards celebrates the achievements of quality professionals across the globe who have made exceptional contributions in their organisations. The 22 November awards, were held at the historic Merchant Taylors’ Hall in the City of London. Fifty-four per cent of all entries came from quality professionals working internationally with entries from over…
DetailsAs a Continuous Improvement practitioner do you find that improving your existing products, processes and services is not always sufficient to meet your organisation’s goals? Do you have stakeholders who are looking for a step change in performance rather than a slow evolution. Essentially, what is required here is a radical re-think of how things…
DetailsThere’s a talk on TED that I came across recently that features BLACK, the Japanese YoYo World Champion. In it, he talks about finding his life’s passion (YoYos) when he was 8 years old, and devoting every spare minute to practicing, in order to show the world just how spectacular the YoYo can be. His…
DetailsJoin us in a very warm welcome to Chris Merriman and James Dwan to the Catalyst team. Chris formally joined us as a Director into Catalyst in April. Having been an MBB at Honeywell before he joined Sun Microsystems as lead MBB back in 2002, he went on to join Unisys as their Global Quality…
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