Change happens. Every business environment requires continuously changing strategies, processes, tools and skills. Implementing a Continuous Improvement program is one way a company can harness their response to change and create competitive advantage. As companies launch Continuous Improvement programs, they need to have a plan. Effective programs require the following 5 elements leading to successful and sustainable …Read More

Focusing on one methodology for continuous improvement can limit progress, diminish innovation and restrain the organization’s ability to realize its full continuous improvement potential. In Part IV of this series, we talk about using the best practices and best tools for your Continuous Improvement program. Continuous improvement best practices include: …Read More

At Group50, we have brought back to life an old form of Value Stream Mapping called the Brown Paper Exercise. Long before computers were invented, the only way to do Value Stream Mapping was on paper.  Utilizing paper allows you to be produce maps that are not limited to the size of a computer monitor or projection screen. It is interactive, fun and can be done via a hybrid model of in-person and virtual.

Group50’s Brown Paper Exercise is an important tool that we use every day as part of our Value Stream Mapping process.  It provides an engaging, non threatening way for …Read More

The most successful way to look at unneeded business processes and their costs to the business is through a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) project. VSM provides a clear view of how various business processes are related to each other and assesses the need for those processes and how efficient they really are.

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Purchasing Best Practices were important to two supply chain optimization projects we recently completed for a University and a $400M manufacturer of consumer products. All companies purchase goods and services and have various organization structures, business processes and technology backbones for handling it.  In both projects, these were significantly different from each other. Irrespective …Read More

Kaizen is part of a Continuous Improvement strategy where stakeholders (customers, suppliers, employees and contract workers) at every level work together to implement process improvements at the business level and on the shop floor.  These improvements may be …Read More

In Part V of the series on Driving Continuous Improvement, we discuss the importance of utilizing the right combination of continuous improvement tools and data. This is where the rubber meets the road. Once you have your program aligned with your business strategy and …Read More

The 5 Phases of Lean Deployment provides organizations who are looking to become world-class leaders in their industry a roadmap for getting there. When undertaking improvements, it is usually easy to establish the “what”: …Read More

Many people believe that continuous improvement is a culture.  It certainly is in the eyes of the Japanese and many others, but is continuous improvement really a culture or something else? …Read More

Healthcare performance improvement and healthcare performance management are intertwined and require a holistic approach to setting the right targets and accountabilities.  The complexity of all the things healthcare teams need to be good at makes this a daunting task when going it alone. Hospitals need to excel in these primary areas: …Read More