Little Things – Tiny improvements that everyone in your business can do

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I believe that innovation begins with many tiny improvements.

Here are a few:

If I move this tool three feet to the left it will save us 40 hours per year.

Janice added a red sticker to those orders with credit problems.  This has saved us hours in the last two weeks.

Willy painted a 2×4 red and placed it on a cart to make it easy to see when something is missing

If I could see what was next immediately I would be so much more productive.

We moved Fred right next to Jane and it did wonders for communication, quality and work balance

If we could somehow make it easy to distinguish part 100 from part 200 we would make fewer mistakes in picking and assembly

If I knew about that revision change it would have saved 5 hours of rework and hundreds of dollars of material.

If we were certain we had everything we needed (parts, material, information, tooling) we would improve delivery, reduce costs, reduce frustration and improve quality.

We have so many opportunities to improve (some of us refer to them as problems), that there is not enough time to examine even half of them in the near term.  The answer, as Bruce Hamilton says. Is “everybody everyday” but how do you get there?

Many of us underestimate the impact of tiny improvements.  Tiny improvements limited or no administration, they are “just do it” applications of common sense.

Let me ask you this………………..when and what was the last tiny improvement made in your business?  Gemba walks (Competing podcast) will help you find these and acknowledge the efforts of those who made the improvements

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