Getting the Most Value from Your Holiday Season
The Thanksgiving Day feast is barely digested – yet there is still a week or so of leftovers remaining. I remember, as a child growing-up in Endicott, New York, always marveling at the variety of dishes that could be made from the remnants. With so many leftovers from every dish served during the prior day’s feast;…
Maintenance that Adds Value to Operational Excellence: “Implementation of TPM in 20 Steps for non-Japanese Manufacturers”
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) originated in Japan in 1971 as a method for improved machine availability through better utilization of maintenance and production resources. Within years TPM evolved as a management approach and spread all over the world. T stands for Total, P stands for being Productive and M is representing Maintenance / Manufacturing / Management. TPM has…
Managing Lunch Costs to Save for Trip to Rome
The Big Idea: How can executives (or any of us, for that matter) use what we know about inventory management to make better choices about personal consumption — and improve our lives by working toward new goals with the money saved? Brian and his wife, Tonya, plan to pack their lunch from home for a year to…
You Only Get One Opportunity to Make a First Impression
Imagine this scenario: An upstart high-tech firm in Silicon Valley has an idea for an offering which promises to transform the lives of tens of millions of people across the United States. It has adequate funding and an abundance of time for product design and development leading-up to its launch. To be sure, there are a…
Lean Management Journal – “Lean Assessments: The Rally Point of the Journey” by Joseph Paris: October 2013
“Lean Assessments: The Rally Point of the Journey”, by XONITEK’s Joseph Paris, emphasises the importance of self-assessment prior to and during any lean journey to ensure your organisation arrives at its intended destination. Plus, continued media coverage of the Operational Excellence Society. Published in Lean Management Journal in the October 2013 issue. Download PDF
Performance Metrics – Their Content and Structure Can Have a Major Impact on the Results Achieved
A performance metric – any measurement used to gauge an organization’s performance in a specific area (usually important area) and is updated routinely with new data. Data can tell a story; unfortunately it’s often not formatted to ensure everybody sees, understands and acts on that story. In many organizations, especially those with poor performance results, the…

