And why the difference between the two always compounds Every plant manager has watched it happen. A changeover gets rushed at the start of second shift. The operator swaps the change parts but doesn't verify something critical. Maybe it's a standard that's been written down, maybe it's not. The line runs for forty minutes before someone notices there's something wrong (bottles dented, labels crooked, wrong materials, wrong print, etc). Now there's a quality hold, a financial

There are Three Systems Every Plant Needs and They Have to be Implemented in Order There are three core systems in every manufacturing operation. Most plants only build one of them and it's the wrong one to start with. Your first system is Accountability. It's the system that gets people to follow a process. Your second system is Continuous Improvement (CI). It's the system that makes the process your people are following better as you learn things. Your third system is Daily

Every organization I've ever walked into has the same meeting problem. Not too few meetings, but too many of the wrong kind. Let me give you nine laws that explain your calendar and a case for rethinking where decisions actually belong. Sayre's Law: The passion of the argument is inversely proportional to the stakes Wallace Sayre, a political scientist at Columbia University, observed that, "in any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the

There are two kinds of accountability and only one works. Negative accountability is what most companies default to. Something goes wrong. We hunt for the rule that wasn’t followed and we punish the person who did it. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: even if the rule was trained, what if nobody ever checked whether it was being followed? That employee probably deviated dozens of times before the disaster. Likely, other employees are deviating too. The inductive principle o

Ever go into a meeting and see a Pareto Chart that is linear? Or maybe there is a slight rise at the top... but clearly it's not in accordance with the Pareto Principle? Pareto Principle: Also known as the 80/20 rule, it states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes—in ops, 80% of downtime might stem from 20% of factors. This one is essential for setting priorities in a leadership role. When leading change, the temptation is to pull the most easily accessible dat

Imagine a state where time seems to slow down, distractions fade away, and every action feels effortless and precise. This is "flow," a psychological concept coined by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, describing optimal immersion where challenges perfectly match skills, leading to heightened focus, intrinsic motivation, and superior performance. In flow, decision-making is automatic and subconscious. Movement is precise and efficient. People become superhuman in their ability to perf

Source: xkcd.com New tasks with unknowns over-run estimates no matter how much buffer you build-in. Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law." This law really highlights the risk of running any task outside the control of a clear process. To be clear, in a well-designed, trained, and controlled process you will find tasks are repeatable and predictable. When you design process, you design every step to minimiz

Tasks expand to fill the available time, turning quick jobs into drawn-out ordeals. Parkinson's Law: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." This one is essential for the time manager in leadership and every leader manages time. When leading change and doing new tasks that have unknown time requirements, the temptation is to set loose deadlines, assuming teams will finish efficiently on their own. Parkinson's Law reminds us that to combat this, we