Blog
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The articles below explain how to overcome common barriers to improvement and how industry leaders sustain the gains where others are not able to.
This is based on our work with well-known and award winning organisations. There is much to learn from them. If there are any topics you would like is to add, please get in touch.
For more detailed articles check out our DAK Academy website guide which contains links to videos, articles and downloads.
Creating a Smart Technology Transition Cadence
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The fundamentals of how to ratchet up manufacturing effectiveness haven't changed. It's still a voyage of discovery with front line workers in the engine room. What has changed is a greater availability of real time data which enables better quality feedback and closer collaboration between production, maintenance and support functions.
Turning that potential into business gains is the equivalent of switching from letter post to emails or newspapers to smartphone news apps where the need for the post room or trip to the newsagent has disappeared. Something that requires collective leadership and a managed transition.
The starting point is to bring together the right people in a working session to understand the current reality, confirm priorities and develop realistic and achievable actions plans. Here is how Digital Accelerator Training workshops support that process,
Making Better Use of Skills
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The site had begun to put into place actions to counter the impact of the future retirement of experienced maintenance personnel but recognised that this issue was a symptom of weaknesses in other areas. For example although they were making good progress with Lean and TPM they needed to improve results at tier 1 level. In addition they had been working on use of mobile devices, improving data historian, and condition monitoring but needed to improve how data was used to support day to day decisions.
We helped this organisation to build on existing good practices using our Lean Maintenance diagnostic model to assess their current status and identify next steps. Here is how we did that.
Leading Smart Technology Projects
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Delivering gains from physical Smart Technology assets such as Robots, Cobots or 3D printing will involve linking up with and adapting existing systems, processes and ways of working. As a result, the implementation of Smart Technology projects involves the evolution of the current management ecosystem to adapt to the new technology.
Furthermore, the lack of this type of holistic approach is a common cause of failed Smart Technology applications.
Why is that?
Problem Detection and the Journey to Excellence
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Being able to spot the tell tale signs that something has changed and acting on it is a key enabler of the journey to excellence.
Not only is this the capability to trigger actions that deal with issues before they become a problem it is also at the heart of learning about causal links to that support progress to process optimisation.
What does it take to make that happen?
What TPM Practitioners Can Learn From Top Gun
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Aircraft Pilots are trained using key words to hone their instincts to apply a concept known as Threat and Error Management (TEM) to avoid "common threats, errors and undesired states" The concept of "Normal Conditions" in Manufacturing Operations adopts a similar approach to deal with the causes of human error which typically contributes to around 50% of recurring problems and unplanned stoppages.
Mastering The Improvement Glide Path
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A Development Plan for CI Facilitators
As organisations improve performance, the nature of the improvement glide path changes.
For example, as organisations develop the ability to reduce unplanned stops, the role of those involved in shop floor leadership, planning and engineering activities changes from dealing with day to day issues to refining how the operations runs.
As organisations make progress on their improvement journey, CI Facilitators capabilities should remain at least one step ahead of the needs of the organisation. How do they do that?
Delivering Lasting Improvement
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I’m coaching a Continuous Improvement Facilitator who recently complained that getting front line personnel time released for improvement activities is difficult because of the tendency for managers to chase output above all else. In addition, recurring problems continue to constrain output so there is pressure to keep lines running. Over the years, headcount has been reduced so there is little room for manoeuvre... or so it seems.
The dilemma faced by this CI Facilitator is not uncommon.
Why is that?
Delivering the Full Potential
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Problem Solving or Centres of Excellence, Which works best?
The main weakness with problem solving is that it is designed to start with a problem. What happens when you have something that works ok but could work better.
Meeting the challenge of introducing best practices, new products, technology and legislation means that the quest for excellence something that problem solving methodologies aren't well suited to deal with.
Find out why they are well supported within a Centre of Excellence approach.
Developing Connected Worker Capabilities
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The enhanced connectivity of digital systems creates a new ecosystem which connects up workers and enables the use of slicker more effective ways of working. Delivering the gains from this involves more than the technical challenge of linking up systems. It involves raising skills and engaging the workforce with using the new ecosystem to improve plant and workflow effectiveness. That includes new areas of discipline around data management, use and analysis.
Technology is moving at such a pace that academic courses to develop these skills are always playing catch up. Recruiting people with these skills is also difficult for the same reason. Even when this is possible, one of the biggest tasks involves developing data layers and improving the condition of data. Something that is difficult to do without a good understanding of the business processes. There is a better way to develop those capabilities.
The TPM Digitisation Roadmap
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A review of team leader daily routine identified 17 separate IT systems to carry out 33 routine tasks. Linking up those systems into a more connected ecosystem saved 45 minutes of Team leader time per shift.
These gains were welcome but the real gains from Digitisation were achieved through the enhanced connectivity between the physical and digital worlds which make it easier to spot potential problems early and take steps to deal with them before a failure occurs.
These gains included: