In the current world it is not enough to be good. To survive in business, a company must continuously improve if not reinvent itself, in search of Excellence. Which is however a moving target: the improvement effort never ends. This book, designed for university students, new managers, and young entrepreneurs, shows how to lead the journey towards Excellence in a pragmatic way. From the focus on customers’ needs, because everything that a company does must be oriented to customers and to provide value to them. To seeing the waste in processes and learning which tools help to chase and reduce it. Realising finally, that re-engineering processes is possible in Operations as well as in other functions of an Industrial company, and even in Service companies.
ISBN: 978-2-8399-3779-5 (to be published soon)
Publisher: mediata sa (www.mediata.ch)
This book is dedicated to all those who belong to the “Homo Faber” group, the makers, who realised that just making is not enough. They made repetitive efforts to do better what they were doing, making mistakes, sometimes badly failing, but getting back up again and finally reaping results.
It starts from the foundations of Logistics, Purchasing, Production and Quality set in my book Operations Management - Homo Faber at Work. It shows “how to do it better” by applying continuous improvement mindset and methods to processes, in search of Excellence. Which is integral part of the activity of an Industrial engineer.
The focus is on running and improving Operations, but many concepts and tools are applicable to other functions within an industrial company, as well as to Service companies. Because the search for Excellence is a must for all. It is a survival issue.
Strangely, even after more than fifty years that systematic improvement methods were introduced in the business world, many companies never used them, or used them half-heartedly or without the needed consistency, or forgot them. But without continuous effort to improve and transform, a company is doomed to die. “Doing it better” should be the task of everyone in a company, on top of their daily business.
This book is not a summary of academic publications or other books: it explains pragmatically concepts and tools known since decades, adding the author’s direct experience in applying them at several projects in the industrial world.
“Transformation is everyone’s job” (E. Deming)
1 – Towards Excellence
2 – Change
3 – Customer Value
4 – Chase Waste
5 – How to see Waste
6 – Tools for a Better Organisation
7 – Tools for Better Processes
8 – Manufacturing cases
9 – Non-Manufacturing cases
10 – Implementation