Measuring and Improving Service Productivity Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell ** Measuring and Improving Service Productivity ** There's a generally held view in the research literature that improving service productivity is a challenging if not illusive goal, in the main due ... May 6, 2021
Why TPS is not "Lean for The Masses" ....hint, the answer is in the name! Alexander McDonnell The Machine That Changed the World At the risk of being branded a heretic, I'd like to propose that, in their seminal books on Lean (The Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking), Womack and J... Dec 26, 2020
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Alexander McDonnell That quote from Albert Einstein has a particular resonance today, given the recent troubles of one of our (Irish) national political parties, Fine Gael and it's handling of the "Alan Shatter affair". ... Dec 26, 2020
Confusing Common Practices with Best Practices Alexander McDonnell I work quite a bit with helping senior management teams improve the performance of their organisations and one of the most common issues I come across is the confusion between "common practices" and "... Dec 26, 2020
When Fixing What's Broken Doesn't Work Alexander McDonnell *Don't Improve Your Legacy Business System, Shed It!* For over 30 years now I have been engaged by organisations in the service and knowledge-work sectors to help them improve their performance. In al... Dec 26, 2020
Joined-Up Thinking and the "Germ Theory of Management" Alexander McDonnell If I hear another commentator, while bemoaning the ills of our country (any country but in my case Ireland), say that "what we need is some joined-up thinking" and say it as if it's some "as-yet-to-be... Dec 26, 2020
Today's Problems Come From Yesterdays Solutions. Alexander McDonnell The above quote from Peter Senge's great book "The Fifth Discipline" is one of those profound pieces of wisdom that, even when said out loud,, doesn't always capture the depth of the insight. Edward D... Dec 26, 2020
What is Lean Enterprise Excellence & Operational Excellence Alexander McDonnell Great stories have a * p * *... Dec 26, 2020
Why "Cause" beats "Urgency" every time. Alexander McDonnell I admire John P Kotter, I have been an avid reader of his books and an evangelist for his message about leading change. In his book "Urgency" Kotter says he believes that "the single biggest error peo... Dec 26, 2020
Transforming Lean: Is Leans Roots in Japanese Religion and Culture holding it back? Alexander McDonnell Christian Wittrock from Aarhus University in Denmark wrote an interesting paper* in 2015 tracing Leans roots in Japanese religion and culture. The abstract from his paper states: "James Womack, Daniel... Dec 26, 2020
Service Sectors Biggest Problem Solved: How Long is a Piece of String? Alexander McDonnell Anybody familiar with fractals will know that the answer to the question is "infinite". Fortunately most teams in service and knowledge work organisations don't need to calculate the length of your co... Dec 26, 2020
Easiest Way To Improve Performance? Step 1: Stop Making Things Worse! Alexander McDonnell I work with service and knowledge work organisations and it's often quite surprising to them how much they can improve performance by just stopping making things worse. Of course, its not that people ... Dec 26, 2020
