mcdwpadmin

‘Front-loading’ – back in the day this was an exciting new concept for washing machines. No longer did you have to load the washing from the top, with two separate drums, one for washing, one spin drying. Space requirements were cut in half as washing and spinning now took place in the same drum, and equally … Read more

It’s not often I feel compelled to write to the media, but on this one, I had to… This article incorrectly, in my opinion, states that the pandemic was a double whammy for low paid employees as businesses rushed to automate yet further. Whilst, obviously, machines can’t catch Covid, therefore eliminating the need for ‘machine distancing’ and … Read more

“Lean is fine in manufacturing, but doesn’t apply in my business/sector…”. I always worry when I hear that. It means that the person saying it doesn’t know enough about Lean, and has already closed the door to a vast amount of opportunity. Deming did not work with Ford until 1981, by which time the fantastic … Read more

Finally, the light has been switched on at the end of the Covid 19 tunnel.  This week’s news on the success of the phase 3 trials for the Pfizer vaccine is a relief for everyone. Whilst China and Russia are already progressing vaccinations, for most of the western world, this is the first time that … Read more

…was not the headline this week, but so easily could have been. Since the start of the pandemic, the media have repeatedly reported on how it normally takes 10 years to develop a vaccine, and how, with coronavirus, experts were hoping to reduce this down to just one year. Now, as anyone who runs a … Read more

My first question was, ‘Why are you asking for my help?’. My client responded “I don’t know if I am doing things in the best way, and I always like to make sure everything is done in the best possible way.” I followed up by asking him, “Why did he think he wouldn’t be running … Read more

‘An IT issue’ was the rallying cry when over 12,000 cases of Covid were missed from the reports and not followed up by the track and trace teams… ’An IT issue’ my arse! It’s always a shame when leadership fail to hold themselves accountable. As at least one newspaper reported, the average GCSE student knows the … Read more

When Covid first struck, the impression of many was that the impact would last just a few months… This flew in the face of the experts who were already predicting longer term impact and the likelihood that a vaccine would take years to develop… The opinion moved on, with many thinking it would be over … Read more

‘Leadership is Lonely’ is the last of Colin Powell’s 18 Rules of Command (click here for link), that I first saw published whilst he was still serving in the US Army. Since then they have morphed into ’13 Rules of Leadership’ and have softened a little, probably to make them more palatable for civvy street. … Read more

Change – ‘We need to change’ is the rallying cry I hear so often when I move onto a new project. The list of opportunities to improve is endless, I always find, once I get into discussion with the stakeholders. A ‘brown paper’ exercise flushes out hundreds, if not thousands of improvement opportunities (UDO’s in … Read more