In the world of effective leadership, one invaluable skill often goes overlooked—Gemba. While Gemba is often associated with process improvement, its true power lies in its ability to transform leadership communication. In this blog, we’ll explore the critical role of communication in Gemba and provide you with two essential tips to enhance your Gemba skills […]
By John Quirke, Author In 1988 as a recognition for his work across a broad range of industry sectors, Shigeo Shingo was awarded an honorary Doctor of Management from Utah State University. Over the course of his life Dr. Shingo wrote eighteen books on the improvement of work and the processes that support the effectiveness […]
By Sonja Allen Have you ever considered… How many meetings you have a week? How many of these meetings could be an email? How many of these meetings have few or no results? How many rabbit holes do your meeting conversations go down? How regularly do you talk about what really matters, in a focused […]
By MEGAN JAMES, European Business Development Manager I previously shared the S A Partners implementation model for Enterprise Excellence and how to use this to build effective training programmes. In case you missed it, you can find it HERE. I received some great queries specifically about the design of the Leadership element so I wanted […]
Well, ok we may be a bit slow starting but I promise you that we have caught up fast. Over the past three years with the impact of COVID19 we have seen a significant shift in the way we all learn, we have become more comfortable with the use of technology in how we develop […]
I came in for a bit of teasing by a work colleague recently over my uneasiness with the term True North. We were working with a leadership community in a large automotive business, and he used the term True North, which brought about an obvious and over exaggerated wince from me which raised a few […]
Successful Re-Accreditation of Training, Assessment & Certification Services to the Lean Competency System (licensed by Cardiff University) S A Partners and Cardiff University – through the Lean Enterprise Research Centre and the Lean Competency System have a long-standing heritage. After 12 years, we are now celebrating the successful re-accreditation of S A Partners Trainers, Coaches and […]
In this month’s SHINGO Forum we welcomed Seani Devlin, the brilliant and engaging Operational Excellence Lead at Abbvie, Ballytivnan. Seani shared with the group both the site and his personal insights on their Shingo journey. We invited Seani along to the Shingo Forum to talk about his employee engagement; tiered meetings and visual management. Having […]
For me, this is one of the most critical principles within the Shingo Model for leaders to grasp at a core, personal level. The power contained within this principle is, I believe, the source of real cultural change within organizations. Leaders, particularly in the technical and compliance-based environments where I spend a lot of my time, often […]
What makes an Organisation Great is its ability to manage and motivate its people and leaders, which is where Developing Leadership Skills come into play. There are millions of quotes, thousands of books and hundreds of professors all available to give advice to organisations, or teach us specific techniques. The problem with all this, is […]
We are pleased to announce that Colin Scott, partner and head of our USA region, will be speaking at the up coming Manufacturing Shingo Summit in Detroit Michigan, which takes place on the 24th & 25th September this month. Before joining S A Partners, Colin previously worked as a managing director and CEO in the […]
S A Partners are delighted to be attending this years Shingo conference at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, which is being attended by Prof Peter Hines, John Quirke, Chris Butterworth and Colin Scott. The Shingo conference is attended by organisations from all over the world, and runs over a week. At the conference it highlights […]
Its Effective leadership that makes an organisation Great. It’s the ability to manage and motivate its people at every level of the business. There are millions of quotes, thousands of books and hundreds of professors, all available to give us advice or teach us a specific technique. This approach ends up almost like a cockeril […]
Over the years, Lean has evolved from primarily a tools-based approach to a focus on an end to end systems view and developing people at all levels of an organization. If done correctly, managers enable people on the front lines to be confident enough to change and improve their processes. Focusing on the middle management […]
This month see’s the new issue of the ADS Advance magazine. Since yesterday was International Women’s day, we are pleased to announce an excellent article on Women working in the Aerospace and Defence sector, which also included a section on our own Dr Toni Whitehead at S A Partners. Toni had a successful career with […]
In the same week as our Continuous Improvement conference hosted at Massey University, Chris Butterworth, MD Asia Pacific, led our world class, Lean Leadership seminar in Auckland. This two-day workshop is designed for business leaders and senior managers looking to embed continuous improvement practices in their organisations, and Chris shares how to create a sustainable […]
We are pleased to announce that a book Prof. Peter Hines, S A Partners Chairman, has contributed to, has won the prestigious Shingo Research Award for 2017. The book, titled ‘The Routledge Companion to Lean Management’, has collected contributions from well-known lean experts and up-and-coming scholars from around the world. Prof. Peter Hines contribution, along […]
What does change management mean and how do people in organisations react when they experience change management activity? This paper focusses on a range of change management approaches whilst considering complex change in productivity improvement environments. This paper covers the following: The Kubler Ross Model Maslow and the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ The Lean Iceberg Model […]
This book is an excellent addition to the body of publications on the systematic application of Lean Thinking and Continuous improvement. Interestingly, whist the title quotes ‘Financial Services’, the learnings and practical application of the approaches shared within are relevant to other business sectors pursuing productivity improvement or CI in the pursuit of ‘excellence’. Anyone […]
The S A Partners team joined over 600 delegates at this years 29th Annual Shingo conference in Atlanta. Professor Peter Hines , John Quirke , Colin Scott and Chris Butterworth supported the conference and shared insights with many delegates. There was a fantastic range of speakers proving great insights including Brenton Harder from the Bank […]
Consider the enterprise excellence model to be a body – as a model it creates exceptional customer value, as a body it creates healthy happy life. The body is made up of systems that enable life to happen. Digestion, movement, growth, thought, breathing etc. All these bodily systems have to happen in an intergrated way […]
Simon Elias of the Cardiff University Lean Competency System (LCS) recently published an article on the alignment of training and application – how to get the best out of your capability development opportunities. This article talks about Linking lean training to the application of knowledge in the workplace is critical if it is to be […]
Chris Butterworth, S A Partners Asia Pacific head, has written another blog for the Shingo Institute which is entitled ‘The Principle of Flow & Pull’. In the blog Chris highlights the fact that this principle is not just for manufacturing, but can be applied in many different ways. Drawing on a recent trip to Nairobi, […]
