Explore the 3-Day TapRooT® Virtual Root Cause Analysis Course! by Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems What can you learn in a TapRooT® virtual root cause analysis course? Since October 2020, I have only taught virtual workshops. This pivot comes after over 15 years of teaching 400-plus in-person courses around the world. My 3-Day TapRooT® [...]
Seven Virtual Workshop Facilitation Tips by Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems Given my Boomer age, I will admit right up front that I was not a fan of a speaker-led virtual learning space prior to the pandemic. Virtual content delivery did not seem to provide the potential for enough interaction and skill practice. Now, [...]
Tips for 5S Implementation Success by Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems Organizations can gain many benefits when they install a 5S process. Many organizations, however, fail to successfully accomplish this goal. A 5S implementation effort can be a challenge, as every staff member's job will change if the process is truly effective. Here [...]
How to Measure Process Improvement Effectiveness By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems This post on how to measure process improvement effectiveness began as an Industrial and Systems Engineer magazine article I wrote a few years ago. Back then, I had just completed another national Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Program site visit. On that particular site [...]
Best Practices in Mistake Proofing and Corrective Action Writing Workshop By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems Join me for my 2-day 'Best Practices in Mistake Proofing and Corrective Writing' workshop at the 2022 TapRooT® Summit - May 2-3, 2022! Why Do the Same Problems Keep Coming Back? Errors happen daily. Fortunately, our work system [...]
Effective Work Team Job Preparation Best Practices By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems The following article comes from my book, “Error Proof – How to Daily Goofs for Good.” You can buy the print or eBook at Amazon.com. Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail I was destined to cross paths with the notion of [...]
Why Our Corrective Actions Fail by Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems Tens of thousands of corrective and preventive actions have crossed my eyes and passed through my ears over the past forty-plus years. Over time, I began to see a definite pattern. It wasn’t the obvious ‘weak fix’ pattern many people see at [...]
How to Write Effective Corrective Actions By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems A well-written corrective action clearly defines how to modify a process, or alter a piece of equipment, in order to reduce the potential for future human error or equipment failure. When we modify a process, we can add, or delete, one [...]
Keys to Effective Work Team Rule Compliance By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems The following article comes from my book, “Error Proof – How to Daily Goofs for Good.” You can buy the print or eBook at Amazon.com. When I work with groups to help them improve their processes, one of the first questions [...]
Four Steps to Effective Rule Enforcement By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems One of the key reasons people make mistakes is that they don’t follow the rules. There are multiple reasons to explain why people break the rules, but we all too often fail to effectively address them to improve rule compliance, let [...]