Optimization and improvement are very different activities. Optimization is about playing within the known constraints as best one can. Improvement, on the other hand, is about breaking through these constraints to reach a much higher level of performance.

Budget season is upon us and the COVID pandemic is sure to complicate the process. After working to keep employees safe while operating, slow/pause operations that saw demand plummet, and ramp up production of critical items, companies must now also return to the work of saving money.

Have you ever wondered how the news networks are able to call the outcome of an election when only a tiny fraction of the votes have been tallied? For those of you in food & beverage manufacturing, the process used is quite similar to the way a department of weights and measures inspector looks for underweight product in a retail store.

Have you ever peeked behind the counter at Starbucks and seen the screen that the drive through “operator” has in front of them? This screen has four big numbers on it. Two of these are the time the car has been at the window and the time since it placed its order. These two numbers help the Starbucks employee know how they are doing keeping the drive through line moving.

As a leader, your people will likely come and tell you they have solved a problem that has been plaguing your business. What they may mean, however, is that they have fixed it. Just because a problem goes away or is not occurring anymore does not mean that it has been solved.