In this book the authors use simple and direct language to describe a step-by-step process that can be used to improve the way you run your organization through the use of Teams. They describe three types of Teams that are very effective in dramatically improving business performance. They are the Self-Directed Cross Functional Team, the Mistake-Proofing Team and the Workout Team. Each type of Team is unique but all have common characteristics: All the Teams build an incredible amount of effectiveness by sharing ideas among and between Team members. All three types of Teams use similar problem-solving tools. All three types improve communications. Communications between individuals and organizations can't help but be improved when fellow employees sit next to each other working on a common goal. The Teams are cross functional, some by design others by their nature. These Teams will change the culture of your organization by getting the people closest to the issues involved in continually improving your business no matter what your business is. These processes will work in virtually any business. Real life examples, which are easy to relate to, are used to show how successful these Teams can really be. Employee involvement is no longer a luxury that is reserved for corporate giants; it is a necessity for all organizations of any size that intend to thrive. If an organization is going to be successful in the future, it must use and optimize all the productive resources at its disposal-this includes all its employees' talents through employee involvement in a proactive manner at all levels. The Teams described in this book are the drivers that will deliver the necessary level of employee involvement.

The Authors describe how to create a very efficient money-making organization to survive and thrive in today's tough business environment by becoming a 'World Class" Organization. In today's fast-paced rapidly changing business environment your Company can no longer just count on the Business Leader or even the Leadership Team to manage the business. You must involve all your employees in the success of your Company. Your van driver is no longer just a driver. He or she must come to work every day seeking better ways to do his or her job. Every employee must be aware of the processes they use to execute their duties and continually be searching for ways to do their job better-error free. Continually improve or perish. You must create a very efficient money-making organization to survive. This means you must be able to compete with the best of companies. You do this by becoming a "World Class" Organization. By that I mean you must deliver the highest quality services and products at the lowest possible cost when your Customer wants them - no sooner or later. Quality, price and delivery, this is what we all want when we buy goods and services. To be "World Class" you must optimize all the productive resources at your disposal. The talent-your employees, the equipment-your business systems employed properly and materials that meets or exceeds your Customers' requirements. Quality levels approaching Six Sigma (3.4 failures per million opportunities) with an ultimate goal of zero defects in everything you do-failures and errors virtually eliminated. Cost reduction becomes part of the culture-credits and refunds must be kept near zero. Keeping Customer commitments all the time, which includes delivering when your Customer wants you to. This is where your business must be. The Lean drivers described in this book are the tools you will use to build your Lean organization. What we are trying to do here is to encourage the use of the tools that virtually any company - big or small - can afford and can put to good use in short order. The idea is to pay for the cost of the implementation as it is being implemented and then some. A return on your investment should come immediately after you put the tools to work in your business. The Lean drivers are Mistake Proofing; Self-Directed Cross Functional Teams; The Workout Process; Flexibility; Succession Planning and Expense Control. Inherent in all of these tools are the elements of employee motivation and empowerment. Anyone of these tools can be used separately but taken together they will enable you to build a very lean money-making business. Author Ronald L. Buckley is a recognized operations Lean business leader, with over thirty-five years of experience and expertise in improving quality, reducing costs and delighting his Customers-recently as a VP for General Electric. Lucinda Buckley has been an organizer, trainer and facilitator to a variety of groups and organizations. Currently, Ron and Lucinda are having fun as Consultants helping CEO's and Management Professionals grow their companies by optimizing all available resources. An investment made in reading this book will prove to be fruitful not only to the reader but also to all those individuals over whom the reader has direct and indirect influence.

In today's fast-paced rapidly changing business environment - the new reality - you must involve all your employees in the success of your Company. Every employee must be aware of the processes they use to execute their duties and continually be searching for ways to do their job better-error free. You must create a very efficient money-making Lean organization to survive and compete with the best of companies in the new business reality. This means becoming a "World Class" Organization optimizing all the productive resources at your disposal. The talent-your employees, the equipment-your business systems employed properly and materials that meet or exceed your Customers' requirements. The Strategic Planning Process and Lean business drivers described in this book are tools that virtually any company - big or small - can afford to use to create a "World Class" Company able to compete in today's new business reality. A return on your investment should come immediately after you put the tools to work in your business. The Lean drivers, best applied with a robust Strategic Planning Process, are Mistake Proofing; Self-Directed Cross Functional Teams; The Workout Process; Flexibility; Succession Planning and Expense Control. Inherent in all of these tools are the elements of employee motivation and empowerment. Any one of these tools can be used separately but taken together they will enable you to build a very lean money-making business.

This book is a how-to manual for implementing a Statistical Process Control program for any type of business. It takes the unnecessarily complicated, sometimes-intimidating Statistical Process Control concept - thoroughly dissects and demystifies it while making it very easy to understand with a minimum of effort. While Statistical Process Control was originally created for manufacturing, this book contains many examples of how SPC can and should be applied in virtually any business to dramatically eliminate waste, improve quality and profits. The book also dispenses with much of the little used theoretical concepts of statistics that can bog down and increase costs of a quality improvement or Six Sigma program and presents SPC in a "meat & potatoes" approach designed to allow anyone to be able to master the basics of Statistical Process Control regardless of their level of education. This book is the product of the author's many years of experience learning about and teaching Statistical Process Control and his desire to share his knowledge in the hope that he can help others avoid some of the common mistakes usually made.

Author Ronald L. Buckley describes a step-by-step process that will enable manufacturing companies to become efficient money-making organizations, able to compete and win in the new economy. The author draws on his own manufacturing experience to share real life challenges, describing situations that readers involved in manufacturing anything will find relevant, interesting and useful. He explores in detail such vital topics as: Continuous Improvement: a process which not only improves profits but also develops employees' skills and knowledge, making them a greater asset to their company. Lean-flow Manufacturing techniques, with productivity-raising programs that create flexibility and improve throughput velocity, such as: linked-cell Kanban pull systems and quality improvement techniques including Statistical Process Control, Six Sigma, Poka-yoke (Mistake Proofing), First-Pass Yield Improvement and Out-of-Box Failure elimination. "Cross-Functional Self-Directed Teams," in which employees from many different areas of the business work as a team to improve the Company's competitive position, as well as their own self-confidence and job satisfaction. Author Ronald L. Buckley is a recognized operations leader in the manufacturing world, with thirty-five years of experience and manufacturing expertise in improving quality, reducing costs and delighting his Customers. Lucinda Buckley has been an organizer, trainer and facilitator to a variety of groups and organizations. Currently, Ron and Lucinda are having fun as Consultants helping CEO's and Management Professionals grow their companies by optimizing all available resources. An investment made in reading this book will prove to be fruitful not only to the reader but also to all those individuals over whom the reader has direct and indirect influence.

Authors Ronald and Candace-Lynn Buckley describe a step-by-step process for Mistake Proofing the entire business. Mistake Proofing will enable your employees to identify and fix problem processes in your business so that they will be able to identify when an error has occurred or is about to occur and take action-this is called Lower Level Mistake Proofing. Better yet, it enables employees to prevent the errors entirely through Higher Level Mistake Proofing. It is a way to involve all your employees in building your Lean money-making business. In today's fast-paced, rapidly changing business environment, companies can no longer just count on the business Leader or even the Leadership Team to manage the business. You must involve all your employees in the success of your company. Your van driver is no longer just a driver. He or she must come to work every day seeking better ways to do his or her job. All your employees represent you and must take their role as a full participant seriously-they are stakeholders in your business Every employee must be aware of the processes they use to execute their duties and continually be searching for ways to do their job better-error-free. Continually improve or perish.

Authors Ronald and Lucinda Buckley have written a unique book in that the story is told by the product being manufactured - a toaster. This is a short book that could easily be read during a coast-to-coast plane ride. They use the toaster and his Grandfather to show how using the latest management techniques can convert a poor-performing money-losing business with low quality into a very profitable efficient business with the highest quality output. This makes these concepts, which tend to be unnecessarily complicated, easier to understand by all. The book's intended audience is virtually anybody involved in the process of making anything. The book should be read by not only management, but direct labor employees as well. The story is about a toaster that is created in the same factory that his Grandfather was created in. Contrasts are made between how the Grandfather and Grandson were created and adopted into their current home. For a time they sit side-by-side on the same counter and share stories of how they were built - Grandfather's coils are twice as thick as his Grandson's and he is built to last as he was built at a time when toasters were an expensive item and no one would dream of buying a toaster made in a low cost country. However, these are different times and competition has made it necessary for business to cut costs. In fact, our toaster never got to know his parents because they were early failures - the result of trying to keep up with cheap foreign imports by cutting corners that degraded product quality and drove the toaster factory they were created in to the brink of bankruptcy. The home our Grandfather and Grandson reside in just happens to be the home of the toaster factory owner - Sally, who inherited the broken factory from her Father. This is great because Sally is the "Lean Leader" who has taken responsibility for fixing her Father's factory along with her husband Bill. Sally and Bill spend a lot of time in the kitchen talking about how they are converting the factory to a Lean factory using Six Sigma Mistake Proofing methodologies and employee empowering self-directed work teams with various, problem-solving techniques to convert the factory to a highly profitable lean moneymaking business. An investment made in reading this book will prove to be fruitful not only to the reader but also to all those individuals over whom the reader has direct and indirect influence.

Authors Ronald and Candace-Lynn Buckley describe a step-by-step process for Mistake Proofing the entire business, including the factory (manufacturing) and the office (backroom), that can be used to create a very efficient error-free organization, able to compete with the best of companies globally. To illustrate this process, the authors draw on their experience and share their real life challenges in describing situations that everyone can relate to, find relevant, interesting and useful. They explore in detail vital topics necessary for developing and executing an effective Mistake Proofing program, such as: Establishing a training program, including a detailed layout of the training methods the authors have used successfully over the years. Understanding process errors, the cost of errors, the levels of Mistake Proofing, and the tools and methods used to Mistake Proof your business. The use of problem-solving tools in eliminating errors from your organization. Driving the process with Cross-Functional Self-Directed Teams, to successfully execute your Mistake Proofing program. In these Teams, employees from many different areas of the business work together to eliminate mistakes and errors from the business while at the same time improving their own self-confidence and job satisfaction