I'm sure you've all played the game 20 questions. The goal of the traditional parlor game is to uncover an object chosen by one player by asking questions that eliminate other possibilities until deductive reasoning reveals the answer. Careful selection of questions can significantly improve the odds of the questioner winning the game.

When it comes to improvement projects, it is also true that careful selection of questions can significantly improve the odds of "winning," also known as producing positive change. What follows are 20 questions, that if considered at the outset, can help set your improvement project up for success.

The renowned football coach and philosopher, Vince Lombardi, once said, “Perfection is unattainable, but if we chase perfection, we catch excellence.”

That’s the mindset of a Lean organization. There’s a bedrock belief that every process, investment, employee, or action should directly translate to value for the customer with no waste. That ideal is unattainable, of course, but Lean organizations try to get close to it every day, and in doing so, reach a level of success that their competitors can only envy.  Every Lean organization is unique, but there are some core qualities that they tend to have in common.

Ever wonder why factories, warehouses, grocery stores, and other similar businesses usually have a sign that says something like, "Accident-Free for 82 Days." It's because the simple act of measuring and reporting that number makes it evident across all levels of the organization that this metric is important. We measure what matters. No one wants to be the guy who sets the sign back to zero.

Measuring and reporting continuous improvement metrics sends a clear signal to the organization that this is important. When people know that you're tracking data around their improvement work, there's an increased sense of accountability that drives engagement and activity.

Maybe Albert Einstein was talking about continuous improvement when he said, “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Too often, we see organizations struggling to measure only those things that can be tied to a dollar amount and they, unfortunately, neglect the impact of ALL improvements. Let’s have a look at the top six ways to measure the impact of your organization’s improvement efforts.

When most people evaluate improvement management software, they focus on the features of the solution, the support they will get from the provider, and the technical details such as security and reliability. Those are all critically important considerations, but none of it means anything if the employees don’t use the solution.

Some interaction with the system can be enforced with policies and performance reviews. The optimal approach is to implement a solution in such a way the employees want to engage. When people get value out of a software system, they are far more likely to put effort into it. Here are the ways our customers have made that happen.

Leaders who want to develop a culture of rapid continuous improvement have many tools at their disposal. So many, in fact, that it can be difficult to keep them all in mind when deciding how to execute an opportunity for improvement or to address a difficult challenge. Or course, most organizations don’t use all of them at any one time, but each can be remarkably effective when applied to the right situation.

We put together a list of the most common and useful improvement tools and techniques that you can start implementing today.

Leaders that we speak with get very excited about the idea of creating an improvement engine within their organizations. Who doesn’t want a team of players always looking to edge closer to perfection? Of course, achieving this goal is harder than it sounds.

We’ve found that leaders who struggle to create a culture that thrives on improvement make one or more of ten common mistakes. These challenges are probably not breaking news if you’ve been a leader for a long time, but it can’t hurt to check in with yourself from time to time and make sure you are avoiding these behaviors. If you are a new leader, this is an excellent “don’t” list.

During the early stages of KaiNexus, our chief executive officer, Greg Jacobson, and our chief revenue officer, Jeff Roussel, put together a few key points that capture the core values of KaiNexus. Recently, I got the opportunity to sit down (via video chat) with Greg and Jeff to have them shed some light on our beliefs.

At KaiNexus, we base our work and everyday lives around 10 key points. Not only do we practice and embody these beliefs, but we also hope to spread them to the people we interact with on a daily basis. Join me as we walk through the 10 beliefs of KaiNexus.

We tend to think of just-in-time manufacturing as a relatively new concept. Dell builds your PC when you order it but does it quickly, so you are satisfied with the speed of delivery. Plus, Dell never has excess PC inventory on its hands. However, the idea is not new at all. In the 1940’s, Toyota began applying the principal to its production lines after taking a lesson from an unexpected place: the grocery store.

Shopping for Parts

Although situations at grocery stores are a little different now with the COVID-19 pandemic, the grocery store metaphor can still help breakdown the idea of Kanban (pronounced kahn-bahn).

When you go to the grocery store, it's rare to find an empty shelf. In the rare times you do, the shelves don’t stay empty for long. The reason is that the store has both the inventory on the shelf and some inventory in their own on-site warehouse. Grocery stores don’t want to stock more of an item than will be sold in a short enough time to ensure that the items are fresh and to reduce inventory costs. So, when a shelf is depleted, it is refilled from the on-site inventory and only then are new items ordered from the manufacturer to replace the warehouse products. This process is efficient and cost-effective for the store, and also reassuring to customers who can buy only what they need without fear of a future shortage of a favored product.

Toyota realized that the same principal would work for items needed on its manufacturing floor. They further enhanced the idea by adding Kanban cards, which served as a visual signal of the state of inventory. In fact, the word Kanban when translated directly means, "signboard, shopkeeper's in-business sign.” The approach can be applied to any business process, so its use is not limited to the manufacturing of hard goods.

Most people don’t purchase quality improvement software solutions very often. So if you are in the market for a way to support your QI efforts, but you’re not sure where to begin, you are not alone. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place.

This post will detail all of the features that you should expect to find in a quality improvement platform. Not all of them will be essential for your current needs, but if you select a solution that covers all the bases, you’ll be in great shape as your organization changes over time.