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Showing posts with the label Cross Training

Ticket Triage for Plex ERP: How Small BA Teams Decide What Gets Fixed First

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It is 7:40 am on a Monday morning and your inbox already has four Plex problems in it. A supervisor at one plant cannot print labels. An accountant at another company cannot close last month's books. Somebody - you are not sure who - reports that "Plex is slow." And a text message from a plant manager says a workcenter stopped recording production two hours ago. Four tickets. One of you. Which one do you touch first? If your answer is "whichever one I saw first" or "whoever is loudest," you do not have a support process - you have a reaction process. The fix is an old idea borrowed from emergency medicine: triage . This article covers what ticket triage is, why it pays for itself in a Plex ERP environment, the five-step pass I recommend for every incoming ticket, and the specific challenges that hit small Plex business analysts who support more than one company, in more than one location, at the same time. Listen to the podcast version of this post:...
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The Curiosity Advantage: Why Einstein’s Philosophy is the Secret to Modern Manufacturing

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  In the high-stakes environment of a manufacturing shop floor, we often prioritize efficiency, repeatability, and compliance. We build systems designed to minimize variance and keep the machines humming. However, when we lean too hard into "the way it’s always been done," we risk stagnation. Albert Einstein once famously said: "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." On the surface, curiosity sounds like a luxury for the lab or the design studio. In reality, it is the most powerful engine for continuous improvement (Kaizen) and operational excellence. Here is how to take Einstein’s philosophy off the pedestal and put it to work on your shop floor. 1. Transforming the Shop Floor Culture Curiosity is the antidote to the "Checked Out" worker. When operators are encouraged to ask why a certain tolerance is necessary or how a specific lubricant affects tool wear, they shift from being manual laborers to b...
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