Posts

Showing posts with the label Lean Thinking

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

Image
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:...
Read more

Unleashing Innovation: The Power of Fresh Perspectives in Problem Solving & Lean Manufacturing

Image
  "Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… The ones who see things differently." - Steve Jobs This iconic quote from Steve Jobs isn't just about rebellion; it's a powerful call to action for anyone looking to innovate, solve complex problems, and drive continuous improvement. In today's rapidly evolving world, the ability to "think different" is not a luxury, but a necessity, especially when it comes to problem-solving and the principles of Lean Manufacturing. The Lean Imperative: Eliminating Waste, Embracing New Views Lean Manufacturing, at its core, is about eliminating waste (muda) and creating maximum value for the customer. But how do you identify waste that's become invisible due to routine? How do you optimize processes that everyone assumes are already "good enough"? This is where a fresh perspective becomes your most potent tool. Taiichi Ohno, the father of the T...
Read more