Articles by Adi Gaskell

Forrester  believe that mobile computing and social media are two technologies that will fundamentally change how we operate.  They will change how employees do their jobs, and they will change how customers interact with us.  As such they are technologies that can’t be ignored if we’re going to ensure that our processes are as good as they need to be. Suffice to say...Full Article »

Lean supervisors are often the key cogs in the process improvement machinery.  They sit on the border between management and the coal face, dealing with issues as they arrive and helping those in their charge deliver the improvements required. Mike Wroblewski, director of the Kaizen Institute USA, recently outlined five key skills required by lean supervisors if they’re to excel in...Full Article »

Is Business Process Management (BPM) a C-level concern for you? Earlier this year Gartner published a report outlining 5 reasons why BPM projects can often fail: You're not prepared to demonstrate the value delivered - you've delivered some great results, but if they're not documented and recorded you won't be able to trumpet them to colleagues. All BPM projects should have a...Full Article »

New research suggests that if we are to get the most from our knowledge workers we need to get them collaborating on how they think rather than just on what they’re thinking about, writes Adi Gaskell. Here's why. For decades knowledge management has aimed to take the knowledge we each have and spreading it throughout the organisation.  Thinkers such as Nonaka and Takeuchi...Full Article »

The manufacturing operations at sportswear company Nike have been under frequent scrutiny for decades after allegations that it utilised sweatshops to manufacture its products in the 1970's. This negative publicity prompted a response from Nike  to the allegations. In 1992 it established a code of conduct for suppliers, whilst in 1996 they helped create the Apparel Industry Partnership,...Full Article »

Achieving continuous improvement in a process is easy when you’re dealing with inanimate objects.  If you spend less money or stop wasting raw material they won’t get upset or complain of hurt feelings.  Yet when it comes to giving negative feedback to a fellow employee, many sugar coat the bad news, our rationale being that no one wants to be the bearer of bad news. New...Full Article »

At the 13 th annual PEX Week Europe  event this week big data was a constant theme as speakers regaled the audience with stories of how the flood of data now available to process professionals can help them deliver the continuous improvement they so desire. The appeal is an obvious one.  Just as biologists have long had the ability to look inside the human body to see exactly how it...Full Article »

American conglomerate Honeywell has had a difficult time since their takeover by GE was quashed in 2001 by the European Union. British magazine, The Economist reports on the resurgence at the company, due in large part to their strong adoption of a culture of continuous improvement . The change emerged under the leadership of David Cote, himself a protege of Jack Welch whilst working under him...Full Article »

The ASQ Influential Voices blog  asks whether process professionals are happy at work this week.  It comes off the back of a new study published in Forbes  revealing that software quality professionals are the happiest people at work. I think they have a point. My opinion is that process professionals should be the happiest people in any workforce.  The reason...Full Article »

New research  into the size of the business process management ( BPM ) market reveals the growing reach of process improvement is being driven by new cloud based services. The research, conducted by Global Industry Analysts, suggests that the global market for BPM will reach $5.3 billion by 2017. This growth will be fueled by cloud computing technologies that will allow BPM to...Full Article »

Over the last few decades outsourcing has become commonplace, especially in manufacturing, as companies strive to reduce costs.  As the travails of Apple and Foxconn have highlighted recently however, this can often place companies into ethically compromising situations. General Electric are suggesting that process improvement can act as the elixir by not only keeping costs down but by...Full Article »