Each month new articles, book reviews, and other content are added to the Superfactory website. The new content is featured in the free monthly e-newsletter which goes out to 50,000 subscribers worldwide, and we will also post a monthly heads-up on this blog.
New content in October includes:
The featured article is from AME's Robert "Doc" Hall and is titled A Work Culture to Accelerate Innovation. The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the entire article here.
As more people came on board, the organization became too big to operate informally, and new people entering came from different prior work experiences. This resulted in a cultural amalgam. Plug needed systemic procedures, but traditional command-and-control could not achieve the collaboration necessary in a fastchanging technical environment. Besides a structure to hang it on, they needed a common culture — a common language and common behaviors that would enable people to come to agreement on tough decisions. Otherwise, a group of very talented people could not concentrate their potential on the stretch goals necessary to commercialize fuel cell generators.
The Featured Blog Post is our recent piece titled Grinstein's Lesson. The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the entire post here.
Gerald Grinstein managed to cut Delta's costs deeply while winning unusual loyalty from the company's largely non-union workforce. A typical gesture for the grandfatherly 75-year-old: Late one night last year, he scrubbed carpets and seats of a 767, joining other senior executives and 400 front-line employees who volunteered to deep-clean planes for no pay.
The featured book this month is Supply Chain Excellence by Peter Bolstorff. The following is a brief summary, and you can learn more or order the book by
The first resource available presenting the unique Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model developed by the Supply Chain Council, the original edition provided readers with an unparalleled guide for implementing best practices in supply chain management. Now thoroughly updated and expanded to include the DCOR and CCOR frameworks. The book includes sample deliverables, tasks, executive behaviors, and diagrams.
We continually update the other major sections of the website, including:
- Events Calendar: a listing of lean excellence seminars, workshops, training, and conferences worldwide
- Topic Information: Summaries and resources on over 40 enterprise excellence topics.
- History of Excellence: A growing timeline of notable events that helped shape current-day enterprise excellence
- Online E-Learning Center: Fourteen interactive online presentations on the core concepts of lean manufacturing.
- PowerPoint Presentations: Over 50 downloadable PowerPoint presentations on lean manufacturing, quality, enterprise, and safety concepts.
- Factory Toolbox: Almost 300 downloadable forms, procedure templates, assessments, and tools to help you not reinvent the wheel.
- Tools and Assessments: Downloadable assessment tools.
- Virtual Factory Tours: Web and streaming video tours of over 100 factories.
We are always looking for new articles and other content. Contact us via the Superfactory website if you would like to contribute to our knowledge base.