The current energy situation in the United States should be blamed on one thing and one thing only! The total lack of leadership in our government, from our presidents and our congress. For the greatest county in the world to be dependent on any other country for energy is a crime. It is time to set aside the petty bickering and do what is right for all Americans!

The elected people running our government are really out of touch. Think about it, when was the last time that Nancy P, Harry R, Barak O, John M, or GWB pumped their own gas or actually shopped for groceries? They don’t! They don't get it...

Americans are fed up with this lack o ...

I just got back from a motorcycle trip to the west coast. This trip has been on my "Bucket List" for at least forty years, ever since Easy Rider. I remember watching this movie and thinking how free Captain America and Billy were, my best friend Ray and I talked about taking the "TRIP" many times. Well I finally got the chance. The trip took two weeks, covered 5800 miles and we (my friend Fred and I) rode in the rain five days and snow one day. We rode through the badlands, the black hills, saw Mount Rushmore, had close encounters with buffalo, elk, big horn sheep, wild mules, mule deer, and prong horn deer.We rode through Yellowstone (saw Old Faithful) and the Red Woods on the Avenue of Giants. Some of the Red Woods were over 380 feet. We rode through mountain passes that still had 12 foot of snow, and temperatures at 28 degrees. We saw the most spectacular sunsets, surf and mountains. S ...

Our Dependency on Technology

Over the past week I have been without email access periodically and my website has been up and down, very frustrating! I am sure you have had similar experiences at some point in time. It amazes me how dependent we have become on ...

Why Do Improvement Projects Fail?

I was sitting in a meeting with a number of executives and they were upset. They were complaining that they had spent millions of dollars on improvement projects and they were not getting anyplace close to the return that they expected. They asked me why! Here is my quick response:

Well we are continuing to make progress on the site. It seemed like it should only take a few days but Keith has been at it for two weeks and there is still lots to do. We have a number of new capabilities, this blog; my book (Observations, Rants and Not So Deep Thoughts) is available on line to download, and an online Business/Manufacturing Dictionary. Please keep checking back.

If you only measure efficiency in your production area you are missing two other very critical areas. Efficiency as a measurement only measures how well you perform against a standard. In many cases how the standard is established is given very little thought. For example, when was the last time you actually saw an Industrial Engineer doing a time and motion study? I thought so. What I have seen in most business is the standard is set based on past performance, the maximum machine speed or what is required to meet profit objectives. Neither of these approaches should be acceptable. The efficiency performance measurement is then calculated based on the actual output versus the standard. I was in one busine ...

Environment...Belief...Behavior...

Did you ever sit back and watch what someone was doing? I am sure that you have! Did it ever strike you that there was a better way or had to be a better way? Have you then worked at and uncovered that better way, shared it with other people, only to have them revert back to the old way? I see this all the time. I even sometimes think that I am cursed with the ability to see better ways of doing things. It is very frustrating! Reciently at a client I was introduced to the concept of Environment...Belief...Behavior... I became extremely excited, I now knew the KEY! What we do and how we do it is the behavior, which is based on certain beliefs that are the result of the environmment that we are in. The solution is simple! Change the environment and everything will follow. HA! ...

Our New Website is currently being constructed. We expect it to be fully functional within a week or so. This new site will give us the capability to introduce you to our capabilities, will allow you to access our Business/Manufacturing Dictionary on line and provide a way for me to share with you my latest thoughts through my blog. I hope that you take advantage of our learning. Regards, MJS