Weapons-Grade Wisdom

The standard advice for this situation is to build an airtight business case. Get the numbers right, show the contribution per hour, quantify the complexity cost, put it in a deck, and present it calmly. Reason will prevail. It will not, and it is worth understanding why before you spend three weeks on the deck. […] Read More

What does this article cover? What are you actually choosing between? What does it cost? What does eight weeks actually buy? Who are the firms? What goes in the brief? What does the market data say? Who should this article send away? Where does this break down? People also ask What I sell, and what […] Read More

It is day nine. You have had the plant tour, the org chart walkthrough, and four one-on-ones in which everyone was helpful and nobody said anything uncomfortable. Someone has sent you a reporting pack. It is green. And you have the specific unease of a person who knows that a business handed to a new […] Read More

1. Which variety do customers actually choose on? 2. Which variety did you inherit rather than choose? 3. What does one more option cost downstream? 4. Two kinds of customization, and only one of them scales 5. How far back can you standardize without touching the choice? 6. When does standardizing actually lose you a […] Read More

What does this article cover? Why is almost nothing written for you? What should you read in the first ninety days? What should you read across the rest of year one? What did I read, and what changed? Where does my own book fit? What should you not read yet? Who should this article send […] Read More

1. Why Does It Have to Fit on One Page? 2. Start From the Decisions, Not the Data 3. Which Numbers Earn a Line? 4. What Goes in Each Column? 5. How Do You Set the Target Column? 6. Who Owns Each Line? 7. Where Do the Leading Indicators Sit? 8. How Do You Keep […] Read More

Why doesn’t the unit cost settle it? What a business I ran bought instead of made What are you actually comparing? From comparison to decision When should you make it? When should you buy it? When is the answer neither? Hypothetical: $38. That is the quote that came back from the supplier, against a standard […] Read More

What does this article cover? What can you actually get for free? What financial data is free? What operational data is free? Are the self-assessment tools worth anything? What does the afternoon actually look like? What is worth paying for? Who should this article send away? Where does this break down? People also ask What […] Read More

You have an OEE number. It is probably somewhere in the sixties, it is reported weekly, and there is a target above it that somebody set before you arrived. Improvement projects get justified against it. It appears in the monthly review with a trend line. And if you are honest, you cannot point to a […] Read More