How to increase the productivity of your operations in 2015

As companies continue to grow, particularly through mergers and acquisitions, many expect their existing employees to do more work with fewer resources. But as your company continues to grow and evolve, you need to evaluate new and changing technologies to improve the efficiency of your operations.

Marketing study sees the grocery store through shoppers’ eyes

Be honest: How often do you walk out of the grocery store with items you never intended to purchase? If you have trouble sticking to the shopping list, you aren’t alone. Two studies out of the University of Pittsburgh have found that many factors — everything from store layout to whether a shopper interacts with a store employee — can influence buying behaviors.

Lean thinking leads to success

Engaging team members through an organized approach influenced by lean thinking used in the Toyota Production System philosophy can help an organization reach outstanding achievements. Take for example Stanford Health Care with its Stanford Operating System, which over the past three years has seen 30 percent growth, raised inpatient satisfaction scores to the 95th percentile […]

Editor's Note: A quest for collaboration

While I was on a quest a few years ago to find a Cincinnati restaurant that would be close to a Northern California-type eatery, I happened upon Slims in the Northside neighborhood. The collaborative and community aspects of some Northern California restaurants has intrigued me for some time, and I had to check out Slims, […]

A hard internal look helps companies deal with external pressures

Many of us are familiar with Heraclitus’ famous phrase, “The only thing that is constant is change.” Undoubtedly this can be applied to the airline industry and the changing air service offerings in our region, brought on by industry consolidation, stubbornly high fuel prices and the lingering effects of the great recession. These changes have […]