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We continue to be impressed with the tremendous value that organizations gain from the relatively small effort to map and analyze the workflows that create the value delivered to their customers.

by Susan Bouwer and Roland Cavanagh   LEAN Principles in the real world:  Single Piece Flow and Autonomy My peeve – traffic lights. Particularly several in a row. Jan and I have been staying at our son’s place in Davidson,

by Susan Bouwer, Roland Cavanagh, Rowland Hayler, and edits by Greg Gibbs “In 40 years in this business, we’ve been hit with wildfires, earthquakes, floods, economic downturns and bugs that threatened to wipe out the vineyards. This feels like getting

Our Experience Is that trying to get the organization to do things that aren’t aligned with the culture is like pushing sand uphill. Culture is broad, deep, and stable It’s the unwritten code – norms, myths, and behaviors, that affect

“Come meet my team.” By: Roland R. Cavanagh, P.E. I frequently get invited to “meet my team.”  I always seek to observe and answer, “is this the typical bunch of people pulled together by the common need for a paycheck, or is it

This is one of a series of what we hope you will find to be informative articles about improving operations and the Customer experience by applying the principles of Operational Excellence.Delivering Value to the Customer, Profitably The Three Foundations: We’re all in

This is the second of a series of what we hope you will find to be informative articles about improving operations and the guest experience by applying the principles of Operational Excellence. Delivering Value To The Customer, Profitably We’re all

Visualizing the Flow of People and “Things” – the Spaghetti Diagram We’re interrupting the article sequence to present a simple tool for increasing efficiency: Roland was teaching a one-day overview of Lean/Operational Excellence for the visitor center staff at a

Another one!! – April 11, 2018: Napa bookkeeper admits to stealing $170,000 from Jefferson Car Wash March 28, 2018: Napa man sentenced for embezzlement from Sonoma nonprofit agency April 28, 2017: Prosecutor: Dry Creek General Store hit with $415,000 theft Stole from his

Which of these keep you up at night? Costs? Customers? Profit? Growth? Employees? Production, sales, distribution, back office – we bring years of experience and best practices from a diverse array of industries to the Wine Country Frequently more benefit

What I observed: Guests unserved: For periods long enough that they fidgeted and grumbled to one another Staff unfocused: Waiting for an available register Going to the “back room” to retrieve items (leaving other patrons hanging) Hurrying to finish an

In some pretty esteemed company, The Six Sigma Way: How GE, Motorola and other Top Companies are Honing Their Performance has gotten another accolade! Published in 2000 by McGraw-Hill, written by my friends Pete Pande (the organizer and story-teller), Bob Neuman (the Historian)