Rapid continuous improvement

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to facilitate a kaizen blitz (rapid continuous improvement) event as an AME (Association for Manufacturing Excellence) volunteer. Team-based kaizen events are the perfect training method to help leaders understand lean leadership. This event was not at the manufacturing plant in which I worked, but in one that had volunteered to host this three-day kaizen event. It was one of my first experiences at facilitation of a kaizen blitz and having that responsibility in someone else s plant really accelerated my learning curve. 

The kaizen blitz, or a rapid continuous improvement event, is the most powerful people development and engagement tool in a lean thinker s toolbox. These events have the power to transform a business culture. In Chapter 3,... 

Kaizen blitz A team-based rapid continuous improvement activity. These hands-on events can last from three to five days. The team is challenged to reach a stretch improvement objective. A facilitator then guides them using a standard process to goal attainment. Because... 

The T-Model is a systemized model for change that has a philosophical as well as a procedural aspect which follows systems analysis principles. Philosophically, this model looks for rapid, continuous improvement, change implementation. Procedurally, the T-Model follows a series of basic rules, or steps ... 

The intensive research carried out to achieve good stability and easy handling of the BL reagents allowed development of many simple, rapid, highly sensitive and specific assays, many of which are available as commercial kits. More recently application of the newest techniques of molecular biology greatly accelerated the continuous improvement of BL assay performance. 

Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS)-based techniques provide unique capabilities for pharmaceutical analysis. LC/MS methods are applicable to a wide range of compounds of pharmaceutical interest, and they feature powerful analytical figures of merit (sensitivity, selectivity, speed of analysis, and cost-effectiveness). These analytical features have continually improved, resulting in easier-to-use and more reliable instruments. These developments coincided with the pharmaceutical industry s focus on describing the collective properties of novel compounds in a rapid, precise, and quantitative way. As a result, the predominant pharmaceutical sample type shifted from nontrace/pure samples to trace mixtures (i.e., protein digests, natural products, automated synthesis, bile, plasma, urine). The results of these developments have been sig-... 

Adhesive. Urea-formaldehyde water-based dispersions are the most widely used particleboard binders. The low-cost, rapid curing, and colorless properties of urea-formaldehyde adhesives make them the adhesive of choice for most interior particleboard. These adhesives have been continuously improved by the resin manufacturers, resulting in reduced press times without detrimental effects on their storage life or handling characteristics. 

An effective approach to help address the issues involved in controlling catalyst performance is to formulate and analyze reaction schemes that describe the essential chemistry taking place on the catalyst surface. This approach has been used successfully in catalysis research for many years. We suggest that this approach will see increased use in catalysis research. Specifically, continuing improvements in computer capabilities allow rapid analysis of complex reaction schemes for all common reactor configurations (e.g., reactors operating at steady state as well as under transient reaction conditions and nonisothermal reactors). Moreover, recent advances in quantum... 

Clearly, if something was not put together gradually, then it must have been put together quickly or even suddenly. If adding individual pieces does not continuously improve the function of a system, then multiple pieces have to be added together. Two ways to rapidly assemble complex... 

The study of the chemical properties of the heaviest known elements in the Periodic Table is an extremely challenging task and requires the development of unique experimental methods, but also the persistence to continuously improve all the techniques and components involved. The difficulties are numerous. First, elements at the upper end of the Periodic Table can only be artificially synthesized "one-atom-at-a-time" at heavy ion accelerators, requiring highest possible sensitivity. Second, due to the relatively short half-lives of all known transactinide nuclides, very rapid and at the same time selective and efficient separation procedures have to be developed. Finally, sophisticated detection systems are needed which allow the efficient detection of the nuclear decay of the separated species and therefore offer unequivocal proof that the observed decay signature originated indeed form a single atom of a transactinide element. 

Improvements in the wet chemical calibration methods and the incorporation of additional calibration samples are continuously improving these rapid biomass analysis methods. In the future, information on these samples of com stover can be updated using improved methods by reevaluation of their stored electronic spectra. 

Static systems, however, are not usually suitable for rate studies. Fessenden (145) was the first to realize this and modified the static system for "intermittent radical production" using pulsed radiolysis. With the advances in electronic digital equipment, Smaller and coworkers (146) have subsequently fully developed the pulse-radiolysis technique for ESR studies and have successfully detected radicals with lifetimes as short as two microseconds. Concurrent developments of such "intermittent radical production" concepts have also been accomplished in photolytic systems by using either a rotating sector technique (147,148) or the flash photolytic technique (6). At present the pulse-radiolysis technique enjoys the advantage of a short and intense pulse at a rapid repetition rate. Only flash photolytic systems using a pulsed laser can approach these desirable conditions. These techniques will no doubt be continuously improved, and their future in ESR study of... 

Commercial as well as potential uses of inoiganic membranes multiply rapidly in recent years as a result of the continuous improvement and optimization of the manufacturing technologies and applications development for these membranes. Most of the industrially practiced or demonstrated applications fall in the domains of microfiltration or ultrafiltration. Microfiltration is applied mostly to cases where the liquid streams contain high levels of particulates while ultrafiltration usually does not involve particulates. While their principal separation mechanism is size exclusion, other secondary mechanisms reflecting the solution-membrane interactions such as adsorption are often operative. Still under extensive research and development is gas separation which will be treated in Chapter 7. 

The research and development of CVD in recent years have focused on solid state microelectronic devices. This rapidly moving technology demands continuously improved materials and processes for the fabrication of even more advanced semiconductor devices. It is well recognized that computer chips would not be manufactured in their current capacity and structure if CVD techniques were not transferred and developed from the material extraction method into the deposition technology. 

A great deal of biomass was used as fuel for cooking and heat supply in China. The traditional method of utiUzation of biomass energy has not been able to suit the demand, along with the rapid development of the rural economy, continuous improvement of the peasants Uving quality, and the increasing attention to the environment. 

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