Made to Measure Blog

Do You Work for an Idiot?

By James Lawther | July 9, 2011

Here is a process improvement idea for you. It is called “poke yoke”. I am told that that is Japanese for “making things easy to get right and difficult to get wrong”. It is a rather grand name for what my old boss used to call “idiot proofing”. Let me give you an example: think…

Pointless Pies

By Bernie | February 21, 2011

I’d like to ban pie charts. I know it’s a bit over the top, but I honestly can’t see a single thing they do better than other graph type (like a 100% stacked bar). They are also hopeless at lots of other things, namely: You can’t trend with them. Yes, you can put a few…

An unloved pasta maker, just like mine

Why some KPIs are like pasta makers

By Bernie | January 27, 2011

We keep things for lots of reasons. Understanding why we hang on to kitchen gadgets we never use can help us work out tactics for getting rid of unused KPIs.

Let’s stop kidding ourselves

By Bernie | December 6, 2010

New research shows that we can be tricked into assuming there’s a link between activity and outcomes. Is blind optimism leading your business down a dead end?

Bargains galore…

By Bernie | November 26, 2010

I’m sad. I take photo’s in Sainsbury’s, but these price tickets just made me smile!  

train toilet

Loo’s, trains and board games

By Bernie | November 2, 2010

How does measuring fare revenue lead to a five year old wetting himself?