Solve Business Problems

It helps us recognize which of our priorities might, for example, play an important role in another department’s work, which ones are time-sensitive, and which ones are not.

Although you can’t exactly predict the future, you can set up an infrastructure that will help you address issues as they arise or, perhaps, stop them from cropping up at all.

Subtle changes with the way you approach your workflow, as well as your workforce, can make a huge difference in the long run.

Solving problems is a central issue in business ownership.

In fact, you might say that business itself is a series of problems waiting to be solved.

Although the retail giant has recently been in hot water regarding their company culture, In Amazon’s version of kaizen, each department within their warehouses—or “fulfillment centers,” in Amazon’s nomenclature—is constantly on the lookout for wasted or duplicated efforts and inefficient processes.

All it takes is one observant employee to get the ball rolling, and soon a small group of hand-picked team members convenes to brainstorm—and eventually trial—new approaches to old problems.In other words, kaizen stresses the importance of smaller-scale innovation within a larger corporate structure.It’s a way to humanize the workplace by empowering employees to seek solutions to the issues that affect not just the company’s bottom line, but each employee’s ability to enjoy their job.That might make it seem like an unusual fit for the automotive industry, but Toyota recognized an important truth: Automobiles are, in their own special way, perishable goods.New models regularly displace older ones, and unsold, outdated cars are an expensive millstone to have to keep around.“One of the main principles…is the goal of eliminating bottlenecks by imposing realistic limits on how much work is in progress, how much work is requested, and how much work is held off on the back burner.Some require a shift in mindset, which doesn’t cost anything; others require a little capital investment. Next, as you roll out your product or service, design prototypes and small sample sizes.Maybe that means testing that your waterproof packaging is actually waterproof before your customers come back and complain that it’s not; maybe that means having a group of free or reduced-fee customers play around on your beta platform before debuting your service.If you don’t know what’s actually happening within your organization, you won’t be able to see potential issues and anticipate complications that could arise as a result.Additionally, not being tapped into all the parts of your company means situations that could easily be contained may spiral out of control before you’re even able to touch them.So what does scrum look like in the modern workplace?Classically, it begins by breaking down a week’s worth of tasks into smaller priorities.