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Happy Friday!
I hope you’ve had a great week.
Today I want to leave you with a short tip about enriching the jobs of your employees. What do employees want? You find the answer to this question by asking them! However, most employees seek intrinsic rewards.
Until next time, remember, “Success is continuous improvement.”
When buying assets it is important to know the best way to purchase and depreciate to take advantage of tax loopholes. Capital expenses usually include the following assets: buildings, cell phones, computers and software, copyrights and patents, equipment, improvements to business property, inventory, office furnishings and decorations, small tools and equipment, vehicles and window coverings. Below you will find a more detailed account of these depreciation categories.
3 year property:
5 year property:
7 year property:
Commercial buildings can be depreciated over 39 years while residential rental real estate can only be depreciated over 27.5 years. Expenses incurred for improvements to sidewalks, roads, drainage facilities, fences and landscaping are depreciated over 20 years.
To learn more about Notable Bookkeeping’s tax planning, preparation and research services call us today at 201-937-3428.
“When you have a high growth atmosphere there are sure to be inefficiencies that start creeping up into operational processes. Effective leaders ensure value is maintained and/or optimized instead of lost, they create efficient workflows and make decisions by fact as a way to manage the increased challenges brought on by high growth, and don’t stray away from the profitable target customer.”
Happy Friday!
I hope you’ve had a great week!
Today, I want to talk about ebates.com and how this site can help your business save more money. Ebates is a shopping portal website that lets you earn cash back on your purchases. You can choose to either receive your cash via check or Paypal. It’s a no brainer! It takes about 2 weeks to receive the money which then could be used to supplement your savings. “A business that saves money is always prepared for the unexpected.”
I hope you found this useful and as always, “Success is continuous improvement.”
“By using visual task boards (Kanban) that portray clear time-frames and expectations coupled with the prioritization of tasks including preventative plans for mitigating the unexpected is a great way to optimize productivity. It is important that work-in-progress is kept low to reduce over-production. You can also encourage employees to collaborate on tasks as well.”
Happy Friday!
I hope you’ve had a great week. Today, I want to discuss client relationships. Ever been ganged up on by frustrated employees who felt betrayed by a manager that could not say no to a client’s unfair demands or bad treatment? If not, then lucky you!
Have a great weekend! As always remember, “Success is continuous improvement.”
Whenever there is a new product or service being offered to customers, there is a new process and value stream. Value Streams include both non-value-added and value-added activities and are the actions required to create a product or service from raw material until it reaches the customer. Value Stream Maps are more detailed than process maps as they include details, such as, cycle time, changeover time, uptime, process activities, operator self-inspection notes and customer specifications.
To successfully integrate value stream mapping into product development you must first accurately gather, understand, and specify the value desired by the customer. Collect real time data of the actual pathways of material and information flow. You may have to conduct several walkthroughs, first to assess the entire value stream and then to gather more detailed information. The best course of action is to work backwards as this reduces the probability of missing an activity because it takes place more slowly, without jumps to conclusions of assuming you know what happens next.
It is wise to utilize a pencil, paper and stopwatch when creating a process map. Once you have completed the map, remove the waste. Let the requirements of the customer guide you in making value flow from the beginning to the end of the process. The three most critical KPIs in a value stream map are: cycle time, value creation time, and lead time.
Cycle time refers to the time it takes to complete the overall process. Value creation time is rarely equal to cycle time. It is the time it takes to complete those work activities that actually transform the product into what the customer wants. Lead time is the time it takes to move one piece, part, product or service all the way through the process. All this information should be captured on the value stream map. When the value stream is complete, it will help you identify wasteful activities and realize opportunities for improvement. After you have identified the areas that need improvement, create an improvement plan that clearly states what needs to be done and when, has clear and visual measurable goals and objectives, complete with checkpoints, deadlines, and clear responsibilities.
“Great managers know the importance of recognizing individual employee strengths, praising them when they do a good job, and allowing them to enhance these strengths by giving them projects that require them to use them.”
Happy Friday!
I hope you had a great week. This week I’ve been discussing employee to manager transitions with clients and the problems they have encountered with the newly appointed yet inexperienced manager. You may have witnessed an employee that has been promoted to a managerial position lose their shine as they demonstrate that they don’t actually comprehend the position. Before they were task driven and now they have to think and act strategically. Below I have noted the top 4 struggles that inexperienced managers face:
Early manager to employee support and coaching in the inexperienced manager’s early years in the company is the best course of action in molding effective managers. Employees do what they see their managers do so make sure you walk the talk!
When planning a process improvement project the most important question you have to ask is, “What problem are we trying to solve?” This question relates directly to the first step in DMAIC ( a Lean Six Sigma problem solving tool), which is to define the problem. After you answer this question you are ready to outline the criteria for an effective process improvement plan. Projects are usually one time occurrences created to fulfill specific goals for the organization.
Essentially, Lean Six Sigma projects must have the following 3 critical characteristics to be effective: performance, cost and time. The performance criteria allows us to understand what the project seeks to accomplish. Project expectations and goals should be written clearly, be realistic, made available to all project team members, and team members should also be held accountable for achieving them.
The second criteria, cost, provides insights into the resources needed to complete a project. Usually, money belts which are financial auditors provide an objective independent evaluation of the potential financial benefits of a project as well as the actual results achieved by the Lean Six Sigma project.
Finally, the third criteria, time, assures that team members are aware of the time-frame for the starting and ending of the project. Gantt Charts are excellent tools for monitoring all the activities associated with a project coupled with checkpoints which are smaller points throughout a project that are used to judge how far the project is toward completion.
It is imperative that all team members in a process improvement project understand the top 3 inter-related objectives of the project which are meeting the budget, finishing on schedule and meeting the performance specifications.
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