Continuous Improvement
Blog Tag
Showcasing Our Critical to Quality Initiative to the Manufacturing Alliance
In February, IWCO Direct hosted the Manufacturing Alliance Lean Enterprise Peer Group for a Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) event to showcase efforts we’ve made to ensure customer satisfaction. The Manufacturers Alliance is an association that provides a platform for manufacturers to come together for training, education, best practice sharing, and exchanging industry ideas.
Ongoing Security Training Helps Us Stay Sharp
A year-end review of our data security means looking at every aspect of our program, even those that are performing well, to identify areas where we can be even better. While our Information Security team will certainly be joining in this time of reflection, it will be as part of the everyday commitment that is required to deliver effective security …
Leveraging Our Intranet to Drive Performance
With SMEs and managers needing access to all kinds of information, our iDirect intranet is invaluable for keeping everyone on the same page. What can be found there? So much—perhaps too much! But it is better than digging through network folders or contacting a department’s busy subject matter experts …
Problem-Solving Training is Helping Teams and Individuals Deal with Issues More Effectively
Continuous Improvement (CI) is all about empowering individuals to identify, analyze, and solve problems. The real power and impact of these elements become apparent when they strengthen the quality of our processes and products, reduce cycle time, facilitate change management, mitigate risk, and improve the customer experience – all while improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and […]
How Technical Writers Support IWCO Direct from Behind the Scenes
Technical writers are key players within any system or process change initiative at IWCO Direct. Their writing style and standards turn the knowledge of our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) into consumable content, providing clarity and answers for those that seek information about our processes […]
“Getting Down and Dirty” to Improve Processes with the Annual Steel Partners Presidents Kaizen
IWCO Direct hosted Steel Partners’ annual, week-long “Presidents Kaizen” earlier this month. The purpose of the week was to bring executive teams together to demonstrate to IWCO Direct employees Steel Partners’ “top down” approach to Lean manufacturing principles […]
New Ideas, New Friends, and a Bit of Fair Food: IWCO Direct Hosts Steel Partners EH&S Council in MN
At the end of August, we welcomed members of the Steel Partners Environmental, Health & Safety (EH&S) Council to Minnesota for their week-long annual meeting. The 54 members in attendance represented 35 locations from 11 different Steel Partners companies. Our Chanhassen campus acted as home base to facilitate the communication of best management practices for EH&S […]
What Corporate Training Looks Like at IWCO Direct
As you may have followed in SpeakingDIRECT, we’ve been tracking IWCO Direct’s progress with new tools and practices for learning, training, and professional development, along with how it helps us deliver better marketing. We’ve always used standard corporate training resources (like SOPs, process diagrams, and online conferencing) that make our work better by making our […]
What We Learned at Recent Continuous Improvement Workshops
The Manufacturers Alliance is an association that provides a platform for manufacturers to come together for training, education, best practice sharing, and exchanging industry ideas. IWCO Direct has been a member for many years, participating in numerous seminars and workshops [...]
As Three Executives Receive Promotions, We’re Wishing a Fond Farewell to Our Long-Time President & CFO
Change is a constant at IWCO Direct. Today, we proudly announced three well-deserved promotions within our leadership team, and also announced Joe Morrison has retired as president and CFO. Joe will be sorely missed. First, let’s review the exciting news. Jake Hertel, who has been vice president of finance since 2012, has been promoted to executive vice president and CFO [...]
