The Elsmar Cove Forums and Lean Manufacturing - Is all this too complex?

[CarolX]

In Reply to Parent Post by Marc

<LEGEND>Quote: </LEGEND>> You know I went to the forums and this area is very time consuming. It seems
> as if you do not utilitize lean manufacturing (which is what we use for
> assembly lines to keep them running at a easy operation and flow.) Also by the
> time you read the information to get in to the forums you are ready to call
> it quits! This is not a continuous flow exercise.
> Well just wanted to give my opinion on the matter because this
> issue has been bothering me and I had to get up the courage to right.

I wonder if the originator of this e-mail could post here, so we can begin a detailed discussion. Right now, I have a lot of ideas on what this person may or may not be looking for, and I think if we could get a little more info, we could look at improvements.

I realize many folks just want to hit-and-run, we will always have that.

Sounds like this user has a lot of lean experience that we may benefit from.

[JRKH]

I don't want to try to get inside the origional poster's head as to whether he is just new, confused, lazy, under the gun or whatever. What I have noted is that the responses are (for the most part) from people who have over 1000 posts to their credit. Those of us who have been around a while are all very intimately aware of how the forums work and probably have been here through a number of server and format changes. It is extremely difficult for us to see it from another's (newbie's) view.

With this in mind, I did an experiment and entered 'Elsmar cove" into my search engine to see what the results were, and where they took me. I must admit that the results were quite precise. I had no trouble winding back up at the forums. So I failed to note anything really confusing or cumbersome.

One thing I might point out as a VERY MINOR point!!! When you open the foum page, you must scroll down to find the actual forums. The top of the page contains interesting facts about who is on line, how many folks have visited etc. Perhaps this is somewhat confusing to some newbies. Like I said, a very minor point.

The poster appeals to lean manufacturing methods, but seems to ignore the "training" necessary to make any such system work. If this person is ready to "quit" instead of learning the system (training) then they may be in the wrong profession.

In all, Mark, it's up to you to look at the overall satisfaction of your customers and weigh if the current complaint has a sufficiant justification to warrant what could be an extensive corrective action.

Also, please do invite the individual to enter the dialog here and suggest solutions.

James

[Jim Wynne]

In Reply to Parent Post by JRKH

The poster appeals to lean manufacturing methods, but seems to ignore the "training" necessary to make any such system work. If this person is ready to "quit" instead of learning the system (training) then they may be in the wrong profession.

Also, please do invite the individual to enter the dialog here and suggest solutions.

James

Excellent points

[qualitygoddess - 2010]

I still consider myself a 'newbie'. In general, I am able to navigate through the forum, and I was never really a user of forums prior to the Cove.

I think the search function works well. I have done some searches using very general keywords, and I get a lot of hits! Then it is up to me to wade through the information to look for the knowledge I seek. If I don't find something in about 10 minutes, I will try an alternate search. After 2 trys, I will then post a question. It is still more interesting to post a question and see what responses I get, than it is to do a search.

I think the only confusing aspect is the page that doesn't show the full forum. People getting there from a Google search might not know to click on the button to take them to the complete forum listing. I just bookmarked the full forum page, and the trouble I was having went away.

[JRKH]

Quality Goddess
When I put Elsmar cove into the MSN search engine I got a nice hit for your Quality Blog. Thanks for talking up the place.

Here's the link:
http://www.flexquality.com/gpage.html

James

[qualitygoddess - 2010]

Wow. Now you and I are the 2 people who have read my blog. I was just having a little fun with that whole blog page.

I was sincere in my compliments to the Cove.

--Jodi

[ralphsulser]

I have to agree with JRKH on this one.
Time for OJT is necessary. That's how I learned to navigate the Cove.
Just look around the different categories, segments and search areas.
Plus...ask specific questions to get help if you need it.
( and don't be thin skinned, nobody here is mean, just sometimes concise, or loquacious as the case may require) JMHO

[CarolX]

In Reply to Parent Post by Marc

I received an e-mail with a question. I replied with a short answer and suggested that the person ask in the forums rather than trust my 'opinion' on the question.

I received this in a response e-mail:

Is there something I can do to address this? What are your thoughts?

Well, perhaps here is one of the issues the author was refering to. When you come into the home page for elsmar.com, you have to look a little to find the link to the boards. Frankly, I never thought about this until earlier today. I was coming to the site with a co-worker, and I didn't know the full url to the forums, so I told him to go to elsmar.com. You have to look a bit to find the link to the boards.

I have in my favorites a direct link to the forums, I rarely, if ever, go to the home page.