Monday and Tuesday was with my only UK customer. Reviewing the progress of the ongoing DBR, CCMP and more strategic process improvements. The rest of the week has been admin, preparation for Christmas and yesterday was wasted spent buying air tickets for January and early February. I only managed to organise 6 of the 11 long haul flights needed. It’s a necessary evil but a huge waste of time and investment of motivation. At the end of a day buying tickets cash flow is devastated and motivation and enthusiasm for life is virtually zero.

The customer review was very friendly, and revealed continued progress, but as is often the case progress is not really as fast as it can be. However, the right things are being asked and followed up. In both the DBR, which is in this case mostly constraint management and buffer management of the V plant that feeds their T plant assembly area and the CCMP area, they are both looking at the need to push on with stage two buffer management which pin points the next most important causes of delay to focus on improving. The company as a whole is also getting to grips with its core problem and the production director is at the centre of driving the reorganisations and changes that will improve the companies sales and profitability.

In addition to the main implementation we are supporting the personal development of two of the key managers on the business, by helping them develop the skill and understanding of how to use TOC to improve their own performance and the areas of the business they manage. This is the really fun thing in be a TOC expert. In this situation though as the company is very small the managers involved have to spread themselves around a lo of tasks and activities so they progress at a rate which is very slow. It requires much more support, pushing and time than we might put in for a larger company where people can focus more on one task.

Wednesday I reviewed the work being undertaken by my Chinese business partner, which I think is now very good TOC but maybe is going beyond what we originally proposed and committed to do for this customer. We need to move the project on the finish the last two big elements of the work which will have a much bigger impact on the future of this small satellite business.

Thursday I went over the Edinburgh to pick up my original Macbook air which had to have a new disc. It gave me the opportunity to test the heater fixed my my old Jaguar. I had been waiting for three months for the part (motorised value) and the local garage to fit. They did as always a fantastic job.

Friday as I said was wasted buying flights. If only the worlds airlines would have a look at Easyjets web site. It is simple quick and very effective. To buy one long haul flight ticket on line with BA can take two hours and is fraught with traps like being offered a ticket to Shanghai from Edinburgh, which departs from terminal 5 London heathrow but the Edinburg flight is either via Gatwick or London City - why do I need these option who in their right mind will travel two hours across London from either airport to fly on to Shanghai. They also helpfully offer me a list of 20 flights with gaps between the first leg and the next of any time between 9 hours and one. These are obviously web tools designed by software people and not users. KLM at least hides the less useful flight possibilities and gives you the option to view or not. This is the other waste of flying a lot, feeling the need to moan and expose the dreadful service provided by most airports but also airline websites.

Well for many and me it is time to focus on family and Christmas celebrations. Not for me the religious part but family and friends. Have fun.