B2B Data Integration and Transformation Blog

Lean As Applied To Data Integration - Drawing The Correlation...

Posted by Brad Loetz on Jun 27, 2014 4:10 PM


A final blog in a series of Lean articles includes specific integration improvement concepts that can be applied to the 8 traditional wastes.

You may or may not recall that the series started with Good...the Enemy of Best! How Can Lean Be Applied To Data Integration?, which introduced the premise of applying Lean to integration.  This was followed by Observations of Lean, Where Do You Get Your Ideas?, which was a light piece about brainstorming for process improvement ideas.

Now for some specific examples for integration wastes and opportunities for improvement.

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Managed File Transfer: What Does It Mean To You?

Posted by Scott Hulme on Jun 25, 2014 2:02 PM


The world of information technology (IT) is full of acronyms:  EDI, EAI, ETL, B2B, B2C, and MFT, just to name a few.  MFT, or managed file transfer, is increasingly becoming more important to companies and gaining the spotlight as companies understand the value of reliable data and how it correlates to increasing revenue and profit.  Providing a secure and reliable means to move data internally within your company and externally to your customers, suppliers, vendors, and business partners should be an extremely important part of your company's overall IT plan.

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Observations Of Lean, Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Posted by Brad Loetz on Jun 20, 2014 12:54 PM


Several blogs ago I wrote about Lean and eliminating waste in
Good...the Enemy of Best! How Can Lean Be Applied To Data Integration?  This article outlined the lean concept, 8 forms of waste, and how the concept might apply to business and data integration for our organizations. 

In eliminating waste we improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our organizations, but how do we identify waste or process improvement opportunities? A recent trip to Europe with my wife and kids provided some interesting insights on ways to identify Lean Integration opportunities.

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Reputation In The Work Place

Posted by Guest Blogger on Jun 17, 2014 1:54 PM


We've all seen it.  John knows the ins/outs of a particular process.  John boasts his knowledge, skills of that process, John knows it all, John is the man. Everyone goes to John, "John is out today? He’s the only one that can help us, we have a deadline. Did he leave notes on what we should do? He knew this was due today". "What am I supposed to tell the customer?  How do I respond to the customer?"


John is part of a team of eight, a well skilled and knowledgeable team of eight.  Each member of the team brings something different to the table but John, he knows everything, and he’s the “go to guy”.

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It's Vacation Time

Posted by Scott Hulme on Jun 13, 2014 1:25 PM


School is out, the days are lasting longer, and the temperature is heating up.  Have you taken a look around your office lately?  Are there less people milling around your office or hanging out at the office water cooler?  It is that time of year when people take extended vacations, take more frequent long weekends, or simply take a random day or afternoon off here or there.

How does this affect your company and its production?  How does it affect your production individually? 

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