Blogs from an Executive MBA: Operations Management 3. How to make toast

Operations Management is all about understanding and improving processes. While it’s mostly associated with manufacturing, it is a discipline that is applicable to and useful for almost any process - including making toast!

In this 9-minute video, Tom Wujec explains how we can solve our biggest, most complicated problems at work through drawing a process, step by step. Tom explains how drawing helps us better understand problems but also, through working together to improve that process, we come up with better solutions as a group and also solutions that have alignment and support across the staff that are involved. So those solutions are also much more likely to be implemented.

So my third challenge to you, from this three-part series on Operations Management, is to choose one process at work or home and draw it. Preferably draw it together with colleagues if it’s a work process or with your family or flatmates if it is a home process. Once drawn - can you redesign the process to address any problems in the current process?

​We Are All Wonder Women Co-founder Eugenie is currently studying for an Executive MBA at the University of Cambridge. This is one is a series of blogs she is writing giving insight into some of her learning from the course which she hopes will help other Wonder Women at work. Read the other articles in the series here:
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Blogs from an Executive MBA: Operations Management 1. Avoid Bottlenecks
Blogs from an Executive MBA: Operations Management 2. Small solutions for bigger impact​

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