All Features
Bruce Hamilton
I’ll admit it: After five decades watching U.S. companies turning to simplistic accounting tricks to remain profitable, I’m discouraged.
I was a kid when I first discovered the Toyota Production System (TPS). My eyes were opened to the immense amount of waste in our production and business…
William A. Levinson
The difference between common (or random) cause and special (or assignable) cause variation is the foundation of statistical process control (SPC). An SPC chart prevents tampering or overadjustment by assuming that the process is in control, i.e., special or assignable causes are absent unless a…
Mike Figliuolo
Meetings give me a rash. A really bad one. One that not even calamine lotion can soothe. The only things worse than meetings are reports. Standard daily reports, weekly reports, hourly reports. Reports on the status of reports. If I wasn’t already insane, these things would drive me insane.
Take a…
Daniel Marzullo
If you could experience the perfect workday, what would you be doing? Have you ever taken the time to think about it?
Whether you’re an entrepreneur climbing the corporate ladder or you’re selling donuts out of the back of your car, it’s essential to pause and reflect periodically on the work you…
William A. Levinson
Inflation is a serious national issue. Credit agency Fitch Ratings just downgraded the U.S. credit rating—as in the “full faith and credit of the United States”—from AAA to AA+.1 This doubtlessly reflects the fact that our national debt exceeds $31 trillion, or almost $100,000 for every American,…
Mark Graban
I can’t count how many times during the past 20 years I’ve heard executives complain that their people aren’t enthusiastically participating in their lean program. Leaders lament that while the company has spent a small fortune to put everybody through continuous improvement training, hardly…
Donald J. Wheeler
As we learned last month, the precision to tolerance ratio is a trigonometric function multiplied by a scalar constant. This means that it should never be interpreted as a proportion or percentage. Yet the simple P/T ratio is being used, and misunderstood, all over the world. So how can we properly…
Matthew M. Lowe
Let’s start with a definition of Industry 4.0, keeping in mind that we’re rapidly approaching Industry 5.0. Industry 4.0 is an era marked by enhanced digitization and the increased connectivity of smart technologies. Where Industry 5.0 is more values-driven, it will require the technology of…
Chandrakant Isi
An increasing number of engineers are embracing design for manufacturing (DFM) to streamline their production workflow. Industry leaders such as Apple, GE, and Samsung have already adopted DFM as part of their standard practices. If you’re using the “over the wall” engineering strategy—one where…
Harish Jose
The success run theorem is one of the most common statistical rationales for sample sizes used for attribute data.
It goes in the form of:
Having zero failures out of 22 samples, we can be 90% confident that the process is at least 90% reliable (or at least 90% of the population is conforming).
Or…
Polina Marinova Pompliano
Mental toughness is a quality that sets extraordinary individuals apart from the rest, enabling them to endure discomfort and uncertainty for extended periods. But what exactly is mental toughness? Can it be achieved without undergoing severe stress and trauma? Why do some people seem to possess it…
Bruce Hamilton
Peter Drucker, celebrated by BusinessWeek magazine in 2005 as “the man who invented management,” is credited with a concept that has created confusion for me throughout my work life: the distinction between knowledge work and manual work.
In his 1959 book The Landmarks of Tomorrow (latest edition…
Ujjwal Parwal
Risk analytics is a vital component of risk management that uses statistical models, data analysis, and predictive modeling techniques to assess, quantify, and mitigate risks in various domains. This article will delve into the definition of risk analytics, discuss its importance, and explore its…
Bryan Christiansen
Creating a well-run facility isn’t as simple as it appears. It requires meticulous planning, dedicated resources, and a keen eye for detail to ensure that all elements, from the largest machines to the smallest fixtures, function as intended.
All these aspects fall under the umbrella term of…
Gleb Tsipursky
Hybrid employees don’t hate the office; they hate commuting to it, surveys show, since for many workers commuting takes more than an hour per day and costs thousands of dollars per year. Peer-reviewed studies find clear associations between longer commute times and lower job satisfaction, increased…
Jones Loflin
One of the things I hear from many people is they want to improve their ability to focus. If they just had a distraction-free environment, they could get the right things done. Well, I’m writing this from a distraction-free environment—one of those booths they have at airports where you can make…
Ethan Mollick
Nano Tools for Leaders—a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management—are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly affect your success.
The goal
Adopt a seven…
Bruce Hamilton
Last May marked the 35th anniversary of the Shingo Prize, an award bestowed each year to recognize organizations that demonstrate the principles and methods espoused by its namesake, Shigeo Shingo. Although I haven’t made it to every celebration and award ceremony, it turns out that I was the only…
Ken Voytek
It’s time for U.S. manufacturers to focus on productivity or they will lose their long-term advantage. Productivity is fundamentally about increasing output rather than decreasing costs and inputs while output remains static. We faced this challenge during the 1980s and 1990s but didn’t learn much…
Gleb Tsipursky
A new study from the University of Birmingham has found that managers have developed a more positive outlook on the benefits of hybrid work productivity since the Covid-19 pandemic. The research surveyed 597 managers and found that 51.8% of them agreed that working from home improves employee…
Mike Figliuolo
It’s a great time of year. Beautiful weather, flowers blooming, and 110 bags of mulch to be spread tell you it’s spring. Now is when we traditionally clean our homes and yards. It’s also a great time to clean up your work and professional life.
Face it: We’re creatures of habit and averse to…
Akhilesh Gulati, Rolf Biernath
Maria stretched her arms, taking in a deep breath as she savored the lingering flavor of dark, rich black coffee. She waited for the system to log in and connect to her biweekly meeting with her informal innovation group, a bunch of semiretired professionals passionate about quality practices and…
William A. Levinson
Time value of money calculations, including net present value analysis, is important when selecting projects and investments. The calculations are part of the body of knowledge for some of ASQ’s certification exams. They also go a long way toward explaining exactly what happened to Silicon Valley…
Jake Mazulewicz
Wildland firefighters. Air traffic controllers. Flight deck crews of aircraft carriers. Operators of nuclear power plants and the national bulk electric grid. These are among the safest and most reliable work teams in the world. And they don’t try to eliminate all errors and surprises.
Decades of…
Gleb Tsipursky
Many leaders, driven by memories of pre-pandemic times, believe that forcing employees to return to the office will naturally lead to mentoring and development. For example, consider what Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in spring 2023 on the On With Kara Swisher podcast after the company demanded…
