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Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
Founded in 1927 to produce aluminum splints—cutting edge at the time—Zimmer Biomet is a medical device company commanding second place in the entire world’s overall orthopedic market share. The organization’s stated purpose is to “Restore mobility, alleviate pain, and improve the…
John Bell
Do Less Better is the name of my book (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). Do less better is also a culture and a strategy of organizations and their leaders. Do-less-better practitioners are fanatical about focus and simplification; herein lies the secret of their success. Yet, do less better isn’t…
Susan Fowler
The CEO rejected my proposal by explaining, “Susan, your problem is you keep creating nine-ton elephants for two-ton cages.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This man was putting the kibosh on a cutting-edge product based on his limited perspective and lack of imagination. What did he know…
AssurX
A common pitfall in quality management system (QMS) process automation occurs with a poorly planned process automation strategy. Too often, the temptation is to automate all quality processes at once and streamline the entire eQMS process in one giant undertaking. However, real-world experience…
Mike Figliuolo
During times of excessive work and crisis, something has to give. Sometimes brutal prioritization is the only way to make it through challenging times with your sanity intact.
It happens to all of us. The universe, in its infinite wisdom, determines this month, of all months, is the month to test…
Alaina Love
It’s usually a prescient sign that it’s not going to be a great meeting when two women walk into your office and one is trembling while the other is on the verge of tears.
Such was the scene early in my career when I was an HR manager for a large organization. Both women were there to see me…
Gwendolyn Galsworth
There is an enemy in your company, and it’s invisible. You can’t see it because it literally is not there. Yet its impact is massive on every level of the enterprise, from boardroom to marketing to operations to the field staff. And the only way we have even the smallest chance of destroying it is…
Ryan E. Day
During the 1950s, W. Edwards Deming championed quality management philosophies that helped Japan develop into a world-class industrial center. In 1954, Joseph M. Juran was invited to lecture by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. His visit marked a turning point in Japan’s quality…
DNV GL
The internet of things (IoT), robotics, augmented reality, 3D printing... look at megatrends, and despite their unique attributes and myriad differences, you’ll find that they all have one thing in common: time—or more precisely, the fact that there’s always less of it.
No matter how long your…
Miguel Noguerol
The restaurant industry confronts many of the leadership challenges that other industries, corporate leaders, and entrepreneurs face. Chefs and chef-owners play a significant leadership role in their organizations through a variety of operational and social processes. Among these leaders, only an…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
Everyone in manufacturing has heard about the fantastic properties of composite materials, but if you’re not involved in satellite communications (SATCOM), you’ve probably never heard of Eclipse Composites. If you are into SATCOM and particularly SATCOM antennas, you know the…
Mike Richman
It’s easy to sit here aghast at the big, attention-getting customer service missteps that have recently blown up into public relation nightmares for United Airlines and American Airlines. These issues aren’t limited to airlines, however. During the past few years, companies in the automotive, life…
Sameer Kadam, Mickey Shah
The importance of quality management cannot be overstated. It enables companies to increase efficiency, lower risks, achieve compliance, and build better and safer products. Yet many quality management teams struggle to communicate the value of their operations to other departments and executive…
Harish Jose
I have been reading a lot these days about Western philosophy. The most recent book, All Life is Problem Solving (Routledge, 2001), is by Karl Popper, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century. This is a collection of Popper’s writings. One of the great teachings from Popper is the concept…
Inderjit Arora
Certifications often drive the implementation of a system approach, based on ISO standards. The primary implementation demand is for ISO 9001. Certifications do have initial costs and then recurring costs for surveillance and recertification visits. This is a responsive approach to business…
Nirmalya Kumar
Although many large companies are multinational, most of the top management teams (TMTs) in these companies are not. They tend to be dominated by executives with a connection to the home country of the company. Attention is paid to gender diversity, but cultural diversity is often ignored.
One…
Mike Richman
Oh, the places you’ll go! Our latest episode of QDL from this past Fri., May 5, 2017, truly spanned the wide world of quality. Here’s a recap of the topics and locations we visited together:
“Why Japan’s Rail Workers Can’t Stop Pointing at Things” It’s not your imagination: If you find yourself…
Christopher Martin
In 1996, former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington formed Washington-based video-game development studio Valve Corp. Two years later, they released a PC game called Half-Life to universal critical acclaim; it was a watershed moment in gaming history, and nearly 20 years later the…
Andy Molinsky
If you play tennis, you’re probably familiar with the concept of a “second serve.” In tennis, you have two chances to serve the ball, so on the first you can really put everything into it, with little risk, since you always have that second one to fall back on. The key is how you approach the…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Coaching is not just for problems. Coaching helps you avoid problems by providing space to think and be more intentional about your goals and actions. And coaching is especially helpful for getting clarity on where you want to go.
Working with a coach gives you: • Space for self-reflection •…
Annette Franz
In May 2016, I spoke at CallidusCloud Connections (C3); if you’ve never been to this event, be sure to check it out this year. The topic of my session was “The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Experience.” Given the topic of today’s post, I seem to be on a bit of a spiritual customer-experience…
John Valachovic
So often business owners make decisions based on intuition, luck, or the Magic 8-Ball. As a small or midsized manufacturer, there are so many factors that can affect your company’s profitability, both inside and outside of your control. How do you make proactive decisions for the betterment of…
Alexa Sussman
Sponsored Content
There’s an old saying that change is never easy. People tend to prefer what is familiar and resist something new because it may be uncomfortable or confusing.
The saying holds true for quality management. Some people would rather stick with their current processes—emails,…
Kevin Meyer
Mindful observation takes effort and practice, but it’s valuable if you want to be a leader. It allows you to watch processes in action and look for small nuances and opportunities for improvement. For example, the wait staff at top-tier hotels do this every day. One waiter is always watching,…
Susan Fowler
My team and I went to SavvyRoo, a cool online brainstorming site where people can enter their question and rank other people’s posts. We asked leaders for their top question about workplace motivation, and out of hundreds of questions, this one surfaced in the top 10: Why are managers such lousy…
