All Features
Ryan E. Day
More and more, manufacturers are becoming the target of hackers, but what can they do about it, if anything? It seems every month, maybe even every week, we hear about some sort of data breach or cyberattack. Think Facebook, Google, and Marriott. As consumers we’ve almost become inured to the idea…
Harish Jose
Today I’m looking at Factory Physics and the Toyota Production System (TPS). My main references for the post are the 1977 paper co-authored by ex-Toyota president Fujio Cho and key ideas from Factory Physics (Waveland Press, 2011).
One of my favorite definitions of lean comes from Wallace J. Hopp…
Beth Humberd, Scott Latham
Walmart recently announced it plans to deploy robots to scan shelves, scrub floors, and perform other mundane tasks in its stores as the retail giant seeks to lower labor costs.
Although the retail giant did not say which jobs, if any, might be lost as a result, the announcement—and the many more…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Back in the good old days, if you were in a position of authority, you could just announce what needed to be done and assume it would be carried out. But times have changed.
As companies expand and become more complex, no matter what organizational structure is in place, people must work with each…
Paul Foster
When you look at standards like IATF 16949 or ISO 9001, the requirements boil down to two essential elements: improving customer satisfaction and reducing risk.
They go hand in hand because effective risk management means safer products and happier customers—and fewer problems for their suppliers…
Jeffrey Phillips
One of my favorite quotes comes from George Bernard Shaw, who said that all change in life originates from unreasonable people. Reasonable people, he said, will accept the status quo and change their lives to adapt to the status quo. Unreasonable people won’t. Unreasonable people force change…
Mike Micklewright
Knowledge of kaizen theory, principles, tools, and experience in application are of course very important in leading successful kaizen events that drive real bottom-line results. However, equally important are the facilitation skills of the person who is leading the event and the team.
Leading a…
Morgan Sliff
Boeing has been rife with issues lately. While the recent Ethiopian Airlines crash has dominated headlines and elicited an FBI investigation into the company, another federal body has stated it will be keeping a closer eye on Boeing’s safety shortfalls.
Boeing is now in hot water with the U.S. Air…
Dan Gardner
Established businesses rely on so-called best practices to retain their market share by limiting risk, but what happens when an established practice isn’t actually the best way to solve a problem?
This philosophy lies at the core of our company, Code & Theory, and defines how we engage and…
Ryan E. Day
If you have worked in the quality field for anytime at all, you have probably heard of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award—it’s the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive. The award focuses on performance in five key areas and…
Ryan E. Day
If your manufacturing organization is going to grow, you know you need an inspection solution beyond the capabilities of micrometers and calipers. You know you need to gather more data in a faster and more reliable manner. It’s time to invest in a 3D inspection solution like a coordinate measuring…
Chip Bell
Parking lot. We use it in the meeting-management world to mean agenda items that are tabled for later discussion. These are generally posted on a sheet of flip-chart paper, taped on the meeting wall, and then placed on the agenda of the next meeting so they are not forgotten as topics for…
Mike Figliuolo
Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a business problem that you’re not sure how to solve? This five-step problem solving process is a great place to begin working through any business issue.
At one point I worked with a financial services firm, and we had this really cool program that did…
Stuart Hearn
Managers have a profound effect on employee engagement. This is something we have known for quite a few years. According to a 2015 Gallup poll, managers account for at least a 70-percent variance in employee engagement scores. When employees and managers have a healthy, respectful, and honest…
Richard Ruiz
When a customer asks to see your layered process audit (LPA) documentation, will you be ready? For many manufacturers, the answer is no.
Instead of having proof of an effective audit process, many companies are left scrambling for data that show low audit compliance and few actual results.…
Ryan E. Day
According to the International Labor Organization, around the world every day 7,600 people die from work-related accidents or diseases—that’s more than 2.78 million people every year. To address the issue, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed a standard, ISO 45001…
Ryan E. Day
Traditionally, technical jobs have been underrepresented by women. But that's changing, says Emily O'Dea, commercial services process manager at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence.
“Without a doubt we're definitely outnumbered,” says O’Dea. “I started [my career] in a smaller company. It was…
Ismael Belmarez
Given the number of meetings most organizations have, you’d think everyone couldn’t help but be on the same page. Sort of a natural, automatic byproduct of spending so much time together. Nice idea, but not really true.
In fact, organizing is one of the most difficult things for an organization to…
Gwendolyn Galsworth
For me, the operational essence of the leader dilemma is this: How do I say “yes” to the few and “wait” to the many? How do I decide?
The so-called “natural-born leader” is a mysterious (to some, controversial) concept: an individual for whom achievement, direction, and drive seem to come…
Tom Taormina
Outsourcing is historically one of the most misunderstood concepts in quality management system (QMS) implementation and operation. Prior to ISO 9001:2015, the requirement for outsourced processes was limited to a few sentences in the standard’s clause 4.1. This article will present, through a case…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Often the words “collaboration,” “coordination,” and “cooperation” are used to describe effective teamwork. But they are not the same, and when we use these words interchangeably, we dilute their meaning and diminish the potential for creating powerful, collaborative workplaces.
Collaboration was…
Bruce Hamilton
Last February I had the opportunity to observe healthcare providers up close and personal at one the world’s premier hospitals. “Who Cares for the Caregivers?” was written from the perspective of a patient in a cardiac step-down unit, sympathetically watching caregivers as they grappled with many…
Shobhendu Prabhakar
Historically, conventional wisdom among business managers was that the higher the quality, the higher the cost. This perception still holds true today among a few business managers. Common sense also tells us the same thing, i.e., to create higher quality products or services, organizations will…
Davis Balestracci
In most healthcare settings, workers attend weekly, monthly, or quarterly meetings where performances are reported, analyzed, and compared to goals in an effort to identify trends. Reports often consist of month-to-month comparisons with “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” icons in the margins, as well…
Kevin Meyer
Experienced leaders know that failure is not necessarily a negative and can lead to both individual and organizational learning. We try to embrace failure and create a culture where appropriate failure is accepted as long as it’s learned from, giving our team members the space and support to fail.…
