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Several years ago, I was asked to address a startup meeting at a new client, a large manufacturer of medical devices. The company was resource-rich, but after several years of trying had not yet gained significant traction with its lean efforts.
There were perhaps 40 people in the room, half from…
Many organizations feel the need to be leaner, faster, stronger, more adaptable, and more profitable. The right toolset to get them to that outcome may not be intuitive or singular.
Building organizational agility is a solid approach to help organizations develop the capacity to perpetually evolve…
Most people attribute business disruption to technology, thinking of the iPhone, 3D printing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. However, technology alone does not cause disruption. The iPhone didn’t succeed because of its technology; it succeeded because it met customer needs better than any…
The food industry is evolving rapidly, with consumers demanding quality, authenticity, and transparency from food manufacturers. And they’re not just demanding it; they’re “voting with their dollars,” supporting companies that align with their personal beliefs. To keep up with consumer demand—and…
Across the United States, small and medium-sized manufacturers are contemplating integrating industrial robots into their facilities. There is a growing awareness that increasingly flexible and affordable robotics systems can help existing workers in a variety of different ways, taking on…
The most noteworthy and significant change in data privacy regulation in more than 20 years recently came by way of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union (EU). Being GDPR-compliant has become an important consideration in the way data are stored, handled, and processed…
Without soil, water, and sunlight, a large, strong oak tree won’t grow. The same concept applies when building lean processes for a small to medium-sized manufacturer. While it’s critical to get every employee on board with lean practices, upper management must lead the way to ensure successful…
Last month I looked at how the fixed-width limits of a process behavior chart filter out virtually all of the routine variation regardless of the shape of the histogram. In this column I will look at how effectively these fixed-width limits detect signals of economic importance when skewed…
Have you created a vision? You might be excited about it, but are others? Does your vision inspire, motivate, and guide decision making?
It’s better to test your vision now than to find out later that it’s simply a wall decoration.
And if you already created a vision a while ago, it’s still…
For growth-starved Western entrepreneurs, the Chinese market is appealing. Think about it: Since 1995, China’s economy has grown by a factor of 18.5, from $735 billion to $13.6 trillion (excluding Hong Kong). In terms of purchasing power parity, it is now the No. 1 economy in the world.…
Every year, Manufacturing Day brings attention to the career path that has financed millions of growing families throughout the decades—including mine. This attention also recalls the ongoing shortage of people to fill the thousands of available jobs in manufacturing. The same can be said for the…
If you think it’s hard to tell how you’re doing at your job, imagine being a hockey goalie. Let’s say you block every shot in a game. Was that performance due to your superior skills? Or maybe just to a lack of skill in your opponents?
Evaluating ice hockey players' performance is getting easier,…
If you think it’s hard to tell how you’re doing at your job, imagine being a hockey goalie. Let’s say you block every shot in a game. Was that performance due to your superior skills? Or maybe just to a lack of skill in your opponents?
Evaluating ice hockey players' performance is getting easier,…
Editor’s note: Read episode two in the Respect for People series here.
I was standing in a back room of the Honolulu Museum of Art that was off limits to the public. In this one room, protected from bugs, humidity, and light, was the world’s largest collection of Japanese woodblock prints. (My…
I write about organizational culture and core values quite often. One of my most recent articles on this topic was about whether employees believe in their companies’ core values. I shared this statistic from Gallup: Only 23 percent of U.S. employees believe that they can apply the core values to…
The internet has radically democratized the means of marketing cultural products. Enormous advertising budgets are no longer necessary to get the word out about a new release; companies can connect directly with vast numbers of current or potential consumers through Twitter, Facebook, or whatever…
(Visual Workplace: Byron Center, MI) -- Huddle boards are a powerful tool for many industries. They provide a visual way for teams to collaborate on and assess the tasks necessary to complete a project. Visual Workplace offers a wide array of predesigned huddle boards or contact us to create your…
Not long ago, we had a client inquire about virtual reality (VR) and quality training. VR and its close relative, augmented reality (AR), are hot technologies right now, not just in entertainment, but also in industry, including their use in training. So it’s no surprise that clients inquire about…
Attribute gauges are a type of measurement instrument or process that gives a binary pass/fail measurement result. Examples of attribute gauges include go/no-go plug gauges, feeler gauges, and many other types of special-purpose hard gauges. Many visual-inspection processes may also be considered…
Every company uses a system to understand the requirements and inputs of its customers, and then plans to deliver outputs meeting those requirements as a conforming product or service. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) publishes management system standards that, when…
I’ve written a lot about how to evaluate the uncertainty measurements. My articles have ranged from basic introductions to metrology and uncertainty budgets, to more advanced topics such as sensitivity coefficients and Monte Carlo simulation. To date, all of the examples I’ve used have been for…
(The L.S Starrett Company: Athol, MA) -- The L.S. Starrett Company has announced it will open its doors again this year to welcome students and schools, state representatives, and the community to participate in its third annual Manufacturing Day on Fri., Oct. 4, 2019, from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. at…
In principle, the mountaineer’s work is simple: “To win the game he has first to reach the mountain’s summit,” said George Mallory, who took part in Britain’s first three attempts on Everest during the 1920s. “But, further, he has to descend in safety.”
The tension between these two goals—…
In a previous column (“Why Innovate? To Make Money, of Course!”), I wrote that in order to make money from innovation, you need to find a good problem to solve. I suggested that a good way to find such a problem is to look at some of your daily tasks and identify the ones you detest. I then…
One of my favorite equations from Factory Physics, by Wallace Hopp and Mark Spearman (Waveland Press, third edition, 2011) is Kingman’s formula, usually represented as “VUT.”
The VUT equation is named after Sir John Kingman, a British mathematician:
The first factor represents variability and is…
