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I came across an interesting phrase recently. I was reading Kozo Saito’s paper, “Hitozukuri and Monozukuri,” and I saw the phrase “kufu eyes.” Kufu is a Japanese word that means “to seek a way out of a dilemma.” This is very well explained in Daisetz T. Suzuki’s wonderful book, Zen and Japanese…
ISO 9001:2015, clause 6.1 requires an organization to identify its risks and take actions to address identified risks. It is very tempting to start with a huge list of potential risks for the organization, but is the organization focusing on the actual risks that have an effect on its operations?…
Lead generation is a major preoccupation of the typical B2B marketing department. Indeed, most B2B marketers report that leads—with an emphasis on quality leads—are their primary goal. So, let’s review the top prospecting tools and techniques that are working for B2B marketers today. And if you…
Bob C. was a frontline employee with 25 years of experience. His day was spent operating a machine that stripped and terminated leadwire assemblies. Problem was, there were more than 1,000 different assemblies, and it seemed that, while the machine was always busy, it was always behind schedule.…
Is there a link between corporate culture and the bottom line? In a nutshell, yes. Corporate culture is linked to so many business decisions and business outcomes, you might be surprised.
Today’s article is a follow-on to, “A Fish Rots From the Head Down,” in which I wrote about the need for…
Whether it’s the effort to redefine the kilogram or researching the Harry Potter realm of quantum mechanics where things can somehow be in two or more places at one time, quite a bit of the science carried out at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can be hard for the average…
As a consumer, it’s nearly impossible to get away from videos, advertising or otherwise. To give you a numeric sense of our collective obsession with online moving images: Since last year, YouTube has started registering more than a billion hours of video viewing every single day.
We all know the…
‘What if there’s a task in my options column that just never moves?”
This question comes up in almost every class we teach.
And we ask, “What if that happens?”
We get answers like, “You have to make time for it,” or, “We need to find out why we didn’t start it.”
Maybe. Maybe that was…
Establishing the conditions that encourage innovation is the best way for your company to develop an environment that lets you produce offerings with new and novel value—innovations in the eyes of your users. The most innovative companies do this instinctively—perhaps because of the culture…
(MachineMetrics: Northampton, MA) -- As part of a global initiative to ensure the continued success of its customers, SECO Tools is expanding its customer service capabilities through a partnership with MachineMetrics, whose manufacturing analytics engine will provide SECO and its customers with a…
Dirk is on vacation, so I had the show all to myself this week. To celebrate, I picked stories that resonate with my own personal perspective of quality—revolving around team building, innovation, apprenticeship, and thinking. Let’s take a look:
“Fight to Win: How a Little Friction Sparks…
During a TED talk, Amy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, talks about “How to turn a group of strangers into a team.” Although long-standing teams are able to perform, our workplaces today require ad-hoc collaboration between diverse groups.…
Standing in the gate area of Delta Airlines at the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport, I was watching the monitor to learn if my name appeared on the “upgrade to first class” list. Honestly, I was feeling totally entitled since I fly a gazillion miles a year on Delta.
Had my name not…
Transformational leaders are the exception, not the rule.
A consistent picture emerges from lists of top CEOs. In Harvard Business Review’s Best-Performing CEOs ranking, Pablo Isla of Inditex, the parent company of Zara; Ajay Banga of Mastercard; and Bernard Arnault of LVMH stand out for both…
Stanford University professor Carol Dweck and colleagues have spent decades studying the distinct ways in which individuals view intelligence and learning, most recently expanding this research to how students view pursuing a passion. Her research has profound implications for the work environment…
Congratulations: You’re new to your organization, and the obligatory “meet and greets” are complete. You have met your team, your supervisor has conveyed expectations, your office is organized and—most important—you now know how to get to and from the coffee machine. The euphoria of getting the new…
Implementing 6S, the lean strategy for reducing waste and optimizing efficiency in a manufacturing environment, is more than just creating work protocols that people must follow. Because that’s the thing about people: If they don’t know the “why,” they are less likely to buy in to any initiative,…
Does this sound familiar? The keynote speaker is talking a mile a minute as you scramble to take notes on her every word. Your hand cramps, and then it’s over. Speaker bows to a standing ovation while you sit perturbed, knowing you missed some things. But angst arrives as you look over your notes…
Organizations worldwide stand to lose an estimated $9 billion in 2018 to employees clicking on phishing emails. We hear about new phishing attacks regularly from the news and from our friends. So why do so many people still click? NIST research has uncovered one reason, and the findings could help…
It’s hard to believe that modern Western doctors, with their multimillion-dollar hospitals and high-tech gadgets, have much in common with their ancient counterparts. Up to the 19th century, doctors usually occupied a fairly low status in society. Doctors these days generally enjoy better working…
Harley-Davidson was one of President Trump’s favorite companies less than six months ago. Now it’s the latest business to feel his wrath.
That’s because on June 25, 2018, Harley-Davidson announced it will move some of its production overseas. The iconic American motorcycle brand said it was doing…
Requirements are the information that best communicates to an engineer what to build, and to a quality-assurance manager what to test.
A requirement has three functions: • Defines what you are planning to create • Identifies what a product needs to do and what it should look like • Describes the…
For the past several years, I’ve been fascinated by how we think—and how that affects us, our leadership, and the organizations we’re a part of. A couple years ago I wrote about the beginner’s mind and the various forms of bias, particularly confirmation bias. During the past couple months, I’ve…
(L.S. Starrett: Athol, MA) -- The L.S. Starrett Co. has introduced a range of digital electronic indicators conforming to true American Gage Design (AGD) Group 1 dimensions, providing the ability to replace traditional mechanical indicating applications in the smallest AGD size specification class…
Load cells are a combination of metal, strain gauges, glue, and more. Over time, fatigue ensures that there will be some instability in the system. Load cell stability or drift is usually assumed to be the amount of change in the entire cell system from one calibration cycle to the next. It is the…
