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The Japanese term, heijunka, also known as level-loading, production leveling, or production smoothing, facilitates system stability by addressing workload unevenness (mura) by leveling both volume and mix over time (see figure 1).
Heijunka also serves as a pacing mechanism for operations, often…
If you were sitting at a Las Vegas gambling table with a 3-percent chance of winning big, would you continue to play or fold? Guessing your likely response, let’s compare this example with launching a startup company. Statistics show that 97 percent of startups fail after their fifth year of…
I have been pondering about how we can sometimes ignore or misread data that are screaming to tell us something important. There is a phenomenon referred to as “groupthink” that occurs when a group of otherwise reasonable people ignore empirical data and experience in favor of convincing each…
Now that the holiday season is upon us, my mind turns to gift buying, parties, overindulgence, and of course, Santa Claus and his North Pole operations. We know that Santa does an incredible job of delivering scores of gifts to good children all over the world. But is he doing this in an ISO QMS-…
At GBMP’s recent Northeast Shingo Prize Conference in Hyannis, Massachusetts, the Center for Comparative Medicine (CCM) displayed adaptations of lean to biomedical research in its Community of Lean Lounge. Conference attendees were drawn in by the wacky display of dangerous animals and props, but…
Failed projects, even if they are not directly your fault, can be detrimental to your career.
A client recently told me a story of big problems in the company’s new product rollout. Customer expectations and logistics were two big issues, among others. Although the quality assurance director didn’…
Colonel Paul Linebarger, one of the world’s foremost authorities on psychological warfare, had this to say about propaganda: “Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of communication designed to affect the minds, emotions, and action of a given group for a specific purpose.”
Although…
[Artec 3D: Palo Alto, CA] -- Artec Group, developer and manufacturer of 3D scanning solutions, has launched a 3D scanning and printing service called Shapify.me.
If you use Microsoft Kinect for Windows or have Kinect for Xbox 360 equipment, you can scan yourself at home and upload the scan to the…
My friend and colleague Bruce Rosenstein is a prolific writer and editor. He’s managing editor of Leader to Leader, author of the wonderful Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life (Berrett-Koehler, 2009), and wrote for USA TODAY for more than…
I
witnessed something the other day that was extraordinary and confirmed that, despite some troubling times, we remain a society of thoughtful, caring people.
It was early morning, and I had just entered a local Panera Bread Company for my daily latte fix. There were several people in line,…
Is it Scrum or kanban? Yes, er, no. Well, it depends. Sometimes the road to process development takes a few unexpected turns.
In general terms, Scrum is a process framework for managing complex product development and typically associated with code development, while kanban, a pull-based…
3D printing innovation comes in many forms, but one of the most gratifying is to see how it is solving problems in the medical field. From producing perfect replicas of organs and bones for surgical guides to manufacturing one-of-a-kind medical devices, the prognosis for 3D printing in medicine is…
X-rays transformed medicine a century ago by providing a noninvasive way to detect internal structures in the body. Still, they have limitations: They can’t image the body’s soft tissues, except with the use of contrast-enhancing agents that must be swallowed or injected, and their resolution is…
Thanks to Twitter, again, I recently came across one of the most insightful articles I’ve read in a long time—on a safety blog, no less. Steven Shorrock takes on the concept of “human error” and adds considerably more perspective to this oft-used term.
“In the aftermath of the [Spain rail]…
Join Matt Littlefield, president and principal analyst of LNS Research, and Mark Bienkowski, supplier quality process and audit manager of GE Healthcare, Thurs., Dec. 19, 2013, at 11 a.m. Pacific for a Quality Digest webcast, “Building the Foundation of Enterprise Quality Management Throughout the…
I love all of the holiday classics (stories and movies), especially those that make us pause for a moment to reflect not only on who we are but also on who we want to become. This holds true both for us as individuals and for companies or brands.
Have you read or watched A Christmas Carol yet this…
Based on a reading of the ISO 9001:2015 Committee Draft (CD), the 2015 standard will further clarify and emphasize the requirement to apply a process approach. Although the requirement has been resident in the standard since 2000, this fundamental requirement has been overlooked often enough to…
Editor’s note: This article continues the series exploring structured innovation using the TRIZ methodology, a problem-solving, analysis, and forecasting tool derived from studying patterns of invention found in global patent data.
Members of My Executive Council (MEC) had been learning about and…
Nik Karpinsky quickly tapped out a few computer commands until a bust of Zeus, in all his bearded and statuesque glory, appeared in the middle of a holographic glass panel mounted to an office desk.
The marble eyes stared back at Karpinsky. Then a hand appeared and turned the full-size head to the…
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed prototype calibration tools for an experimental medical imaging technique that offers new advantages in diagnosing and monitoring certain cancers and possibly other medical conditions.1
NIST designed, constructed and tested…
In spring 2013, managers of the contract-manufacturer and product-development company MME Group met to discuss strategies that would break down residual barriers. They agreed on collective goals to improve communication between department leaders, to encourage people to ask for help and receive it…
OK, I know that what I’m about to say may sound cynical, but 20 years of personal, hard-knock lean experience tells me that this is reality. And most folks I think would, or at least should (I hope), agree with me.
The majority of companies pursuing a lean implementation do so superficially. (Did…
It’s not just the looming, package-filled holidays that prompt this rant, but it looks like we’re in for another year of over-packaged consumer goods spreading fear and frustration along with the seasonal goodwill.
That’s too bad, because this is an opportunity with quality improvement and…
For one reason or another, the response variable in a regression analysis might not satisfy one or more of the assumptions of ordinary least squares regression. The residuals might follow a skewed distribution or they might curve as the predictions increase.
A common solution when problems arise…
Recently, I read a blog post about the “Myths of Motivation.” The point of the post is that motivating employees takes some time and energy and is not formulaic; one size does not fit all. The author then discusses four misconceptions about employee motivation.
1. It is all up to the boss. No it…
