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In my last column, “Detecting the Signature of Information,” I showed how it’s possible to statistically assess the structure of a message and determine its capacity to convey information. We saw how my own words fit the patterns that are present in communications that are optimized for conveying…
A report of how a process performs is not only a function of process characteristics and sampling chance differences. It can also depend on sampling approach. For example, one person could describe a process as out of control, which would lead to activities that address process perturbations as…
Very early in my lean adventure as a new vice president of operations, when the idea of listening to workers was still a little strange, I returned from a week vacation to find that two of my peer managers had teamed up to convince the company president that I had “turned over the asylum to the…
T he Breakthrough Award by Popular Mechanics magazine was presented to University of Michigan (U-M) professor Jessy Grizzle for creating MABEL, a robot that walks with the agility of a human and runs at a 9-minute mile pace.
Grizzle, U-M’s Jerry W. and Carol L. Levin Professor of Engineering, is a…
Middle managers don’t get lots of respect in the workplace. And for a variety of reasons, scholars have mostly studied the worth of CEOs and the efficacy of various management practices. But a new study suggests that frontline supervisors are far more important than many have thought.
In fact,…
When consumers are in the market for a vehicle, they no doubt consider quality as one of many buying factors. Yet quality is complex in itself, encompassing design, durability, reliability, and performance. It’s anything—and everything.
At Ford, quality is defined by our customers. Our customers…
A company with a large customer base has a monthly practice of measuring its performance on quality and customer-related metrics. These are reviewed by the CEO and the rest of the senior management team. These metrics are part of senior management’s arsenal of performance appraisal tools.
Among…
Bruce Nevins is a serial entrepreneur across multiple industries, including beverages, lighting, and athletic apparel. A graduate of West Point and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, he launched Perrier in North America during the 1970s and expanded into domestic water through the…
I’m presently working with a former auditee, now a friend, on a consultancy project, the aim of which is to establish a management system for a service provider. My friend, formerly an experienced production technician in his field, felt called by the quality world, and I felt I could and should…
Science television shows are the main reason we have cable TV in my house. We recently saw a show in which researchers recorded dolphin squeaks to determine whether their sounds are a real language. The researchers claimed that word usage in all human languages follows a specific distribution, and…
I have seen organizational lean or lean Six Sigma job requirements stating that any level of certification from almost any institution is acceptable, at least according to the recruiter. But guess what? Taking a four-hour online course on lean, lean Six Sigma, or any other quality management…
Engineering and advanced manufacturing technology are critical to motor sports. The power to control part design and manufacture in-house has a direct affect on race day. Winning the race on the track often starts by winning the race in the engineering department, wind tunnel, and shop floor.
I…
Within a process improvement or quality program, training activities are critical to building organizational capability and typically represent the highest expense category. And yet the training process often receives little formal scrutiny. Perhaps it would be appropriate to focus process…
Manufacturers love to hear the word “in control” when talking about processes. From a statistical process control (SPC) point of view, an in-control process means that a process is stable or predictable. After putting in the work to get a process controlled, how do you make sure it stays in control…
Effective leaders manage by keeping their finger on the pulse of their employees’ key activities. When tasks and assignments are delegated, leaders must take the time to review each employee’s progress against goals to determine what, if any, additional training and coaching is needed to…
Editor's note: This is part one of a two-part series. In part two, former manufacturing managers will offer tips and best practices on how to transition from manufacturing to consulting.
In early 1990, when Chevron Corp. told Lonnie Wilson that he was being transferred from El Paso, Texas—where…
So, we have a process improvement program installed. Our people are trained or are getting trained. We have a list of prioritized improvement efforts, and we are attacking that list concertedly. We are tracking our improvement benefits, and the numbers are good. What could possibly be wrong?…
Using a novel method of integrating video technology and familiar control devices, a research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology is developing a technique to simplify remote control of robotic devices.
The researchers’ goal is to enhance a human operator’s ability to perform precise…
Editor’s note: In an upcoming webinar presented by EtQ and moderated by Quality Digest, we will consider the elements of risk management and what to look for in an effective software solution. For a preview of the webinar, please tune in to the Fri., Oct. 5, 2012, episode of Quality Digest Live,…
Looking for an event to attend where you get up-to-date information on the latest hardware and software? Try attending a user conference of a prospective vendor. You might be pleasantly surprised at how much you learn. Although typically set up for existing users of a company’s products, these…
(PIVOT Mgmt Consultants) -- TRIZ is a systematic method for innovation that greatly amplifies your creativity to solve problems by efficiently drawing upon the inventive principles and processes used by thousands of inventors across all disciplines. Companies that have used TRIZ report…
On those sweltering summer days—when it’s too hot to play at the playground, it seems like you could fry an egg on the pavement, and your car feels like an oven after a couple hours parked at the mall—it’s not just the beating sun that’s driving up the temperature. It’s our very urban environment,…
Let me give you my definition of “PowerPointing”: To provide a presentation of slides so crammed with text that the background no longer shows, and that are read aloud, line by line, by someone staring at a screen rather than the audience. Many of you have experienced this; often the presenter will…
I n my September column, I showed how the normal distribution is the distribution of maximum uncertainty. Now I will expand on that theme and answer the questions generated by that column.
Last month I demonstrated that the middle 91 percent of the normal distribution is spread out to the maximum…
(LNS: Cambridge, MA) -- LNS Research’s latest report, “Measuring Cost of Quality as a Holistic Business Metric” provides executives and plant managers with a strong understanding of the cost of quality’s strengths as well as how companies can implement it into their operational excellence…
