I’m a fan of logistics, and as many kids do, I love water, too. I’m fascinated by how rivers move, how underwater streams move, how winds move. I’m fascinated by any kind of stream, even intangible, process-based ones.

I do understand the necessity of dams, of course, but I don’t agree that they should always be more important, or useful, than a natural stream, whatever type of stream it might be.

When I think of traditional, conservative quality, I see only dams. I see a stop in the flow, like a highway where traffic lights force drivers to stop every five minutes or so. Incoming quality control, in-process quality control, outgoing quality control, measurement equipment control, and so on: It’s never prevention-based flow, much less prediction-based flow.

Let’s imagine ourselves as seven billion water molecules—not a big mass, after all—flowing in a river, and let’s also imagine that we hit an obstacle. Can we turn back, flow upstream?

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