Defects can cause a lot of pain to your customer. They can also cause a lot of pain inside your body.

The picture below shows my broken right clavicle. Ouch! You might think of it as the defective output from my bicycling process, which needs improvement.

Sitting around all summer cinched up in a foam orthopedic brace hasn’t exactly been wild and wacky, ’50s-style fun at the beach. But the injury has had its perks: a box of mouthwatering dark chocolate ganaches from kind Minitab co-workers, for example. It’s also provided me with a rare commodity in the year 2013: Plenty of time to think.

Always on the lookout for a quality improvement opportunity, my brain ponders how this defect could have been prevented:

If only I had slowed down coming down that hill.... If only I hadn’t tried to make that sharp 95-degree turn.... If only I had triple-somersaulted with a half-twist and landed squarely on my feet with a big smile, like a Romanian gymnast....

 …