All Features
Matthew Littlefield
With the evolution of quality management, there has been a shift away from manual and paper-based solutions. Organizations are now leveraging the power of automation and integration across the value chain to improve the quality of products and processes. This progression has materialized directly…
Matthew E. May
A good friend of mine recently recommended a wonderful documentary to me: Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I now recommend it to you. It’s a phenomenal and fascinating study of a man who embodies the disciplined pursuit of perfection.
The 85-year-old Jiro Ono owns Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, $300-per-meal…
Joel Smith
One of the most poorly understood concepts in the use of statistics is the idea of assumptions. You’ve probably encountered many of these assumptions, such as “data normality is an assumption of the one-sample t-test.” But if you read that statement and believe normality is a requirement of the…
Steve Martin
Iran across an old but interesting article by Mara Lee on the Hartford Courant website: “Big Exports From Connecticut: Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, Oil; Feds Can’t Explain It.” The article provides a wonderful example of just how far one’s concept of reality can become skewed by not following the basic…
Karl Stephan
I assume many readers are either engineers or interested in engineering and its effects on society, so what I am about to say may surprise you. It is simply this: Engineers are playing a role in American society that may end American society as we have known it up to now. Let me explain.
George…
Jim Benson
Apersonal kanban is considered a productivity tool because it gives us the power to produce more. It’s also said to increase our efficiency by limiting work in progress (WIP) and increasing focus, which means we expend less energy to get results. This in turn boosts our effectiveness by providing…
Bruce Hamilton
This winter has presented folks in my clime with a perpetual blanket of snow that hides most of the welcome signs of an approaching spring. There is one early bloomer, however, that blossoms each February, even as temperatures fall to the single digits as they did last week. The small yellow and…
Donald J. Wheeler
Last month I looked at "The Secret of Process Adjustment." This column will review the history and purpose of specifications and look at two common ways that specifications are used in practice. Using simple examples I will illustrate the right and wrong ways to use specifications.
The voice of…
Mark R. Hamel
For millennia, warriors have taken war trophies to commemorate their victories. They range from the souvenir to war reparations to the just plain gory.
We’ve got flags and weapons and things like seagoing vessels, such as the U.S. Coast Guard’s tall ship Eagle—courtesy of the defeated Nazi navy…
Bull Wranglers
Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.—Carl Bernstein
Every form of media inundates us with information, most of it misinformation, scams, lies, and foolishness. The quality industry is by no means exempt from the flood. In this column we will attempt to expose the foolishness…
American Customer Satisfaction Index ACSI
The national customer satisfaction benchmark improved during the fourth quarter of 2012, rising 0.5 percent to an American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score of 76.3 on a scale of 0 to 100. Although most of the gain is due to improvements in the public sector—satisfaction rose for both…
Joseph and JoAnn Callaway
If you’re like most business owners, you probably assume your client relationships are pretty good. After all, you have enough clients to still be in business. But it’s possible you’re merely surviving instead of thriving because you’ve only scratched the surface of what it means to truly put the…
MIT News
What kinds of industrial production can bring innovation to the American economy? An intensive, long-term study by a group of MIT scholars suggests that a renewed commitment to research and development in manufacturing, sometimes through creative new forms of collaboration, can spur innovation and…
Jim Clifton
China will become the global economic leader sometime during the next 10 to 25 years, according to many economists. This means China—and not the United States—will have the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world, which will, of course, be a global game changer.
But China faces some…
Jack Dunigan
Ok, we have to admit it. We are busy—too busy.
There are meetings to prepare for and participate in. There are reports to write, read, review, comment upon, and process. The day’s schedule is often controlled by someone else or at the very least, torpedoed by unplanned activity. In my time-…
Jim Frost
‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” I’m sure you’ve heard this most vile comment, which was popularized by Mark Twain, among others. This dastardly phrase impugns the reputation of statistics. The implication is that statistics can bolster a weak argument, or that…
Akhilesh Gulati
Editor’s note: This article continues the series exploring the TRIZ methodology, a problem-solving, analysis, and forecasting tool derived from studying patterns of invention found in global patent data. TRIZ identifies 40 principles, of which the ideal final result is one.
After seeing the…
Kelly Kuchinski
During the last decade we’ve seen the number of companies, especially in the consumer products sector, outsourcing such functions as manufacturing and packaging to streamline processes, reduce costs, and focus on core competencies. Although there are obvious benefits to outsourcing, there are…
ISO
A new ISO brochure will help both manufacturers and consumer representatives understand how a simple set of rules and guidelines provided by ISO standards can ensure that environmental claims made on products or labels can be trusted.
The free brochure, “Environmental labels and declarations—How…
Michelle LaBrosse
Please hold for a scene from the movie Office Space:
Bob: “What would you say ya do here?”
Tom: “Well look, I already told you! I deal with the g!**@#n customers so the engineers don’t have to! I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people! Can’t you understand that? What the hell is…
Matthew Barsalou
Editor’s note: This is part four of a four-part series about the history of quality. For a description of the earlier years in the quality movement, see part one, part two, and part three.
The Six Sigma methodology is used to identify and control variables that affect the output of a process. In…
Matthew Barsalou
Editor’s note: This is part three of a four-part series about the history of quality. For a description of the earlier years in the quality movement, see part one and part two. For the later years, see part four.
While Japan was organizing quality circles, the United States started the zero…
Dan Wilson
What happens when product for an automated sorting line dries up? Production grinds to a halt, and workers stand around waiting for maintenance to come restore the flow. Overhead costs increase as the minutes tick away. As equipment ages, this happens more frequently. Sometimes the solution isn’t…
Timothy F. Bednarz
All employees are unique as to what drives them to do their best and excel in their profession. Most work as expected, but the motivated employee will go to great lengths to exceed expectations. The key is for managers to discover what truly drives people. Once their motivation is understood,…
Umberto Tunesi
According to official statistics, the root cause of most accidents that befall us at home, on the road, or at the workplace is “distraction.”
However, if we were walking around in Mr. Ishikawa’s skin, we would immediately say that distraction is itself an effect of a number of causes. And if we…
