All Features
Donald J. Wheeler
Last year I discussed the problems of transforming data prior to analysis (see my August 2009 column, “Do You Have Leptokurtophobia?,” my September 2009 column, “Transforming the Data Can Be Fatal to Your Analysis,” and my October 2009 column,“Avoiding Statistical Jabberwocky.”) There I…
Jeff Dewar
Earlier this week, 100 attendees from near and far descended on Salt Lake City for the 2010 International Visual Workplace Summit, sponsored by the QMI Visual Lean Institute and the Utah Manufacturing Extension Partnership. We were all there to discuss the visual workplace. My first question was…
Bill Kalmar
Back in 1956, Dean Martin recorded a song that was No. 1 on the Billboard Chart for six weeks. It also turned out to be Martin’s biggest hit ever. That song was “Memories Are Made of This.” As our American pastime now turns to the World Series, I thought of the many memories I have of our Detroit…
100 Customer Service Tips by Larry Williams
“Good things come to those who wait!” When you show patience in making decisions, you make better, more informed decisions. In customer service, your ability to search out the right opportunity can make all the difference in the world.
In sports competition, it’s all about timing. On the…
Jennifer Robison
They might not know who you are. But they can make you fat or thin, they can make you smoke or quit, they can make you happy or sad—and they don’t even mean to. They do know the people that you know—and that’s how your network of friends, their friends, and their friends’ friends influence you.…
It is no secret that the health care industry is undergoing revolutionary changes. Are you responding by re-evaluating your approach to process improvement? In a world where doing more work with fewer resources is the norm rather than the exception, now is the right time to update your own work…
Thomas R. Cutler
Blount is a discrete manufacturer specializing in chain-saw components. At their plant in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, the company operates a 1,200-machine facility and serves a global market. Manufacturing executives were looking for a performance management solution to support the company’s lean…
Denise Robitaille
Election time is once again upon us. And, like a bumper crop of kudzu run amok, campaign ads have besieged local broadcasts with the tenacity of an unrelenting pestilence. My mailbox is equally stuffed with innuendo-laden campaign fliers. A horrific waste of paper.
The malicious tone of the…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
On a summer day in 1973, my 12-year-old sister was riding her horse on the quiet streets near our house. There was a little more traffic than usual as two cars came toward her from opposite directions. Cindy rode onto the well-tended lawn of a stately two-story house to get out of the way. While…
Akhilesh Gulati
Our country’s focus on cost-cutting led us to move manufacturing overseas and then outsource services. It has distracted us from adopting new technology and investing in innovation. Is this a serious mistake?
For many years, publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Business News, and…
100 Customer Service Tips by Larry Williams
A large part of developing a rapport with customers is to offer a conversational tone that is warm and inviting. This can sometimes be achieved by paying close attention to the little things a customer might say. Search out ways to take your verbal exchanges down a road that is paved with friendly…
Jon Miller
People can make plenty of mistakes when launching a lean enterprise transformation. Interestingly, many of these mistakes are similar if not identical to those made by entrepreneurs when starting a business. Perhaps these mistakes are generic enough to be widely applicable and not specific to lean…
Raissa Carey
I come across countless articles, columns, and blogs about poor customer service daily. People can present their frustration and pitiful experiences in the most creative, peculiar, hilarious, and shocking ways. Most of them just want to vent, but others are determined to give their expert advice…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
Sometimes it’s interesting to watch trends develop from the relatively safe perch of business media. A press release from Aveta Business Institute last week drew my attention because it wasn’t doing what 99.9 percent of all press releases do: selling something. Instead of announcing a new product,…
Reporting and documentation are fundamental aspects of the modern quality control (QC) laboratory. Whether using digital imaging to document a defect on a mission-critical subcomponent, performing micron-level measurements of wear on precision machined parts, or collecting important statistical…
Mike Richman
Did you know that World Standards Day (being celebrated today) and Earth Day both began in the year 1970? How about the fact that Oct. 14 was chosen as the date because that was the day in 1946 when the delegates of what was to become the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) first…
Aly Fields
As my quest for knowledge and understanding of the real world continues, I decided to meet with an old professor of mine. I can remember almost every professor I ever had boasting about mentoring former students, so I figured my professor would be delighted to help me out. I am smart, hardworking…
Michelle LaBrosse
Napoleon Hill is credited with popularizing the concept of the mastermind group in his motivational book, Think and Grow Rich, which was first published in 1937 during the Great Depression. Hill wrote, “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”…
100 Customer Service Tips by Larry Williams
If you’re like most people, you have a routine that prepares you for your workday. Hopefully it involves mental preparation, cleanliness, and attention to your appearance. However, you wouldn’t be alone if your daily routine now found you more relaxed in the way you approach your personal…
Kimber Evans
Leadership by example is probably the hardest part of managing a group of people, although to date it remains the most effective management strategy. If you want your employees to work for you, then you need to work for them.
A great way to start is to find out what motivates them. Not…
Bill Kalmar
Back when I was employed by a Michigan bank in the auditing department and responsible for investigating fraud, both internal and external, I was never in want of work. It seems there’s no limit to the number of people who are hellbent on swindling others. After several years of uncovering crooks…
Steven Ouellette
Throughout the last couple of articles, I have explained and illustrated that understanding the random sampling distribution (RSD) of a statistic is key to understanding the entire basis of inferential statistics. Which is just a fancy way of saying “avoiding career-terminating decisions.” This…
Mike Richman
If you missed the news story “Baldrige Program Chooses New Name to Reflect Its Mission” published earlier this week in Quality Digest Daily, allow me to reiterate. What was formerly known as the “Baldrige National Quality Program,” the program behind the Baldrige Award, will now be referred to as…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
A favorite media lament these days concerns the lack of high-school graduates prepared to go forth into design, engineering, or technology. That’s why we have seen so much push recently on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs for our schools. Industry is clamoring for…
The QA Pharm
We hear much about the importance of listening to customers and meeting their needs. Lean Six Sigma devotees say that metrics from the customer’s vantage point are at the center of their philosophy.
Many pharmaceutical companies embed their high view of the professional community and patients…
