Small Things MatterSimple tools don’t necessarily mean small results
Mon, 11/25/2013 - 11:49
I know the CEO of a group of large companies who is a big believer in small, continuous improvements—primarily through ideas from employees on how to improve their own work or processes. This group also has Six Sigma experts, some of whom privately… Standardize to Improve, Part 2Frequently asked questions about process standardization
Mon, 10/28/2013 - 16:12
In “Standardize to Improve, Part 1,” I talked about how to map or document business processes, which I illustrated through the story of Grandma Cakes, a cake-baking business that boomed from secret recipes in one kitchen to eight factories in… Standardize to Improve, Part 1Business process mapping
Mon, 10/28/2013 - 12:16
Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System, once said, “Where there is no standard [process], there can be no kaizen [improvement].”
In an earlier column, I wrote about how we used the customer-output-process-input-supplier (COPIS)… Quality: Art or Science?Why is it that some people are checklist people, and some aren’t?
Mon, 10/21/2013 - 17:01
I was once in a room full of people to whom a presentation was being made. The findings of a root cause analysis that had been done on a recent defect in the company’s product were being presented. A couple of young people were enthusiastically… When the Thrill Is GoneMany CEOs would rather brainstorm than follow through on great ideas
Wed, 10/09/2013 - 16:54
As Thomas Edison said, “Genius is 1-percent inspiration and 99-percent perspiration.” Perspiration may be boring, but it gets you results.
I don’t know about you, but I have come across numerous senior executives who were are all fired up during… Business Excellence and Knowledge ManagementUse a repository for all relevent knowledge and expertise
Fri, 08/09/2013 - 17:01
Imagine the power of your company and how much more productive each of your employees would be if every employee could leverage the collective knowledge of everybody else. This collective knowledge would stay with your company, and you’d be able to… Three Types of Lean Six Sigma Projects A look at the strategies and tools that work for each
Wed, 07/31/2013 - 16:26
During the past dozen years, companies I have worked with have, between them, completed more than 1,000 lean Six Sigma (LSS) projects. Based on this experience, I’ve found that improvement projects can be broadly categorized into three types:… Trouble in MotownHow much has the cost of poor quality cost Detroit?
Tue, 07/30/2013 - 16:21
Detroit has become the largest city ever to go broke in the United States. Why? Because its industrial base withered in the face of global competition, and as the number of jobs dwindled, so did the city’s population.
This column isn’t about the… Autobiography of a Sales OrderTwo hours of work, 348 hours of waste
Mon, 04/15/2013 - 10:54
Hi, I’m a sales order. You know—the piece of paper or computer file on which the customer describes what he wants to buy and for how much. We sales orders are quite common. I was born one morning when a customer wrote me out and handed me over to a… Stop Measuring and Start ImprovingThere’s a tipping point after which measurements become avoidance maneuvers
Mon, 01/14/2013 - 12:05
If that title caught your attention, it was meant to. Let me begin by saying I am not advocating that businesses do away with measurements, especially customer- and quality-related measurements. However, drowning in data, as illustrated by the…
