Harish Jose

Harish Jose has more than seven years of experience in the medical device field. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Rolla, where he obtained a master’s degree in manufacturing engineering and published two articles. Harish is an ASQ member with multiple ASQ certifications, including Quality Engineer, Six Sigma Black Belt, and Reliability Engineer. He is a subject-matter expert in lean, data science, database programming, and industrial experiments, and publishes frequently on his blog Harish’s Notebook.

Wed, 05/11/2016 - 18:07
Where Ohno and VUT IntersectInsights into Kingman’s formula
Wed, 09/25/2019 - 12:03
One of my favorite equations from Factory Physics, by Wallace Hopp and Mark Spearman (Waveland Press, third edition, 2011) is Kingman’s formula, usually represented as “VUT.” The VUT equation is named after Sir John Kingman, a British mathematician…
Course-Correcting for Long-Term SuccessA cybernetic view of quality control
Wed, 08/14/2019 - 12:03
After reviewing Mark Graban’s wonderful book, Measures of Success (Constancy, 2018), I started rereading Walter Shewhart’s books, Statistical Method From the Viewpoint of Quality Control (Dover reprint 1986, originally edited by W. Edwards. Deming…
Solving a Lean vs. a Six Sigma ProblemHint: The problem statement is never the problem
Tue, 06/18/2019 - 12:02
I must confess up front that the title of this column is misleading. Similar to the Spoon Boy in the movie, The Matrix, I will say, “There is no lean problem or a Six Sigma problem. All these problems are our mental constructs of a perceived…
Toyota PhysicsA pull system for improvements
Wed, 05/01/2019 - 12:03
Today I’m looking at Factory Physics and the Toyota Production System (TPS). My main references for the post are the 1977 paper co-authored by ex-Toyota president Fujio Cho and key ideas from Factory Physics (Waveland Press, 2011). One of my…
Is Lean the Medium or the Message?Why and how vs. what
Thu, 03/21/2019 - 12:03
Today I’m looking at the profound phrase of Canadian philosopher and a media theorist Marshall McLuhan, “The medium is the message.” McLuhan noted that: “Each medium, independent of the content it mediates, has its own intrinsic effects, which are…
Herd Structures and Complex Adaptive SystemsLessons from ants and <em>The Walking Dead</em>
Tue, 02/05/2019 - 12:03
The TV show The Walking Dead, about survival in a post-apocalyptic zombie world, is one of the top-rated currently. I’ve written previously about the show, but today I want to briefly look at the complex adaptive systems (CAS) in the show’s plot…
Chekhov’s Gun at the GembaLean inspiration from a short-story master
Thu, 01/03/2019 - 12:03
One of my favorite things to do when I learn new and interesting information is to apply it to a different area to see if I can gain further insight. Here, I am looking at the principle, “Chekhov’s gun,”  named after the famous Russian author, Anton…
Bootstrap KaizenLean tools for humans
Wed, 10/24/2018 - 12:02
I am writing today about “bootstrap kaizen.” This is something I have been thinking about for a while. Wikipedia describes bootstrapping as “a self-starting process that is supposed to proceed without external input.” The term was developed from a…
A ‘Complex’ View of QualityCustomer-centric is more than a catchphrase
Tue, 10/02/2018 - 12:03
I am a quality manager by profession. Thus, I think about quality a lot. How would one define “quality?” A simple view of quality is “conformance to requirements.” This simplistic view of quality lacks the complexity that it should have. It assumes…
Kufu EyesProblem solving requires looking past the surface
Mon, 08/27/2018 - 12:03
I came across an interesting phrase recently. I was reading Kozo Saito’s paper, “Hitozukuri and Monozukuri,” and I saw the phrase “kufu eyes.” Kufu is a Japanese word that means “to seek a way out of a dilemma.” This is very well explained in…