The Missing Element in EU EconomicsQuality management could help address a host of problems
Tue, 08/05/2014 - 13:06
In Italy there’s growing tension among low-income retirees about their pensions. Among the EU countries, Italy has one of the highest percent of unemployed population and is ranked as one of the least productive countries.
So the question is: Who… Scoring Through the Credibility GapSoccer, accreditation bodies, and basic survival
Mon, 07/14/2014 - 16:00
They say that Italians’ primary passion is soccer; the second is food. There must be some truth in this commonplace, although despite the alleged passion, the multimillionaire Italian team didn’t score so well during the World Cup this year. They… Deconstructing ISO/DIS 9001The road to 2015 is paved with shalls and shoulds
Wed, 06/25/2014 - 15:29
In my August 2013 column titled “Beethoven’s Fifth and ISO 9001:2015,” I commented on the ISO 9001 Committee Draft (CD). As is typical of me, I wasn’t soft. Now the interim draft international standard (DIS) is available for voting on by ISO… To Rust UnburnishedStaying honed is the price of doing business
Thu, 05/29/2014 - 13:06
Let’s consider for a moment the discipline we need to be quality professionals. It might take years to master our profession, but even when we have, we must not stop practicing and exercising it. Rather like being linguists or musicians, we must… Logistics: It’s All RelativeNever assume that all your processes are ideal
Thu, 05/01/2014 - 08:36
Next year will mark the 70th anniversary of the general public’s exposure—via the very unfortunate atomic bombing of Hiroshima—to relativity theories. This year, perhaps, global carriers and forwarding companies will have realized that logistics is… The Real Problem With UnderstaffingLimited resources also limit quality
Mon, 03/24/2014 - 15:53
If we were extraterrestrials or even just earthly kids, we’d be hard-pressed to understand the many lamentations about understaffing made at all organizational levels. The world’s seven billion inhabitants continually increase despite birth control… Our Quality LullabyIt must be OK because we keep telling ourselves so
Wed, 02/05/2014 - 08:35
If we accept the definitions of prolific (producing fruit, offspring, etc. in abundance, or producing constant or successful results) and prolix (so unnecessarily long as to be boring), then we must recognize that, based on present publications,… Insecure at the Top, Part 2One head, one process?
Mon, 01/20/2014 - 12:45
Editor’s note: Read part one here.
Both management system consultants and auditors face a dilemma when they analyze, at least technically, companies’ organizational charts. It’s not only in small or medium-size companies that managers wear more… Insecure at the TopProduction quality should begin with the manager
Mon, 12/16/2013 - 12:13
I was just thinking about the often-observed contradictions among quality assurance, quality control, and production. My production experience was as a laboratory technician with two German companies, one of which had an Italian subsidiary. The… Toyoda’s Way?Some thoughts on lean, rationalizers, and exceptional leaders
Tue, 11/05/2013 - 12:56
I read in September about the demise of 100-year-old Eiji Toyoda, and of his commitment to implant lean-oriented visions into his family-owned Toyota industrial enterprise. At the time I was reading Josip Krulic’s book, Histoire de la Yougoslavie:…
