All Features
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
Tom’s board spun out from under his feet as he attempted to surf the large wave. As he plunged backward into the roiling surf, he was frustrated once again by the lack of stability from his traditional Hawaiian-style surfboard.
A few days later as he was walking along the beach, he came across a…
Donald J. Wheeler
Whenever the original data pile up against a barrier or a boundary value, the histogram tends to be skewed and non-normal in shape. In 1967 Irving W. Burr computed the appropriate bias correction factors for non-normal probability models. These bias correction factors allow us to evaluate the…
Mike Richman
Those of us in the media get into our careers for various reasons and in many different ways, but one thing that we all have in common is our love of a good story. Finding the narrative, discovering the angle, figuring out why we (and you) should care—these are the things that keep us coming back…
Tripp Babbitt
In my last column I wrote about the seven perspectives that pollute customers and culture. These perspectives rule the design of our organizations. They are inherent to our work cultures and thinking. They put us on autopilot as we toil in our everyday work. The first step to change that is to…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Why are so few companies values-driven? Even when they start down that path, why do they wind up dead-ended?
A 2012 study shows “employees want their organizations to display honesty and integrity in business activities,” and “when leaders behave consistently with the core values, they earn…
Dawn Bailey
According to a recent IndustryWeek article, the 2015 edition of ISO 9001, the standard on quality management systems, is nearing completion.
The new version of IOS 9001 will have three areas of focus:
1. The process approach will be strongly emphasized; that is, the quality management system has…
Peter Sanderson
Walls—structures, usually solid, that define and sometimes protect an area—have been built since the beginning of time. The Aurelian Walls were built between 270 and 273 in Rome during the reign of the Roman Emperor Aurelian. The 12.5-mile-long wall was intended to defend the city from barbarian…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
My wife, Carole, and I recently participated in the 16th Annual ILA (International Leadership Association) Global Conference. The theme was conscious leadership. At the conference, Meg Wheatley was given a Lifetime Achievement Award. That puts her in the company of Peter Drucker, Warren Bennis,…
Bill Kalmar
Listening to classic Christmas music on a radio station that labeled the songs as “holiday traditions” certainly brought back memories of holiday traditions from the past. Some of them, in fact, are so traditional they’re in danger of being lost in the mists of time. As such, here is my top 10…
Melinda Plaisier, Michael Landa
We were ready to head out to observe the inspection of a Miami seafood warehouse, but another team of investigators asked that we first look at evidence from their last job. They showed us a video of a huge quantity of rice contaminated with live insects.
Their work, they knew, would prevent…
Dawn Bailey
During the 1980s, Joseph Juran, one of the Baldrige Program’s first overseers, coined the term “Big Q” to serve as a quality “umbrella”: “Little q” would encompass goods and those processes directly related to the manufacture of goods, while “Big Q” would encompass all of an organization’s…
Meredith Griffith
During the last year or so I've heard a lot of people asking, "How can I calculate B10 life in Minitab?" Despite my being a statistician and an industrial engineer (mind you, one who's never actually been in the field) and having taken a reliability engineering course, I'd never heard of B10 life…
Greg Goodwin
Everyone is talking about technology advancements. References to the cloud, mobile, big data, the Internet of things (IoT)—used as central talking points or tangential nuggets that bounce in and out of conversation—are nearly ubiquitous across manufacturing industries. Most professionals seem to…
Mike Simpson
What comes to mind when you hear the word “innovation?” Quick—grab a pen and paper and jot down the first five things that you think about. Many decades ago, I thought of things such as technology, inventions, and the future when someone talked about innovation. The flying cars and robots you’d…
Gary Phillips
All manufacturing companies that get audited require some or all of their calibration certificates to specify the calibration uncertainty. At a minimum, some manufacturers only need certified uncertainty for gauges that are reference standards used to calibrate other gauges. Those companies…
Jim Benson
I am in the world’s epicenter of offshoring, Bangalore, India. We just spent several days running a Kaizen Camp and keynoting SolutionIQ’s sold-out Lean India Summit.
Not surprising, the Kaizen Camp surfaced many issues around offshoring or the perils of distributed teams, with which we often…
Michelle LaBrosse
We’ve reached the last month of 2014—can you believe it? This time of year offers many opportunities for getting together with family and friends, but it can also be a stressful time for many. With the approach of the year’s end also comes the pressure to meet end-of-the-year goals, coordinate…
Michael Causey
A
s expected, the FDA is shifting more of its regulatory focus toward medical device reporting (MDR). In an Oct. 1, 2014, letter, the agency’s Baltimore district office hit Baltimore-based Electronic Development Labs for not having a MDR procedure. Bad idea. The company may not have recovered very…
Greg Fox
Greetings, fair reader. In the past, I've written several articles with practical tips related to Minitab graphs, such as how to discuss the sensitive issue of p-charts and Laney P' charts with your doctor; how to use a g-chart to monitor parenting success; and how to use a scatter plot to start…
Annette Franz
As you think about the customer experience, which impression has the most effect: the first one or the last one? Which one is the lasting impression?
Let’s think for a moment about the customer experience life cycle, particularly when the customer first becomes aware of your brand or products.…
Jack Dunigan
‘When you find him, come and tell me so I can worship him, too.”
Those were the now-famous words of Herod, the designated Roman ruler of Judea during the first century of the Common Era. This is not a religious c6340n, and neither is it a Christmas story. It is a leadership article, and if you…
Davis Balestracci
For those of you who are improvement practitioners, are you satisfied with the organizational results of your efforts? I have a feeling most of you would answer, “Far from it,” and would almost unanimously feel that you could be more effective.
There is justification for this. A recent…
Arun Hariharan
Starting with the board and the CEO, the pursuit of quality or excellence is the job of everyone in the organization. Everyone, regardless of seniority or functional role, needs to do their jobs right the first time, meet customer requirements, and figure out ways to continuously improve their…
Grant Ramaley
Medical device regulators around the world often have to assess the cost of a new regulation. Typically there is a study to determine the financial effect on industry and the public. This information is often supplied to lawmakers in their respective countries before they pass new legislation. In…
Ken Koenemann
As a business leader, you spend a lot of your time figuring out how to win. With good reason: The most crucial job of every executive is to align efforts at every level of the organization to deliver wins for the week, for the quarter, and for the year.
The people at the front end of the business—…
