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Tom Pyzdek
In this four-part series, we take an in-depth look at how to design an effective work environment. Part one discusses the elements of continuous-flow work cells. Part two considers how to enhance the efficiency of such work cells. Part three explores the 5S methodology. In part four of the series…
Tom Pyzdek
In this four-part series, we take an in-depth look at how to design an effective work environment. Part one discusses the elements of continuous-flow work cells. Part two considers how to enhance the efficiency of such work cells. Part three explores the 5S methodology. In part four of the series…
Xia Enyu
Industrial organizations face numerous compliance regulations such as management system certification, information security, corporate social responsibility compliance, and limiting the content of hazardous substances in products. Now they can add carbon management to the list. This task is one…
Willie L. Carter
Higher customer expectations, cost-cutting pressures, thinner margins, and shorter lead times are some of the daily challenges that organizations face. A management system built around lean processes enables companies to achieve operational excellence, while providing flexibility in the way…
Jon Miller
When we say that a task is Herculean, it means it is extremely difficult. Heracles was a Greek hero (Hercules in the Roman version) who got into some trouble for killing a member of his family in a fit of madness and was assigned a series of challenging tasks as penance. Sometimes we face…
Denise Robitaille
As the universe of quality management systems expands, it’s interesting to observe the increasing variables that constitute the concept of applicability. Let’s take maintenance of records as an example.
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Twenty years ago, the records that were kept and the method of keeping…
Value stream or other lean analysis helps identify the main obstacles to flow in a process. Improvement projects using lean tools in a transactional environment (i.e., office) are often confronted with the following problem: Lean teams lack a methodology to consistently problem-solve how to…
Sal Lucido
In Part I, “Savvy Compliance Strategy Can Improve GMP,” we took a high-level look at a process for automating regulatory compliance management. The closed-loop process starts with documenting your processes, followed by monitoring or checking that the processes are being followed. Next, you…
Steven Ouellette
So I thought I was done with measurement system analysis after my last column, but I just finished reading Don Wheeler’s June 1 column, “Is the Part in Spec?” and the first thing I thought was, “Well, that was… complicated and ultimately unhelpful in answering the article’s title question.” I like…
Bruce Ballinger
A recent article published in Quality Digest Daily pointed out that to foster a problem-solving culture, managers must serve as mentors and cultural leaders—building the systems and atmosphere that support and encourage team members at all levels to problem solve effectively.
That is…
Standards Council of Canada
The Bre-X gold scandal that rocked the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) during the late 1990s forever changed the Canadian mining sector. When millions in pension dollars were lost due to fraudulent and falsified test data, investors around the world were outraged.
It remains one of the most…
Thomas R. Cutler
There is no shortage of standards. There are standards that define how something should be made vs. those related to processes, such as ISO 9001. According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), standards that provide requirements or give guidance on good management practice…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
For more than 20 years, Toyota’s methods, known as “lean,” have made headlines. And that’s how long engineer, researcher, and author Mike Rother has been involved with the subject. Like many others, Rother began with Toyota’s production tools. And like many others, he found that these are…
Gene Rider
Approximately three-fourths of product safety recalls in the United States are the result of some design flaw in the product rather than a manufacturing or other defect. Most violations of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) “small parts” standard, for example, are the result of…
Jon Miller
In a recent e-mail, a reader of my blog asked me, “How can we enhance top management commitment and involvement for implementing total productive maintenance (TPM)?”
This is a great general question to ask during any effort to establish excellence, maintain excellence, or transform excellence…
National Association for Healthcare Quality
The Toyota Production System and U.S. health care improvement share a long history. What lessons can health care leaders learn from Toyota’s recent production troubles? A few experts recently discussed this on WIHI, an audio program sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Here…
Donald J. Wheeler
During the past 20 years it has become fashionable to condemn measurement processes that are less than perfect. Yet the reality is that we must always use imperfect data. Given this fact of life, how can we ever know if a measured item is or is not within the specifications? Put another way, how…
Stewart Anderson
I am often struck by a remark of W. Edwards Deming that the aim of a system must include plans for the future. As Deming wrote in The New Economics, “A system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system. The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include…
(Academy Leadership Publishing: King of Prussia, PA) -- When news headlines trumpet story after story about fiscal mismanagement, unchecked greed, massive bankruptcies, and rampant downsizing, it’s hard to believe there’s any good news about the business world. Indeed, it’s almost impossible not…
R. Eric Reidenbach Ph.D.
Successful quality initiatives are based on understanding the true nature of “quality.” It resides in the minds of those who judge it and use it to make their purchase decisions—in other words, the market. Divorced from the market, quality or value has no real meaning. Uninformed definitions of…
Davis Balestracci
Customer satisfaction data resulting in various quality indexes abound. The airline industry is particularly watched. The April 10 Quality Digest Daily had an article with the title "Study: Airline Performance Improves" and the subtitle "Better on-time performance, baggage handling, and customer…
Pete Abilla
Some time ago, while consulting for a huge call center, I took a group of customer service agents for a little gemba walk and a quick activity to demonstrate a few lean fundamentals. What was scheduled for a 60-minute exercise turned out to be an experience that awakened the agents, several of whom…
Paul Scicchitano
The billowing cloud of volcanic ash spewing from Iceland may have been a major pain for air travel, but it also had a positive side. It served up a gentle reminder for me to find out what the heck is going on with AS9100 certification.
Faster than I could say Eyjafjallajökull, I was on the…
Almost two years ago, the management team of the Indiana Toll Road (ITR Concession Co. LLC) and the Chicago Skyway Bridge (Skyway Concession Co. LLC) decided that implementing a quality management system compliant with ISO 9001 would be a useful tool for driving continual improvement. The shared…
Steven Ouellette
We have recently covered a lot of ground on the topic of measurement system analysis (MSA). We talked about the basics of MSA, the potential study, the short-term study, and the long-term study. At this point you should have a pretty firm foundation in the importance and methods of good MSA…