I recently got a phone call from one of our service providers asking me to participate in a short survey to assess their service quality. This provider handles part of our business infrastructure ... [Read More]
I was flipping through some Japanese books on sayings and speeches given by Taiichi Ohno looking for inspiration for a new article when I found the following passage: ... [Read More]
There’s been much ado about this brave new digital world. Newspapers, magazines, and books are fast becoming mere electrons flickering before our eyes on computer monitors, smart phones, and ... [Read More]
I became aware of a truth about lean problem solving and kaizen yesterday while reading an article about 10 internet rules and laws, “Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe,” ... [Read More]
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n the past there was only one criterion required to be a good supplier: you had to ship very few nonconforming items. If your proportion of nonconforming items took a turn for the worse ... [Read More]
In ice hockey parlance a hat trick is when a player scores three goals in a single game. A perfect hat trick is when a player scores three goals in succession—a rare feat. But of course being ... [Read More]
When I started Productivity Inc. Press in 1979, quality of work life (QWL) was a very popular symbol for American unionism. Unions wanted workers to have a quality of work life, however, I don’t ... [Read More]
In one of my recent Quality Digest published articles, “Why Root Cause Analysis Sucks in America,” I provided a list of 10 reasons why root cause analysis (RCA) in the United States is so ... [Read More]
A couple of years ago, I was featured on CNN pouring out the contents of my backpack. The story was about how I ran my business, virtually, from wherever I was with the trusty items carried on my ... [Read More]
Story update 10/23/2009: The link to the prerecorded webinar mentioned at the end of the article has been corrected.
The U.S. economy runs on service. From front-line service in ... [Read More]