It’s pretty obvious that in so many companies, based on their actions and behaviors, CEOs and other top managers just don’t get ISO 9001 and all the derivative standards. The following 10 ... [Read More]

Remember my previous article on the quality pyramid where the very top element emphasizes the concept of “process?” One of the most powerful points to get across in any quality improvement ... [Read More]

Following my article on Leptokurtophobics (Do You Have Leptokurtophobia?) it was almost inevitable that we should hear from one. We were fortunate to have someone as articulate as Forrest Breyfogle ... [Read More]

In Miguel de Cervantes' The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, Don Quixote dreams of being a brave knight who rides a great steed to fight for what is right. That dream turned into a ... [Read More]

The band “Chicago” sang those words about "time" decades ago. The second line “Does anybody really care?” seems to sum up what is still in vogue today, especially in the ... [Read More]

The final draft of the revised ISO 9004 standard is out for ballot. This means that it will hopefully be available before the end of this year. It’s radically different from the last version. For ... [Read More]

The sweet strains of a Puccini aria cut through the Saturday night clatter of the busy Italian restaurant in New York City, but it wasn’t coming from the aging voice of the Sicilian baritone, who ... [Read More]

Story update 8/24/2009: The original graphics for this story were missing key data due to errors in converting them. We have fixed the problem.   I n “Do You Have ... [Read More]

Why do major change initiatives fail? It seems obvious: major change will not happen easily for a long list of reasons. However, if you feel your organization is overmanaged and underled with ... [Read More]

Over the past couple of articles, we have explored how an incomplete understanding of how SPC limits are calculated can lead to constructing control charts that look strange.  But using some of ... [Read More]