“I suffer simultaneously from amnesia and déjà vu. I have the feeling that I keep forgetting the same thing over and over again.” —Steven Wright (surreal comedian) It all seems so ... [Read More]

Click here to read part 1 of this series. Analytic statistical methods are in very strong contrast with what is normally taught in most statistics textbooks, which describe the problem as one ... [Read More]

Long before Six Sigma; long before SPC; long before ISO, TQM, TQC, ZD, and Mil-Q-9858A there were quality products. Quality meaning both goodness and defect-free. Look at furniture made around the ... [Read More]

Mike Micklewright's pun of the month (we can only hope there is just one) Question: When Potsie and Fonzie tried to trick Richie into handing over his date to Ralph Malph in exchange for a ... [Read More]

As I listened to South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford struggle through tears and sobs as he described his sordid, illicit affair with a woman from Argentina, I concluded that he must have been ... [Read More]

Some authors recommend that you have to wait until you have the range chart “in control” before you can compute the limits for the average chart or the X chart. Why this is not true will be the ... [Read More]

  One of the earliest quotes I remember from a general manager: “If my manufacturing manager and quality manager weren’t at each other’s throats, then I would be concerned.” At the ... [Read More]

I often get assignments at organizations where I am required to take aside a group of people, either within the building facility or off campus, to focus on issues or problems. Typically these ... [Read More]

Organizations have gained much in process improvement from implementing lean practices and Six Sigma projects. However, these efforts did not prevent our financial crisis from occurring. Lean Six ... [Read More]

This is an expanded version of an article that Balestracci wrote for Quality Digest in December 2007.  --Editor I discovered a wonderful unpublished paper by David and Sarah Kerridge ... [Read More]