Sometimes when studying something that has become too familiar to us, we can gain valuable new insights by looking at it from a radically different perspective. Much has been written, for example, ... [Read More]

Last week I had occasion to view once again, in the company of a client, the excellent little video, “Toast Kaizen,” produced by the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP)1, and ... [Read More]

Here at Quality Digest, we get a lot of mail: Some of it’s critical, some of it’s praiseworthy, some of it’s cantankerous, and some of it’s challenging. All of it is insightful. And then, ... [Read More]

Lean, lean Six Sigma, total quality management (TQM), and other techniques have helped companies improve processes through the execution of projects. However, much of these efforts have resulted in ... [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]

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]

I 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]

Story update 10/22/2009: We added a reference to Toyota Kata in the first paragraph.   The tools and techniques of what is commonly called “lean manufacturing” have their origin ... [Read More]

I'm not saying that the following apply to you... really. But, you might be a Black Belt if... You test your co-workers for normality – and find some of them to be non-normal and a little ... [Read More]

Regular readers of my column know that I abhor surveys that don’t provide some type of incentive or discount on a future purchase for completing the survey. I realize that I may have discussed ... [Read More]