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]

This is the final column in the debate between Donald Wheeler and Forrest Breyfogle on whether or not to transform data prior to analysis. Because the debate started with Wheeler's article "Do ... [Read More]

A previous article of mine in this newsletter, “NOT Transforming the Data Can Be Fatal to Your Analysis,” addressed the need for appropriate transformations and a predictive performance ... [Read More]

If you have been following my articles over the last few months, you have seen that even though statistical process control (SPC) charts are very powerful tools for examining a process, it turns ... [Read More]

 Story update 9/23/09: Reference to 9.5.2.f was changed to 8.5.2.f in second paragraph. As more suppliers are required by their regulators and customers to achieve ISO 9001 certification, and ... [Read More]