Lean
The great systems thinker Russell Ackoff had a provocation that stayed with me: A system isn’t the sum of its parts. It’s the product of their interactions.
He used a simple example. Take the best engine from one car, the best transmission from another, the best brakes from a…
Most quality practitioners, as well as process engineers, are familiar with management of change (MOC). This means that any significant change to a process factor, such as the familiar ones in cause-and-effect diagrams like manpower, machine, material, method, measurement, and environment, can…
If you ask 10 different manufacturers to identify their toughest problem, odds are at least five of them will say, “We can’t get parts through the shop floor fast enough.”
When you think about it, that answer shouldn’t come as a surprise. Today’s manufacturing customers demand…
I am exploring what I think is a fundamental question in epistemology: What does it mean to say something is true? I want to approach this through the lens of cybernetic constructivism. I’ll start with a question about pi, which feels fitting given that I wrote this on March 14.
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Quality leaders know that an audit rarely fails because a company lacks documentation. It fails because the information exists somewhere but can’t be retrieved, verified, or executed consistently when it matters. For decades, preparing for an audit meant assembling binders, tracking down…
You’ve probably heard that time is relative. It sounds like a banal cliche, akin to “time flies when you’re having fun.”
But it’s no mere cliche: Time is relative. Though it’s not noticeable in daily life, time passes slightly more slowly when you’re moving vs. when you’re…