Content by Anthony D. Burns
The Ghost of Quality FutureMost people are confused about what quality means. Hopefully, better education in the coming decades will correct this.
Thu, 01/13/2022 - 11:55
I’m a chemical engineer. The fundamentals of the chemical engineering profession were laid down 150 years ago by Osborne Reynolds. Although chemical engineering has seen many advances, such as digital process control and evolutionary process…
Augmented Reality Lets You Show Red Bead Experiment AnywhereUpcoming interactive mobile app demonstrates Deming’s process variation experiment
Mon, 12/21/2020 - 12:03
Augmented reality (AR) means adding objects, animations, or information, that don’t really exist, to the real world. The idea is that the real world is augmented (or overlaid) with computer-generated material—ideally for some useful purpose.…
DOE Is Primarily a Research Tool, Not a Production ToolIt’s overhyped and virtually of no benefit in production. The essential production tool is the control chart.
Mon, 10/28/2019 - 12:03
You’ve set aside Sunday afternoon to bake some cookies, but you discover you have run out of eggs. Your partner in marital bliss has gone out and taken the car. You call a couple of mates, and they tell you to try bananas, vegetable oil, or…
Pros and Cons of Virtual Reality-Based LearningInteractive 3D is best for general training
Tue, 10/01/2019 - 12:03
Not long ago, we had a client inquire about virtual reality (VR) and quality training. VR and its close relative, augmented reality (AR), are hot technologies right now, not just in entertainment, but also in industry, including their use in…
Control Charts: Keep It SimpleMyth, misunderstanding, and bad teaching have lead to the belief control charts are hard. They aren't.
Tue, 12/18/2018 - 12:03
The control chart is at the heart of the very definition of quality. It is central to building, maintaining, and predicting quality into the future. However, control charts today, more often than not, are misused and misunderstood. The aim of this…
PredictableWhy has it taken so long to understand that processes need analytic methods, not enumerative ones?
Wed, 06/13/2018 - 12:03
Quality is related to processes. A process is “a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.” It doesn’t matter whether the process is the handling of invoices, customers in a bank, the manufacture or assembly of parts,…
I Do and I UnderstandWhat if quality training was as engrossing as the most entertaining mobile app?
Mon, 08/28/2017 - 12:03
I had humble, that is, poor, beginnings. I didn’t even know the taste of real ice cream until later in life. One of the first impacts I felt of the luxury that technology brings was the diode my father bought for me to replace the cat’s whisker on…
Six Sigma PsychologyWhy do so many people believe in Six Sigma fairy tales?
Fri, 10/19/2012 - 11:21
W. Edwards Deming spoke at length on the importance of psychology to quality. It’s important because psychology provides a theoretical framework for understanding the differences between people. However, Deming did not consider the Asch Effect—the…
Six Sigma Lessons from Deming, Part 2Opinion
Tue, 03/04/2008 - 22:00
In Part 1 of this article I discussed Six Sigma failures and the fundamental flaws in the term Six Sigma, as seen in figure 1 below, which highlights the flaws in the hundreds of Six Sigma web sites displaying the nonsense of out-of-control…
Six Sigma Lessons from Deming, Part 1Opinion
Tue, 02/05/2008 - 22:00
Six Sigma captured the imagination of CEOs around the world. There have been many claims of its successes yet these have at least partially been attributed to the Hawthorne Effect, which implies that if enough money is thrown into any methodology,…