Content by Harish Jose
The Toyota HouseWhy <em>jidoka</em> and JIT?
Mon, 10/19/2020 - 12:03
Today I’m looking at the “house” of the Toyota Production System (TPS). The illustration below shows the two pillars of the TPS house, jidoka and just in time (JIT). I’ve been thinking about why jidoka and JIT are the two pillars, and why they’re…
Shingo’s WhysThe next logical step in complexity
Thu, 07/02/2020 - 12:03
Shigeo Shingo is one of my heroes in industrial engineering. He had a great mind that thrived on curiosity. Today I am looking at Shingo’s Whys. This is in contrast to Taiichi Ohno’s 5 Whys method. Ohno’s 5 Whys method is one of the tools in Toyota…
Wu Wei at the GembaNo force necessary
Thu, 04/02/2020 - 12:02
In today’s column, I am looking at wu wei, which is an important concept detailed in the Chinese classic text, Tao Te Ching. This term is generally translated into English as wu = no, wei = action, or no action. There are other similar concepts in…
Karakuri KaizenHarnessing the boundless ingenuity of the human mind
Tue, 02/25/2020 - 12:03
As readers of my columns know, I am an ardent student of the Toyota Production System (TPS). One of the core philosophies of TPS is kaizen, often translated from Japanese as “continuous improvement.” It is the idea that one should continuously find…
Weber’s Law at the GembaBe surprised
Thu, 01/16/2020 - 12:02
In today’s column, I’m looking at Weber’s Law. It’s named after Ernst Heinrich Weber (born June 24, 1795, died Jan. 26, 1878), a German physician who was one of the pioneers of experimental psychology. I highly recommend the Numberphile YouTube…
Calculating Reliability and ConfidenceHow to generate an OC curve based on sample size and number of rejects
Mon, 11/18/2019 - 12:03
It has been a while since I have written about statistics, and I get asked a lot about a way to calculate sample sizes based on reliability and confidence levels. So today I am sharing a spreadsheet that generates an operating characteristic (OC)…
Where Poka-Yoke and Cybernetics MeetUsers ultimately determine the purpose of any device
Mon, 10/28/2019 - 12:02
Today I’m looking at design from a cybernetics viewpoint. My inspirations come from cybernetics and design theorists Ross Ashby, Stafford Beer, Klaus Krippendorff, Paul Pangaro, and Ranulph Glanville. I was curious about how the interface of a…
Where Ohno and VUT IntersectInsights into Kingman’s formula
Wed, 09/25/2019 - 12:03
One of my favorite equations from Factory Physics, by Wallace Hopp and Mark Spearman (Waveland Press, third edition, 2011) is Kingman’s formula, usually represented as “VUT.” The VUT equation is named after Sir John Kingman, a British mathematician…
Course-Correcting for Long-Term SuccessA cybernetic view of quality control
Wed, 08/14/2019 - 12:03
After reviewing Mark Graban’s wonderful book, Measures of Success (Constancy, 2018), I started rereading Walter Shewhart’s books, Statistical Method From the Viewpoint of Quality Control (Dover reprint 1986, originally edited by W. Edwards. Deming…
Solving a Lean vs. a Six Sigma ProblemHint: The problem statement is never the problem
Tue, 06/18/2019 - 12:02
I must confess up front that the title of this column is misleading. Similar to the Spoon Boy in the movie, The Matrix, I will say, “There is no lean problem or a Six Sigma problem. All these problems are our mental constructs of a perceived…