All Features
Lean Math With Mark Hamel
Little’s Law, named after John D. C. Little and his 1960 queuing proof, characterizes the dynamic relationship between work-in-process inventory (WIP), throughput rate, and lead time within a reasonably stable system. The “system” can be that of a process, cell, or line and can extend to one or…
Carly Barry
In part one and part two of this series, I've outlined some reasons why a lean Six Sigma project might have been deemed a failure. We’ve gathered many of these reasons from surveying and talking with our customers. I'd like to present a few more reasons and then share some advice from Minitab…
Alan’s Apothegms with Alan L. Austin
I have thought much about the need to engage people, not just empower them. A man I admire and have known for years served as a volunteer in a leadership capacity in the church to which I belong. I had the opportunity to hear this successful businessperson speak many times, but one message in…
Knowledge at Wharton
Tablet sales showed their first sequential decline ever during the second quarter of this year, according to the research firm IDC. Apple sold fewer iPads than expected in its most recent quarter. Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader sales fell 20 percent in the fiscal first quarter ended August 20…
Jack Dunigan
“He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.”—Francis Bacon
You can get to the top of our profession and game by being conniving,…
Larry Goldman
Has anyone else noticed how every pricey light bulb now has a life-span estimate? From a marketing perspective, I do love the concept: Invest more up front, but save on energy and materials costs over the long run. Seems like a win-win situation. But is it really?
When one of our kitchen ceiling…
Paul Naysmith
It is the end of summer. The golden sun filters through clouds and reflects on a pond, a glimmering silver. Above me, Spanish moss hangs like a wizard’s beard from a giant oak stooping over me, centuries old. The green cathedral canopy against the blue sky has been an unfamiliar sight of late. I…
Kyle Toppazzini
In the lean Six Sigma framework, we normally define what is called the critical-to-quality (CTQ) characteristics. A CTQ characteristic is any feature or product that is important to the customer. However, in the FUSE framework, which stands for formulate, understand, synthesize, and execute, we…
Georgia Institute of Technology
For owners of delivery truck fleets who may be trying to decide between electric or diesel vehicles, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are offering some advice: comparisons of the energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and total cost of ownership for the medium-duty vehicles…
Georgia Institute of Technology
A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology finds that older and younger people have varying preferences about what they would want a personal robot to look like. And they change their minds based on what the robot is supposed to do.
Participants were shown a series of photos portraying…
Lean Math With Mark Hamel
The process capacity sheet, aka a table of production capacity by process, or production capacity chart, or process capacity table, is one of the three basic tools for establishing a standard operation. The other two tools are the standard work combination sheet and standard work sheet. All three…
Kevin Meyer
A hat tip to Mark Graban for pointing out this article on a problem the Fairbanks airport has been experiencing with Apple Maps. It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. (OK, it’s still funny.)
“There’s a way to get to the Fairbanks Airport, just don’t ask your iPhone for help. Apple has…
Davis Balestracci
I just got through looking at an expensive 186-page quarterly summary of (alleged) customer satisfaction data for a hospital. My head was spinning by page 28.
There were lots of bar graphs, “trending,” correlation analysis, and “top box” and percentile rankings on every—and I do mean every—aspect…
Donald J. Wheeler
The second principle for understanding data is that some data contain signals; however, all data contain noise. Therefore, before you can detect the signals you will have to filter out the noise. This act of filtration is the essence of all data analysis techniques. It is the foundation for our…
Mark R. Hamel
We’ve all undoubtedly had the notion of respect for people drilled into our heads. Of course, it’s easy to speak about such a principle. Much harder to live it. In any event, let me humbly add another recipient of our deserved respect: Process.
First, a distinction. It’s not the process, meaning…
Patrick Stone
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) “Food Police” will be in full force to secure budget funds for food safety initiatives for FY 2014 as mandated by Congress. More than half of the operating funds will be earmarked for food work.
International food inspections will surely be a focus area…
Frank Hitzel, Nils Anspach, Endré Majorovits, Fabian Peréz-Willard
The AFM Option for the ZEISS MERLIN series combines a high-end, atomic force microscope (AFM) with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to produce in situ, high-resolution AFM measurements in the SEM. The combination opens up new possibilities for characterizing nanostructures.
With the AFM,…
Denise Robitaille
As ISO 9001 wends its way through the revision process, there have been dozens of articles, webinars, forums, and discussions anticipating what the final product will look like. Pundits and experts, consultants and gurus are all weighing in on what’s going to happen. The prognosticators have made…
HEIDENHAIN Corp.
(HEIDENHAIN: Schaumburg, IL) -- Industrial applications that create many parts require fast and efficient quality checking stations. This means that maintaining accurate and correct measuring processes during the highest level of throughput is critical. The best way to achieve this is with the use…
Jim Verzino
In our earliest days of schooling, our parents got report cards that reported things like “gets along well with others.” Then, somewhere between third and sixth grade, we were instructed to do the opposite.
We were essentially asked to stop cooperating and do our own work, share little or nothing…
Robert Fangmeyer
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- As most of you have likely heard, the federal government is shutting down due to a lapse in funding. While this will undoubtedly create hardship for many who work for and/or rely on services from the government, I am happy to inform you that the Baldrige Program will…
Stewart Anderson
A recent news story here in Ontario detailed how health officials were reviewing the results of 3,500 CT scans and mammograms at two Toronto-area hospitals because of potential errors caused by a radiologist’s “performance issue.” Although the results of that review are still pending, the story…
Jeff Dewar
“We have 50,000 moments of truth every day.” —Jan Carlzon, CEO, Scandinavian Airways (SAS), 1989
I am watching icebergs float by as we navigate Alaska’s Tracy Arm Fjord, at the end of which lies the spectacular Sawyer Glacier. The wonders outside, however, are equaled by those onboard the ship.…
Akhilesh Gulati
Editor’s note: This article continues the series exploring structured innovation using the TRIZ methodology, a problem-solving, analysis, and forecasting tool derived from studying patterns of invention found in global patent data.
After last month’s meeting, a few councilmembers stayed late to…
Trevor Wilson
How many employees roll their eyes during meetings when it’s time to discuss new initiatives? How often do they scramble to complete a task not because they love it, but because they’re afraid of the consequences if they don’t? How many mutter “not in my job description” when asked to assume a new…
