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I have long admired and respected Toyota. I have been to its factories, published and written books and articles about its revolutionary production system, known many of its brilliant people, and taught its methods to thousands of students. Like many of Toyota's admirers, I was shocked and saddened…
Marvin Marshall
Leadership would be easy if it weren’t for those we lead. As any leader or manager knows, getting people to actually want to do the tasks you need them to do can be a challenge. People will not fully commit to a task unless they’re motivated to desire your goals and objectives or the reason behind…
Stewart Anderson
Jack Welch, the famous and former CEO of General Electric (GE), once said that the markets in which GE competed were “brutally Darwinian.” The expression is apt because competitive markets always enforce a natural selection where only the fittest firms survive. As in nature, firms that can’t…
Douglas C. Wood
Almost all companies have a sign on a wall stating something similar to “Our employees are our most important asset.” The wording may be slightly altered, and “asset”’ may be replaced with “resource,” but usually there is such a sign posted somewhere on the premises. Regardless of the exact…
With so much focus on customers, we often lose sight of our employees and the critical roles they play in our organizations. It’s always instructive to remember that organizations are the employees, and that customer service and quality are dependent on these skilled, motivated people.…
Stewart Anderson
The 5 Whys is a well-known root cause analysis technique that originated at Toyota and has been adopted by many other organizations that have implemented lean manufacturing principles. Unlike more sophisticated problem-solving techniques, the 5 Whys doesn’t involve data segmentation, hypothesis…
Quality Digest
In the context of project management, a resource is any entity that contributes to the accomplishment of project activities. Most project resources perform work and include such entities as personnel, equipment, and contractors. The concept of a resource and the techniques of resource management…
Bretta Kelly
I
SO 9001 says in subclause 5.1, "Executive management shall provide evidence of its commitment to the development and implementation of the quality management system and continually improving its effectiveness by:
a) Communicating to the organization the importance of meeting customer…