All Features
Don Cox
Despite the high ratio of intelligent work-from-home (WFH) business professionals, the current cybersecurity landscape for that work model could best be described as disorganized and dysfunctional. Hackers have been busy exploiting these cyber risks, as evidenced from the reported 300-percent…
Bryan Christiansen
Root cause analysis is not a singular way to an answer. It is a conceptual framework for investigating the true reasons behind the events we observe. Many frameworks are available to execute RCA that have been tried and tested by experimenters. None of these methods are foolproof, but they provide…
Ryan E. Day
Just like its predecessors, this fourth industrial revolution (dubbed Industry 4.0 in 2011) is all about increasing productivity. Unlike the first three revolutions, today’s pivotal technologies hold forth the possibility to also improve efficiency, quality, and human satisfaction.
Steam power,…
Bruce Hamilton
This time of year the abundant ads for junk removal and cheap storage units remind us that it’s time for spring cleaning, an annual pastime that has perhaps been bolstered by the need to unlock extra space in the home during the pandemic. Businesses, too, have managed to find space to accommodate…
Ryan E. Day
Writing a press release is easy. Writing a great press release takes some thought. And great press releases can draw more potential customers into your sphere of influence. Fortunately, writing great marketing copy isn’t all that complicated. Include these three elements and you’re well on your way…
Bryan Christiansen
Root cause analysis (RCA) is the process of finding the basic underlying cause for an effect we observe or experience. In the context of failure analysis, RCA is used for finding the root cause of frequent machine malfunctions or a big machine breakdown. But what exactly is RCA, and how is it done…
Knowledge at Wharton
Technology firms are the drivers of disruption across industries, but things will play out differently for automobiles, according to John Paul MacDuffie, Wharton management professor and director of the school’s Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation.
Tomorrow’s vehicles will be built with…
Jim Benson
We want to grow as professionals. We want our products to be better, our know-how to be deeper, our impact to be known and recognized.
This is impossible without continuous improvement.
I have met many mediocre professionals who are mediocre only for one reason: They feel like they are done…
Donald J. Wheeler
In my article, “Tightened 100% Inspection” (Quality Digest, March 29, 2021), we found that the excess costs associated with tightened specification limits are generally prohibitive. Here we consider the question: “Under what conditions can we use tightened specifications without incurring undue…
Henrich Greve
In March 2001, publishing executive Ann Godoff—then in her third year as president, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Random House Trade Publishing Group (RHTPG)—was the subject of a gushing profile in New York Magazine. Laced with tributes from authors and peers (“She’s the real deal,” rhapsodized…
Jim Benson
In lean there is mura, the waste of unevenness.
It’s probably the most important, but also most overlooked, in the waste theater.
For knowledge work, unevenness primarily interrupts flow. It’s when you have work that you should do easily but you don’t. There is this mura lying around that makes…
Harish Jose
Today I’m looking at the ideas inspired by mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are a class of neurons that activate when someone engages in an activity, or when they observe the same activity being performed by someone else.
The phenomenon was first identified by a group of Italian neurophysiologists…
Bob Holmes, Knowable Magazine
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.
Most of us won’t soon forget that disconcerting moment last spring when grocery store shelves were suddenly bare where the flour, pasta, and other staples should have been. The news told of farmers dumping milk—nearly four million gallons a…
Knowledge at Wharton
The future of work is hybrid. In the post-pandemic world, many companies will embrace the lessons learned from more than a year of telecommuting and not fully return to the office. Instead, Wharton management professor Martine Haas says, they will adopt a hybrid model with some combination of…
Del Williams
On conveyor systems in the food processing industry, some powdered and bulk solid materials such as grains, sugar, and creamer are ignition-sensitive in specific concentrations, particularly when exposed to static electricity discharge. Key concerns are conveyor-system connection points such as…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Quality professionals no longer focus solely on product or service quality. Today, the quality function is involved in almost every aspect of a company, from customer interactions and compliance management to environmental health and safety, supply chain management, risk management, and more.
A…
Mike Figliuolo
A consistent and regularly scheduled prioritization process helps eliminate distractions and can focus your efforts on the most meaningful projects. Some processes are formal, while others are simply frequent conversations about priorities. Choose a process that’s appropriate for the size of your…
Eryn Brown, Knowable Magazine
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.
Last spring, things looked grim for Dora Herrera. Revenues at her family’s 45-year-old restaurant business, Yuca’s, had plummeted within a few short weeks as Covid-19 kept customers away from its two popular taco shacks in Los Angeles and…
Matt Fieldman
What is America Works, and why is it important to the future of American manufacturing?
The American manufacturing industry is at a crossroads, facing growing competition from foreign countries while struggling to develop a skilled, dedicated workforce here at home. American manufacturers are…
Ryan E. Day
One of the technologies driving Industry 4.0 is artificial intelligence (AI), and AI is enabling massive change in manufacturing. It is also revolutionizing the smart manufacturing supply chain as well.
It seems that for every benefit technology provides, it also spawns an associated challenge.…
Manfred Kets de Vries
Serge faced a conundrum. One of his business partners was in a legal dispute with Serge’s father, Charlie, and asked for his help. Serge knew that his father was prone to suing everyone who crossed his path—including family members. The business partner had repeatedly tried to end this legal fight…
Corey Brown
Understanding the distinction between document management and knowledge management is vital to operational excellence. While the terms can sometimes be used interchangeably, understanding their differences couldn’t be more relevant to the shifting industrial workforce.
What is document management…
Annette Franz
The terms “customer-centric” and “customer-centricity” get thrown around a lot; oftentimes, it’s quite clear that they’re being used out of turn. I believe “customer-centric” is often confused with “customer focus,” but the two are very different.
Let’s look at some definitions.
Customer focus …
Donald J. Wheeler
Inspection sounds simple. Screen out the bad stuff and ship the good stuff. However, measurement error will always create problems of misclassification where good stuff is rejected, and bad stuff gets shipped. While guard-bands and tightened inspection have been offered as a way to remedy the…
Joseph Near, David Darais, Kaitlin Boeckl
Does your organization want to aggregate and analyze data to learn trends, but in a way that protects privacy? Or perhaps you are already using differential privacy tools, but want to expand (or share) your knowledge? In either case, NIST’s blog series on differential privacy is for you.
Why are…
