All Features
Bruce Hamilton
I was asked to lead a workshop in the sales order department of a manufacturer that we had helped with process improvement on the factory floor. Those efforts had positively reverberated across the company in the form of fewer late and expedited orders. Still, sales order employees were wondering…
Donald J. Wheeler
When presented with a collection of data from operations or production, many will start their analysis by computing descriptive statistics and fitting a probability model to the data. But before you do this, there’s an easy test that you need to perform.
This test will quantify the chances that…
Kate Zabriskie
‘She wanted to return a cake that was almost gone. How bad could it have been? Normally, if something is spoiled or not up to standards, it’s returned almost intact. This thing was a pile of crumbs. But it gets better: She demanded cash, yelled at me, and started causing a scene. I hope she never…
Seb Murray
Have a massive, daring goal in mind? Breaking it into smaller steps can help you achieve your dreams.
A research paper led by Wharton Ph.D. alumni Aneesh Rai and Edward Chang and co-authored by Wharton professors Marissa Sharif, Katy Milkman, and Angela Duckworth found that breaking down a…
Daniel Marzullo
If you ever feel like some parts of your work turbocharge your day while other parts leave you running on empty, it might be time for an energy audit.
This exercise can be a game-changer if you feel unmotivated or uninspired by your work. Here’s how to do it.
Reflect on your typical workday. Which…
Nikhil Arora
In the latest TalentLMS research, we zoomed in on employee appreciation in U.S. companies. We examined how employees view appreciation practices and their favorite ways of receiving recognition. Moreover, we explored AI’s potential for bridging the employee recognition gap. The research also dug…
Maggie Overfelt
Michele Gelfand finds inspiration for new projects all around her: taking in the banter in a boardroom, speaking with taxi drivers when traveling, observing the interactions between physicians and nurses during an unexpected trip to the doctor. The idea for one of her most recent papers was sparked…
Audrey Kim
Emails that drone on and on. Meetings that could have been Slack messages. Memos loaded with empty jargon. We’re all familiar with friction, or what Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao describe as “forces that make it harder, slower, more complicated, or downright impossible to get things done.”
In…
Donald J. Wheeler
Over the past two months we’ve considered the properties of lognormal and gamma probability models. Both of these families contain the normal distribution as a limit. To complete our survey of widely used probability models, this column will look at Weibull distributions, a family that doesn’t…
Jamie Bihary
An internal audit can be an overwhelming prospect, especially if you’re new to a company or internal auditing in general.
The MedTech space is huge, and even the standards that are meant to help, like ISO 13485:2016, cover a lot of ground.
So, if you’re part of the audit team in your company, and…
Mike Figliuolo
Many people proclaim they are gurus, ninjas, and other silly titles. Giving yourself such a title can cause people to lose respect for you, and it can cost you credibility.
Titles matter. A lot. So do email addresses and signature blocks. As unfortunate and as shallow as it is, people make a first…
Gleb Tsipursky
As companies continue to navigate the new normal of remote and hybrid work, it’s crucial that they establish clear expectations and guidelines for their employees. And unlike Disney and Twitter, it’s very important that they don’t change their minds randomly when the leadership changes.
However, a…
Shiela Mie Legaspi
As remote workers, we have more freedom than ever before. This means we must learn how to make personal accountability in virtual teams work for us. We must understand what drives our success, and use that knowledge to drive our own growth. Simple self-accountability techniques can empower you with…
Mike Figliuolo
Managers who establish clear expectations and rules that are communicated to team members find it easier to deal with employees when they violate those rules.
What follows is an excerpt from my book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2011).
“…
Denise Robitaille
ISO 9001 has begun its revision process. In the next few months, all eyes will be riveted on that arena as everyone seeks to anticipate the changes and what they’ll augur for their own quality management systems. The attention is not undeserved.
Equally important but with considerably less…
Scott Ginsberg
The manufacturing sector has always played a crucial role in the economy. But our industry has been grappling with a notable shortage of labor in recent years.
This scarcity of skilled workers is a pressing concern for industry leaders, who recognize the potential consequences for production…
Gleb Tsipursky
Have you seen the headlines about the new study in Nature that “conclusively proves” remote work harms innovation and creativity? That study matches previous anecdotes by leaders like Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest, when she claimed remote work made her employees more productive but less…
Jamie Fernandes-ETQ
Generative AI took the world by storm in 2023, from the classroom to the film studio, and the writer’s bench to the White House. Enterprises and creative industries worked to figure out how to leverage it in their operations, while classrooms and government entities struggled to govern its use.
In…
Gene Russell
Without a basic grasp of financial concepts at the C-suite (executive) level, small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) may be limited in their ability to compete in an increasingly crowded marketplace. This is why financial literacy is near and dear to my heart.
As a former manufacturer myself…
Rich Nobliski
Ask anyone higher up in manufacturing today—like Brian Coglianese, the quality manager and management representative of Helander Metal Spinning Co.—and they’ll tell you a similar story: Recruiting top talent, especially younger post-high school students, is increasingly difficult.
It’s known…
Susan Robertson
When you think of famous visionary leaders, you often think that they have something, know something, or do something that the rest of us don’t have, don’t know, or can’t do. The truth is, they don’t. The only thing they have is an intuitive understanding of how to open their minds and consider new…
Jessica Rector
Do you have a Negative Nancy (NN) or Toxic Tim (TT) that you’re keeping longer than you should? Would you let them go if you weren’t so short staffed? One Negative Nancy or Toxic Tim infiltrates the whole company, and their attitude spreads throughout, affecting everyone.
Think of it like this:…
Mike Figliuolo
If you have a new business idea, I’m excited for you. If you ever want to get it off the ground, however, be sure you have a problem. A real problem. I know that sounds cryptic. Allow me to explain.
When I hear a new pitch, the first question I ask is, “What’s the problem?”
You would be surprised…
Katia Savchuk
Since generative AI went mainstream in 2023, it has inspired an equal measure of hype and fear. Boosters of tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E predict that they will transform our economy, while skeptics worry about their potential to produce inaccurate or harmful results and ultimately replace…
Matthew Barsalou
A root cause analysis (RCA) should be empirical; however, this can be difficult when dealing with human error. A typical human failure is a missed operation, such as when a process step isn’t carried out. This could mean a part wasn’t installed, a bolt wasn’t tightened, or a server didn’t deliver a…
