Jackie Mader
Walk into any K-5 classroom in Illinois’ Rockford Public Schools, and there’s one thing you’re guaranteed to see: kids playing with Legos. Although it may look like unstructured free time, kids in...
Gleb Tsipursky
Perhaps the worst quality failure of modern times is Boeing’s 737 Max disaster.
Due to the grounding of its 737 Max airplane following two deadly crashes that killed 346 people, Boeing lost $5...
Naphtali Hoff
OK. So we’ve planned our work, and put systems in place to keep our people informed and rowing in the right direction. The next step—step three—toward increased productivity is to roll...
Donald J. Wheeler
Lean production is built on the explicit assumption that each step is operated predictably and capably. Predictable operation can only be achieved and maintained by using process behavior charts....
Sheng Lin-Gibson
Biopharmaceuticals, also known as biological drugs or biologics, are manufactured from living organisms, or contain living organisms that have been genetically engineered to prevent or treat diseases...
Naphtali Hoff
Now that we have planned in part one what we want to see accomplished, step two, toward increased productivity, is to share information effectively. We must involve others to ensure that everyone is...
Ian Hesketh
Most people are familiar with presenteeism, where employees spend many more hours at the workplace than necessary—out of a sense of duty or to impress the boss or whatever. Presenteeism damages...
William A. Levinson
Almost half of Americans work in low-wage jobs despite the nation’s low unemployment rate. Aimee Picchi, writing for CBS News, cites a Brookings study that says “44 percent of U.S. workers are...
Casandra Robinson
Perhaps for as many as 40,000 years, people have been protecting their feet with some type of covering, initially using animal hides and fur. Today, footwear has become high-tech, sophisticated, and...
Jennifer Chu
At the heart of any electronic device is a cold, hard computer chip, covered in a miniature city of transistors and other semiconducting elements. Because computer chips are rigid, the electronic...
Harish Jose
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...
Ken Voytek
I find that every so often it is good to step back and think about the current state of manufacturing in the broadest sense. We all see bits and pieces as part of our daily work with manufacturers...
Randall Goodden
The manufacturing industry, stock market, and new product development have really taken off in the past four years, and there’s a lot of focus now on moving offshore manufacturing back into the...
Lolly Daskal
When I first started out as an executive leadership coach, not many CEOs saw the importance of leadership coaching or development. During the past few years attitudes have changed, and recent...
Jennifer Chu
A modern airplane’s fuselage is made from multiple sheets of different composite materials, like so many layers in a phyllo-dough pastry. Once these layers are stacked and molded into the shape of a...
NIST
Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to grow the economy and improve our lives, but along with these benefits, it also brings new risks that society is grappling with. How can we be sure this new...
Ian Golding
During the last five years, a small number of organizations have been featured multiple times in my writing. In the vast majority of cases, I have used these businesses as a way of bringing to life...
Peter Dizikes
Given the complexities of healthcare, do basic statistics used to rank hospitals really work well? A study co-authored by MIT economists indicates that some fundamental metrics do, in fact, provide...
Naphtali Hoff
Workplace productivity is a huge challenge for nearly every company, business, and organization. Leaders struggle to get their own work done (and do the right work,) while also guiding, empowering,...
Paavo Käkelä
After two decades of offshore productions in low-cost countries, manufacturers are now struggling with the rapidly growing salaries and countereffects of cheap production. The question that...
