American Airlines’ CEO Gerard J. Arpey’s letter to the editor (Quality Digest, January 2006) shows exactly why the U.S. airline industry is in trouble: “We carry about a...
Craig Cochran
Last year I had the good fortune of doing some consulting with B&C Specialty Products in Hopeulikit, Georgia. B&C does light manufacturing, primarily plastic molding and assembly, and...
Esteve Garriga
The 2005+ approach is the system established to characterize and winnow the applicants for the 2006 European Award. Formerly instituted as the European Quality Award, this year it will be...
Thomas R. Cutler
Manufacturing products produces waste that ranges from overproduction, waiting time, and transportation costs to overprocessing, excess inventory, unnecessary motion and scrap. By...
John Geary
The challenge of responding to the threat of cheap offshore labor isn’t new to North American businesses. Nearly a hundred years ago, Henry Towne wrote about the need for increased efficiency and...
Craig Cochran
Last year I had the good fortune of doing some consulting with B&C Specialty Products in Hopeulikit, Georgia. B&C does light manufacturing, primarily plastic molding and assembly, and they...
Denis Leonard
I developed and validated quality management diagnostic profiles through research conducted on 77 companies. These profiles are just one in a suite of strategic and dynamic tools that recognize that...
Thomas R. Cutler
Kanban, e-kanban and digital kanban aren’t the same. Kanban is a Japanese term that means "signal." It’s one of the primary tools of just-in-time (JIT) systems. It signals a cycle of replenishment...
Mike Micklewright
Our company’s quality manual must mirror the ISO standard, must be between 25 and 40 pages in length and must be customized to our business. After the initial approval of the quality manual, no one...
Question: Who has mountains of data needing to be tamed into information? Answer: Nearly everyone in health care, manufacturing, education, basic research, and service industries, including Six...
Craig Cochran
Customer feedback is the single most important type of communication an organization can receive. It is confirmation of the organization’s purpose in life and its ability to deliver on this purpose....
Thomas R. Cutler
Is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software helping or hindering quality? Many companies that purchased their first ERP package years ago now find that the system is hindering their...
Mike Micklewright
Why don’t registrar auditors audit clause 7.4 Purchasing of ISO 9001 when it comes to purchasing their services? After all, they’re providing a service that affects the quality of your operations,...
Bill Kalmar
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first orbiting satellite, Sputnik. This elliptical sphere the size of a basketball took 98 minutes to encircle the earth and emitted a...
Bill Kalmar
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first orbiting satellite, Sputnik. This elliptical sphere the size of a basketball took 98 minutes to encircle the earth and emitted a...
David Zatz
Chrysler is stepping up their use of team-based manufacturing, moving away from the “Fordist” approach that’s been continually embraced and rejected by global automakers. Their...
Corporations throughout the world are losing billions in wasted quality-project spending, and this waste is carefully hidden from both management and investors. A new global research report...
Quality Digest
As China’s automotive suppliers rush to meet the demands of the world’s fastest-growing automotive market, an overcapacity problem already may be brewing, according to a new study written by...
Craig Cochran
Internal auditing is one of the most routine improvement tools available to organizations. In fact, it’s so ordinary that auditors sometimes forget the underlying principles of auditing. Auditors...
Ken Levine
Lean Six Sigma and other continuous improvement initiatives require effective teamwork, and effective teamwork requires good meetings. Ineffective meetings are the reason many organizations fail to...
