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Recently, I read a blog post about the “Myths of Motivation.” The point of the post is that motivating employees takes some time and energy and is not formulaic; one size does not fit all. The author then discusses four misconceptions about employee motivation.
1. It is all up to the boss. No it…
According to a report from the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research, a dollar invested in improving an organization’s approach to quality management results in a six-fold return in increased revenues, and a 16-fold reduction in expenses. The promise of dramatic improvements is…
(Alignment Supplies: Maumee, OH) -- Alignment Supplies Inc. has launched of the ALiSENSOR SHAFTLASER, a new system for shaft alignment that combines all of the best aspects of Apple's iOS devices, like the iPad and iPhone, with the most streamlined and easy-to-use shaft alignment interface ever…
Only seven percent of Japan’s working population is engaged at work, one of the lowest engagement rates in the world. That translates to only one in 14 employees entering their workplace each day feeling motivated, enthusiastic, and committed to adding value and innovation to their jobs. This is a…
In my first post in this series, I mentioned that Minitab reached out to our customers who are practitioners of quality improvement to better understand how they complete projects, what tools they use, and the challenges they come across in achieving quality initiatives. One area they said they…
Here is a common scenario that has come across my path again just this week. It happens to all of us at some point. We conduct our routine incoming inspection or quality test of materials or components, and something fails the screen. Now what?
Obviously, the first thing to do is to contain the…
In an attempt to better understand and accommodate customers’ needs, organizations are involving customers in product design, prototyping, production, supply chain planning, and more. Customers are increasingly engaged in quality processes, participating at points where quality is critical to…
For the dreamer, high-tech enthusiast, and entrepreneur, 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, seems to embody the promise of what could be. Forward-thinking companies like Ford Motor Co., GE, and Mattel have been using 3D printing for R&D since the 1980s. However, the caveats…
What factors significantly affect how quickly my couch-potato pooch obeys the “lay down” command? The cushiness of the floor surface? The tone of voice used? The type of reward she gets? How hungry she is?
In part one we looked at the elements for a design of experiment (DOE) to answer these…
Effective leadership is the process of persuasion and example by which an individual induces a person or group to take action that is in accord with the leader’s purposes. It’s the art of letting people have your own way.
Keeping in mind the motivators that apply to specific generations, such as…
For work purposes, I first made my way to the United States on a short business trip in October 2007. I remember it vividly. I was not long married, and my boss was putting me on the long haul into Texas and Louisiana.
Fresh in my mind was the memory of the unusually warm day in Scotland the week…
When I was 50 years younger and 50 pounds lighter, I tried my hand at pole vaulting. It’s a peculiar track-and-field event that involves running at full speed with a heavy pole in hand toward a crossbar set high off the ground.
At about three steps from the crossbar you plant the pole in the…
It would appear that there is still considerable confusion regarding which method to use in evaluating a measurement process. There are many voices speaking on this subject, however, most of them fail to use the guidance provided by statistical theory, and as a result, they end up in a train wreck…
LNS Research was pleased to be among the 80 to 100 attendees at the MIT Forum for Supply-Chain Innovation’s Big Data in Manufacturing conference held Nov. 12, 2013, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event featured MIT faculty speakers and experts from the technology services and outsourcing company…
In looking for the answer to an unrelated quality improvement question the other day, I ran across a blog post that answers a question I’ve had for a while: What’s the origin of the value-stream map?
A value-stream map is a key tool in many quality improvement projects, especially those using…
A $500 “nano-camera” that can operate at the speed of light has been developed by researchers in the MIT Media Lab.
The 3D camera, which was presented last week at Siggraph Asia in Hong Kong, could be used in medical imaging and collision-avoidance detectors for cars, and to improve the accuracy…
So I had a heart attack last month. No. Literally. And I’m using the word “literally” correctly here.
I was just sitting there when out of nowhere I had a sharp pain in the right side of my chest (weird, right?). That pain started radiating out my back, down the backs of my arms and legs, and…
How have the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence helped one of the nation’s largest and most powerful nonprofit lobbying organizations to enhance its performance? Jo Ann Jenkins, chief operating officer of AARP Inc., and past president of the AARP Foundation, participated in the Baldrige…
Editor's note: KR Karu will be presenting a free webinar "Increase Supply Chain Integrity By Maximizing Supplier Audits" Thurs., Dec. 12, 2013 at 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific.
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tatistics from the “Recall Execution Effectiveness Report” (Deloitte, GMA, FMI, and GS1, May 2010) show that 52…
I was part of a panel that participated in a Google Hangout on Air hosted by Fonolo a couple weeks ago. During the Hangout, the panel discussed a few stats on—and trends affecting—customer experience.
My lead topic was about this statistic from recent Forrester research: “93 percent of…
I know the CEO of a group of large companies who is a big believer in small, continuous improvements—primarily through ideas from employees on how to improve their own work or processes. This group also has Six Sigma experts, some of whom privately believed that small improvements weren’t worth…
Today I was fortunate to have the opportunity to sit in on a webinar titled “Bringing Lean to Established Companies” by lean startup gurus Eric Ries, Brant Cooper, and Patrick Vlaskovits. The webinar was not about bringing lean per se but rather the lean startup approach to established companies.…
A new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft guidance, “Medical Device Development Tools—Draft Guidance for Industry, Tool Developers, and Food and Drug Administration Staff,” outlines a voluntary process for qualification of medical device development tools (MDDT).
The guidance, issued Nov. 14…
A few days ago we received an email from a friend at a machine shop. He had just finished a process capability analysis for a critical feature (a runout on a cylindrical part) and was shocked by the output. The spreadsheet software he used showed him a process capability (Cpk) of 0.39 (see figure…
It’s a funny spot I find myself in. I’ve been very vocal within Quality Digest about the need for, and virtues of, innovation as it pertains to our company. Very vocal. So much so, that the bosses have put me in a position to cash the checks my mouth has been writing.
I’ve written about…
