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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…
I’ve heard a phase several times in recent months that bothers me. I’ve heard people say, “cost of quality.” Perhaps folks using this phrase have simply, inadvertently dropped an important word, but that consideration doesn’t lessen my concern. Poor quality is often an unnecessary and unfortunate…
They have been called many things: toxic, negative, dysfunctional, narcissistic, territorial, sociopathic, demotivating, vampire-like. The words describe employees—from CEOs on down to mid-level managers and their subordinates—who tear through an office, disrupting everyone’s work environment and…
In part one, I looked at how personal income levels fit into the global distribution of incomes. I’d be the last person to suggest that higher income guarantees more happiness. I’ve visited a number of developing countries, and as long as peoples’ basic needs are met, they seem to be just as happy…
In the United States, our Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching. On this day, we give thanks for the good things in our lives.
For this post, I wanted to quantify how thankful we should be. Ideally, I’d quantify something truly meaningful, like happiness. Unfortunately, most countries are not…
The department manager stepped up to the sales desk, dropped a file on it, and said to Phil the salesman, “Take care of this right now.”
“We have already discussed this customer,” Phil objected. “She has refused to comply with local zoning laws. We can’t proceed with this because she won’t do…
One of the key principles of using best practices is that multiple organizations can use the same practices as a reliable way to create and implement improvement processes. The source of the practices can be external or internal.
The project management industry, for example, turns to an external…
Last month I heard about Making in America—From Innovation to Market (The MIT Press, 2013), by Suzanne Berger and her colleagues at MIT. I’ve finished reading the book, and although I didn’t necessarily agree with all the conclusions, I’d like to offer five personal perspectives that may pique…