All Features
NIST
Manufacturers, robot suppliers, and researchers, here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor of an upcoming national competition intended to help make robots more handy and nimble on the factory floor.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching the Agile Robotics…
Michael Webb
This month Quality Digest Daily welcomes Michael Webb, a noted author and consultant who writes about how the quality and productivity sciences improve sales and marketing departments.
How well does your company benefit from quality improvement and productivity? For instance, how well do you…
Joe Humm
While contemplating the teachings of Edwards Deming, who is widely known for being vocal on the topics of quality and statistical analysis, I thought I’d delve into a few areas where he was a little less known, but just as passionate and to a certain extent influential: leadership and innovation…
Davis Balestracci
As I was preparing this column, one of my resources referred to chapter 48 of the 2,500-year-old Tao te Ching (quoted below), which, as some of you know, is one of my favorite sources of wisdom. It really tied today’s message together, and I hope you can apply its wisdom to your improvement…
Howard Yoon
As a physicist who explores ways to measure light more accurately, it should come as no surprise that I’m fascinated by even common optical phenomena that we see all around us (e.g., rainbows or oil slicks on butterfly wings).
Rainbows occur because light travels through water and air at…
Miriam Boudreaux
Before 2015, many of us rode one of the largest waves of success in the history of the oil and gas industry. Everything was booming—companies, salaries, bonuses, cities, services, etc. Then 2015 came and crashed the party, leaving us all a bit uncertain.
Now, entering 2016, you may have some your…
Lolly Daskal
T
he negotiation phase of my client’s merger with a larger organization was drawing to a close. This consolidation was going to be big news, and everyone was looking forward to getting it done. I sat with my client through a long week of agreeing to terms, and then it happened: The other CEO’s…
Katherine Watts
It amazes me how seemingly disparate ideas, when considered together, can create new ways of seeing the world. Bear with me for a minute, and I’ll share an insight I’ve received lately based on two seemingly unrelated ideas.
Here’s the first idea: New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler…
Niranjan Deodhar
As process improvement practitioners, we get hired to drive waste and variation out of our clients’ businesses. But what if we hired ourselves, provided frank advice, and then listened to it to drive waste out of our own business or process?
Could we then drive down the cost of organizational …
Michelle LaBrosse
For many people, January is the time of the year to set and pursue new goals. As the years go on, this yearly goal-setting becomes routine. Even though you have new goals you’re passionate about pursuing each year, your faith in your ability to accomplish them or your awareness about why you’re…
Beamex
For more than a century, Salt River Project (SRP) has produced power and delivered water to meet the needs of its customers in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. Today, as one of the nation’s largest public power utilities, SRP provides reliable electricity and water to more than 1 million…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
The baseball thudded into the dirt at the batter’s feet causing a dusty orange cloud as the dry powdery clay splashed over home plate. “Ball four!” cried the umpire, and the batter took off for first base.
The coach signaled a timeout to the ump and walked toward the pitcher’s mound. When he…
Quy Huy
I
t’s no longer a secret that most companies struggle with strategy execution. McKinsey research tells us, for example, that 70 percent of change efforts fall short of desired results. The financial losses implied by statistics like these are massive, and corporate leaders have taken notice.…
Christine Schaefer
A question for devotees of the Baldrige Excellence Framework: Do people who passionately promote continuous improvement within organizations also tend to make New Year’s resolutions to improve their own well-being?
Seriously, I’m wondering if those who fully appreciate the framework’s value in…
Jason Furness
We all have problems in life, in business, everywhere. Many of us have “solving problems” as the key component of our daily roles. Management and any form of supervision only exist in order to help solve problems. If problems disappeared, a great many of the structures within our businesses and…
Bruce Hamilton
This is an article inspired by the glut of recent football weekends. Lou Holtz, the legendary college and pro football coach, offers the following advice to coaches everywhere: “I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.”
Top managers often lament their employees’…
Stephen Ostroff
In this third and final article reflecting on the FDA’s work to protect and promote public health during 2015, we’ll take a look at our achievements in food, antimicrobial resistance, and tobacco product regulation. In part one I shared the FDA’s 2015 accomplishments in medical product innovation…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
Wherever you stand, be the Soul of that place. —Rumi
I was blessed last week to spend two glorious days with my wife, Carole, our daughter, Lisa, and Lisa’s consulting partner, Rox. Those two days were a model for how we could be in every one of our workplaces... and the world would be a better…
Douglas C. Fair
When a consumer goes to purchase a new car, the first thing they’ll notice is the vehicle’s make. Yes, the car may say “Toyota” or “Ford” on the outside, but what’s on the inside? In reality, the car’s components—from the tires to the transmission—are typically manufactured by third-party vendors…
Stephen Ostroff
In my first look back on the FDA’s 2015 accomplishments, I focused on our achievements in medical product innovation and our constant drive to make available safe, effective, and innovative products. Because the FDA’s responsibility covers the entire life cycle of products, in the second part of…
Grant Ramaley
On Dec. 23, 2015, a vote was taken among 78 nations with accreditation bodies that are part of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). From the vote it was determined that a new international database for quality management system (QMS) certifications should be created.
The intent of the…
Stephen Ostroff
Since March 2015 it’s been my pleasure to serve as the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Acting Commissioner. The FDA has broad responsibilities, and I’d like to share some important accomplishments during 2015.
Tasked with overseeing products that account for about 20 cents of the consumer…
Christine Schaefer
As a city leader, Tommy Gonzalez started using the Baldrige Excellence Framework in 2008 to achieve operational excellence within a municipal government. In his role as manager of Irving, Texas, at that time, Gonzalez introduced the framework to improve the city’s performance in all areas. The…
Mike Micklewright
I’ve made the point many times that the quality function and the lean/continuous improvement/kaizen function within an enterprise are really one and the same. Treating them as separate value streams with their own documentation, procedures, and goals is wasteful, short-sighted, and disrespectful…
Lolly Daskal
A young man came to his wise leader and asked how he could be a better leader. The wise leader said, “Let me pour you a cup of tea.” And so he started pouring a cup of tea; he kept pouring and pouring and pouring until the young man screamed, “Stop! The cup is full.”
The wise leader looked at the…