All Features
Kate Zabriskie
‘I understand your frustration.” Really? My bank account is overdrawn. I’ve bounced two checks, and it’s because you made a mistake. Unless you’re also having fees charged to your account, I’m not feeling it.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.” That’s what I was told after…
James Morton Turner
Panasonic’s new $4 billion battery factory in De Soto, Kansas, is designed to be a model of sustainability—it’s an all-electric factory with no smokestack. When finished, it will cover the size of 48 football fields, employ 4,000 people, and produce enough advanced batteries to supply half a…
Harish Jose
In this article, I’m looking at the relationship between capability index (Cpk or Ppk) and tolerance intervals. The capability index is tied to the specification limits, and tying this to the tolerance interval enables us to use the confidence/reliability statement allowed by the tolerance interval…
Harry Hertz
Who cares about succession planning? As an organization or an aspiring senior leader, you must care. Proper succession planning by an organization and its senior leaders is one of the keys to organizational resilience and long-term success. I know this from many Baldrige Award-winning organizations…
Donald J. Wheeler
One hundred years ago this month, Walter Shewhart wrote a memo that contained the first process behavior chart. In recognition of this centennial, this column reviews four different applications of the techniques that grew out of that memo.
The first principle for interpreting data is that no data…
Lauren Hinkel
Across the country, hundreds of thousands of drivers deliver packages and parcels to customers and companies each day, with many click-to-door times averaging only a few days. Coordinating a supply chain feat of this magnitude in a predictable and timely way is a longstanding problem of operations…
Bruce Hamilton
Deming Prize recipient Ryuji Fukuda introduced a document to my company in 1989 referred to as the “X-Type Matrix for Objective Management.” Relatively unknown at the time, it’s since become a popular format for strategy deployment.
Named for the X format that connects strategic (3–5 years)…
Tara Fortier
Recently, you’ve probably seen the word quantum used everywhere—in computing, in names for tech companies, and maybe even for explanations of love and consciousness.
So what is quantum? What is quantum technology? And is it worth all the hype?
First of all, what is quantum?
Quantum, often called…
Mike Figliuolo
I’m fortunate enough to travel to some great places to serve my clients. During those travels, I can’t help but have many customer service interactions from which to draw lessons.
Here, I’ll share how barbecue, airplanes, and coffee can teach you a few things to do (or not do) to create a better…
William A. Levinson
The current alleged quality problems with the Boeing 737 underscore the importance of zero tolerance for poor quality. No manufacturing or quality professional should ever compromise on this issue. Most importantly, the potential consequences to customers but also to the organization are simply not…
Roy Arguelles
In today’s marketplace, where products and services proliferate and competition intensifies, businesses are realizing that they must offer more than just commodities to thrive. Enter the experience economy—a paradigm shift where companies are no longer just selling goods or services but crafting…
Brenda Martin
With a career of more than 40 years in the manufacturing industry, I look back now and see that I was greatly influenced by my father, who worked for an engineering firm. He shared his vast mechanical know-how with me. The two of us worked on many projects together, including rebuilding my car’s…
Zach Winn
In a large, open space on the first floor of 750 Main St. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a carbon-capture company is heating up molten salts to 600°C right next to a quantum computing company’s device for supercooling qubits. The difference is about 900° across 15 feet.
It doesn’t take long during a…
George Caceres
Because I’m a microplastics researcher, my friends sometimes jokingly ask me, “How many microplastics do you think I consumed this week?”
I can’t give an exact answer. Unfortunately, it’s not zero.
Microplastics—the tiny plastic particles that break down from plastic products—are everywhere. And…
Jessica Rector
Burnout is affecting every industry, company, and role. There are no exceptions.
Leaders often find themselves in the trenches, navigating through the chaos and driving their teams toward success. However, amidst the pursuit of goals and objectives, burnout remains a lurking enemy that can…
Peter Cappelli
A recent report showed that 59% of managers said they had received no training on how to be a manager before becoming one. Management professor and director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources Peter Cappelli says that stunning statistic is compounded by the fact that most of those managers are…
Etienne Nichols
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the federal agency tasked with regulating the medical device market and ensuring the safety and effectiveness of all devices for patients.
The FDA classifies medical devices by risk into three categories: Class I, Class II, and Class…
Aziz Tahiri
The aerospace industry is constantly innovating and pushing the limits of what’s possible. This puts a lot of pressure on manufacturers to ensure their airplanes are top-notch in quality, safety, and efficiency. To meet these demands, the industry is undergoing a significant transformation,…
Stephanie Ojeda
An analysis of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning letters by the Food and Drug Law Institute reveals a perhaps not-so-surprising link between training gaps and FDA violations.
It’s one of several factors motivating companies to switch to automated training management software. The…
Kelly Nault, Ko Kuwabara, Yejin Park
Giving and receiving help are essential aspects of organizational life, whether that’s providing career advice or soliciting a colleague’s input on a tricky technical problem that you just can’t solve. Through help exchange, individuals gain access to ideas, resources, and relationships that help…
Mike Figliuolo
This article is an excerpt from the cutting room floor. It was in an early draft of my book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2011; order your copy here). It covers how to lead through guidelines rather than leading through rules.
We need…
Aman Pandey
In the dynamic landscape of the life sciences industry, ensuring compliance with good manufacturing practices (GMP) is imperative to guarantee the safety, efficacy, and quality of pharmaceutical products.
One critical aspect of GMP is the analytical product quality review (APQR), an essential…
Bruce Hamilton
I was asked to lead a workshop in the sales order department of a manufacturer that we had helped with process improvement on the factory floor. Those efforts had positively reverberated across the company in the form of fewer late and expedited orders. Still, sales order employees were wondering…
Del Williams
In the food industry, it’s common for processors to test—and even retest—their products on the conveyor systems they are considering purchasing. After all, every food product or raw ingredient has distinct characteristics that will determine how it behaves under the stresses and pressures of…
Pawel Korzynski
Amid seemingly never-ending layoffs and a laser focus on efficiency, companies expect their employees to make productive and focused use of their time on the clock. Yet, research has shown that they often spend a significant amount of time cyberloafing—using the internet for personal purposes…
