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Jeffrey Phillips
After posting “Don't rock the boat innovation,” I was asked by a few folks a very interesting question. It was: What does it take to be a good innovator in a corporation?
It’s fairly easy to be an innovator in a small company or as an entrepreneur. In fact, you need to rock the boat in small…
The QA Pharm
At the risk of sounding like a pharmaceutical quality assurance heretic, standard operating procedures (SOPs) often don’t work as intended. In fact, they can do more harm than good by giving a false sense of security: “We must be OK; we have procedures for that.”
Having procedures is certainly…
Bill Kalmar
D uring the last year or so we’ve been subjected to automotive recalls and government mismanagement. There’s a distinct difference in how these incidents are handled. In the corporate world, people who have been responsible for misconduct or malfeasance are, in general, summarily fired. In…
Bill Reilly
I have heard people say that geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is a black art, and I agree—it can almost seem that way sometimes. My experiences in coordinate metrology throughout the past 20 years demonstrate a widespread lack of understanding, confusion, and even resentment for…
Mary McAtee
In almost everything in quality there are multiple facets of responsibility. The same applies when we talk about cybersecurity and threat assessment.
The last time I spoke about this topic I addressed our responsibility for protecting our own organization’s intellectual property and security.…
Donald J. Wheeler
The first axiom of data analysis is: “No data have meaning apart from their context.” Yet we all encounter measures that have been dreamed up without regard for either context or use. This column gives a couple of the more egregious examples I have encountered over the years.
Kentucky Higher…
Dawn Bailey
I am grateful for the opportunity to work for the Baldrige Program. We’re blessed with an engaged community of Baldrige practitioners—folks who have served as examiners at all levels, across the country. These practitioners not only understand but have often mastered how to use the Baldrige…
Mike Micklewright
Recently, while providing training for new clients, I heard a comment from two different people that went something like this: “That gemba walking stuff is really nothing new; it used to be called ‘management by walking around.’” Admittedly I was caught off guard, especially the first time I was…
Bruno Scibilia
Suppose you have designed a brand-new product with many improved features that well help create a much better customer experience. Now you must ensure that it’s manufactured according to the best quality and reliability standards so that it gets the excellent long-term reputation it deserves from…
Matthew E. May
Over on the Harvard Business Review blogs, there’s a wonderful debate on the subject of strategy between Roger Martin, who wrote “Stop Distinguishing Between Strategy and Execution,” and Don Sull, an MIT scholar who believes there’s a meaningful distinction between strategy and execution.…
Alexandra Brown
A big challenge facing academic medical centers is how to maintain a focus on patient care in an artificially divided environment.
Most academic medical centers were developed in a system with abundant resources, cost-based reimbursement, and a traditional academic departmental structure. This…
Bruce Hamilton
After a one-day observation at a local company, I participated in a wrap-up meeting with the general manager and his team.
“We’ve been at this for five years,” the general manager said to me, proudly referring to his division’s lean implementation. “Our 5S rating is over 85 percent, and every…
Patrick Runkel
Right now I’m enjoying my daily dose of morning joe. As the steam rises off the cup, the dark, rich liquid triggers a powerful enzyme cascade that jump-starts my brain and central nervous system, delivering potent glints of perspicacity into the dark crevices of my still-dormant consciousness.…
Annette Franz
In November 2014, I participated in the Hooked On Customers Summit, a webinar series hosted by Bob Thompson of CustomerThink. I joined Thompson, along with Jeanne Bliss, in the first webinar, “Creating Actionable Insight from a Customer Listening Engine.” Bliss talked about the role of the chief…
Christopher A. Brown
One of the primary objectives of surface metrology research, functional correlation refers to the relationships between surfaces and the phenomena that influence or are influenced by their topography. Surface topography is also called texture, particularly in mechanical and manufacturing…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is moving from vision to execution as though it’s a linear process. The widely held assumption is they are two ends of a spectrum, and that vision is about planning, while execution is about action.
The truth is that vision requires action to be clarified…
Kelly Graves
As a consultant and trainer specializing in the field of organizational psychology, I’ve come to realize that certain psychological conditions that affect individuals also apply to companies as a whole. That makes sense because, after all, a company is nothing but a collection of people.
In this…
Jennifer V. Miller
What role does trust play in employee engagement? It’s a fairly large one, according to this Towers Watson research.
The study cites leaders’ ability to “earn the trust and confidence” of employees as one of the top drivers of employee engagement. There is also compelling evidence that…
Christine Schaefer
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. has long demonstrated an organizational culture based on strong customer service. It received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award twice. And it has also earned hotel industry recognition for top customer satisfaction. So when an organization wants to learn how to…
Jeff Dewar
One could argue that quality programs today share a common skeleton, with prototypes stretching back to the medieval guilds of 13th century Europe. The ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS), the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the Deming Prize, Six Sigma, the European EFQM, the FDA’s…
Harry Hertz
Before you read further, get your tissues out. I’ve had many memorable moments over the years at Quest for Excellence conferences. And I’ve never left an annual conference without some immediate action items and feeling inspired that excellence is achievable in every type of organization. But…
CorDEX Instruments
NFPA 70E, full title “NFPA 70E—“Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace,” is a standard written by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). NFPA 70E was created primarily to assist companies and their personnel in avoiding potential fatalities and injuries from electrocution, arc-…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
Smart as they are, I doubt robots worry about things that keep CEOs up at night. But then, robots don’t “stay up at night,” unless they’re running continuously. Insomnia is just another cultural difference between us humans and our new co-workers, the sort of thing we’d want to talk about over a…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
Last weekend we took all 16 members of our family on a ski trip. It was amazing, and we are incredibly lucky. We haven’t done such a thing in 17 years, when our first grandchild, Claire, was only one month old. Life gets complex and 17 years fly by.
That experience reminded me of work my wife,…
Michelle LaBrosse
In an era of large-scale layoffs and precarious employment, it may seem as though there’s nothing you can do to secure your position, besides just sitting back and hoping for the best. But that’s no solution. In fact, it’s exactly the kind of attitude that will weaken your job security. If you see…
