All Features
American Sentinel University
Critical care units at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, New York, were faced with a formidable task. They had applied to receive the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence, a distinction given only to the top intensive care units in the United States. One of the components on…
Mary F. McDonald
Every human being, over time, yearns to put his life in order—to have his expectations met, and to use filters to help him know how a situation will resolve itself. Consequently, we subconsciously strive to put new information into existing categories, based on previous patterns and preset concepts…
Arun Hariharan
In part one of this article, the technique of root cause analysis (RCA) was explained using simple examples. Part two contains a detailed list of critical success factors to get maximum results from your RCA. These are based on lessons learned from experience, including mistakes made. Because RCA…
Georgia Institute of Technology
We couldn’t pass this story up. Sure, this toy isn’t anywhere near as accurate as a Steinbichler or Capture3D or Breukmann or any of the others, but it is really cool.--Editors
Leave it to an iPhone app developer to turn a tool that cost hundreds of dollars a year ago into something that can be…
Jim Benson
There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking. —Alfred Korzybski
Over the last several years, I’ve studied a lot of processes and watched communities grow around them. I’ve been a member of many of these communities.…
Art Petty
When we focus on not failing, fear rents most of the space in our minds, and we see monsters in need of slaying everywhere we turn. We lose track of the original vision that propelled our actions, and the sheer act of working becomes at best a passionless exercise and at worst, drudgery.
Sadly,…
Michelle LaBrosse
Are you proactive or reactive in your work and personal life? Think about your career. Do you jump on tasks as they pop up, putting out fires as you go? Now consider your weekend. Do you wait until plans come to you, or do you make plans to ensure that you are having the kind of free time that…
Mike Richman
Welcome to Quality Digest Daily 2.0! This new format represents a significant re-imaging of our flagship brand (the industry’s only daily newsletter), which we first launched nearly two years ago. I hope you notice that we’ve added more video content to the newsletter as well as greater editorial…
Minitab LLC
Ford Motor Co. is one of the largest automakers in the United States, producing millions of automobiles each year at 70 plants worldwide. According to J. D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Survey, Ford has received more top rankings than any other automaker since 2007. It’s no surprise that…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
“Who wants to give their oral report first?” asked Mrs. Davis, my sixth grade teacher.
The dreaded day had finally arrived when each of us would have to stand in front of the room and speak to the class. The butterflies in my stomach were flapping up a tornado.
Not a single hand went up. In fact,…
William A. Levinson
The first part of this article illustrated the kinds of problems that can happen when data from non-normal processes are plotted on traditional control charts, and when traditional process capability assessments are applied to these data. This second part will show what to do about these problems…
Angelo Lyall
Leaders and managers are faced with difficult decisions every day. Even process-level decisions must be made with the firm’s overall strategy in mind. The difficulty is that business strategy is a topic that is often described in complex or unclear terms, leaving the reader still incapable of…
H. James Harrington
Back in 1986 I documented a list of 13 fundamental truths that applied to all organizations. I ran across these statements recently when I was looking for some comments made by a past IBM president that I wanted to use in a new book I am writing. As I thought back over the past 25 years, I realized…
Davis Balestracci
My March 30, 2011 article ended with wisdom from Yogi Berra as a warning to the quality profession. Some prickly reactions to it got me thinking about the last 30 years or so of quality improvement.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 1980 NBC television show, “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?” introduced the…
University of Michigan
(University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, MI) -- With its sleek 2011 car, “Quantum,” now built and ready for testing, the nation’s No. 1 solar-car team is preparing to take on the world.
University of Michigan’s (U-M) reigning champions of the North American Solar Challenge will compete…
William A. Levinson
A normal distribution is far more common in statistical textbooks than it is in real-world processes, and untold grief results from the unquestioning assumption that all manufacturing processes follow the bell curve. The grief consists specifically of:
1. Out-of-control signals that send…
Chris Koehn
Air gauging has roots going back more than 70 years and is today a viable and highly reliable method for many industrial applications where a high volume of parts is produced, or where the precision of hard-to-access dimensions makes other measuring techniques impossible. This includes, in some…
Laurel Thoennes @ QD
“What makes a personal kanban any better than a to-do list?” asked Julie, crossing out a completed task on her “ta da!” list with exaggerated strokes.
“With personal kanban you visualize your work, it becomes tangible, you get kinesthetic feedback, it’s flexible, contextual, and it promotes…
The QA Pharm
A March 30, 2011, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Warning Letter to Ningbo Smart Pharmaceutical Co. revealed that it had reported conformance to specifications on certificates of analysis, when in fact no testing was done—among other issues.
The FDA rather understatedly informed Ningbo Smart, “…
Bruce Hamilton
Gary was a talented, creative welder with an idea that made perfect sense to him but was not supported by conventional measures. Gary was determined to implement his idea and pressed for a closer evaluation by his supervisor when the idea was not immediately accepted. This was Gary’s idea:
A…
Joelle K. Jay
High achievers, go-getters, type-A personalities—whatever you call them, one thing is certain: These people want to do it all, and they want to do it all… right now.
Although having many lofty and simultaneous goals is a good thing, doing too many things at once can make you feel overwhelmed and…
Arun Hariharan
Root cause analysis (RCA), rightly applied, can turn problems, defects, or complaints into opportunities for continuous, permanent improvement. This anecdotal article is based on first-hand experience of applying RCA to dozens of business problems. It explains the technique of RCA in an easy-to…
Norm Spitzig
Why is it that relatively few general managers can work—and succeed—in the same company for a long period of time, while the majority cannot and do not? Conversely, why is it that a good number of businesses, given their history, tradition, culture, or governance structure, cannot keep—or choose…
Lisa Lupo
Companies aren’t perfect, and neither are the people who work for them. Since this is a fact rather than a judgment, it’s reasonable to expect errors in manufacturing and process management. When an audited company continues to show a flawless record for, say, a food-safety audit, chances are it…
John Schultz
Problem solving is much more than arriving at an elegant solution. It is a twofold progression that includes problem resolution and solution implementation. Six Sigma and process improvement methods are examples of this sequenced approach to developing and deploying a remedial action that improves…