All Features
William L. Roper
A revolution is working its way through America’s health care systems. Like many great revolutions, it’s about empowerment and the creation of a new paradigm. It won’t happen overnight, but the forces at work are irresistible and will bring new hope and new responsibilities. The agent…
Bill Kalmar
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first orbiting satellite, Sputnik. This elliptical sphere the size of a basketball took 98 minutes to encircle the earth and emitted a faint beep as it made its momentous trip. It provided no information back to mother Earth and yet it…
Gregory Roth II
I, for one, am tired of the quality flavor of the month. It isn’t quite that bad but it seems like it at times. Have you been through statistical quality control, TQM, total quality speed, re-engineering, zero defects, quality circles, SPC, Motorola Six Sigma, AlliedSignal Six Sigma, GE…
David Zatz
Chrysler is stepping up their use of team-based manufacturing, moving away from the “Fordist” approach that’s been continually embraced and rejected by global automakers. Their approach brings up memories of the many other companies that have gone to teams, including some that were successful and…
Thomas M. Findlan
When purchasing material test equipment for tensile, fatigue or other test modes, managers of test labs may want to compare new and used test equipment due to budget constraints or other factors. The problem is that there’s currently no easy way to determine if a particular used test…
Denise Robitaille
Part of the problem with corrective actions has long been the proliferation of requests for things that just don’t meet the criteria. Significant progress toward selecting the problems that warrant corrective action has been made in recent years. This has improved the image of corrective actions…
Corporations throughout the world are losing billions in wasted quality-project spending, and this waste is carefully hidden from both management and investors. A new global research report by Business Improvement Architects, a provider of consulting solutions and customized training in…
Praveen Gupta
Corporations have been implementing improvement programs as far back as I can remember, at least since my first job at Motorola in 1981. I’ve noticed that more and more organizations—whether it’s Motorola, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Delphi or smaller, privately-held companies—measure…
Quality Digest
As China’s automotive suppliers rush to meet the demands of the world’s fastest-growing automotive market, an overcapacity problem already may be brewing, according to a new study written by Economist Corporate Network and released by the Automotive Industry Action Group and IBM Business…
Craig Cochran
Internal auditing is one of the most routine improvement tools available to organizations. In fact, it’s so ordinary that auditors sometimes forget the underlying principles of auditing. Auditors must be periodically reminded of these underlying truths or the entire audit process can begin to…
Del Williams
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, vulnerability to a growing number of potential disasters and disruptions has U.S. manufacturing executives turning to sophisticated third party logistics (3PL) providers to safeguard their brands at the end of the supply chain. "Major quake in California. Avian…
Steven Ouellette
“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903) What’s distance learning? Six Sigma Black Belt training has long been the realm of the elite. It used to be so expensive and required so much time that only companies with the cash and resources to…
Ken Levine
Lean Six Sigma and other continuous improvement initiatives require effective teamwork, and effective teamwork requires good meetings. Ineffective meetings are the reason many organizations fail to improve continuously. Therefore, effective meeting management should be an integral and early part…
Laser scanning makes it easy to keep older military equipment running by enabling companies to create spare parts that perfectly duplicate the originals at a reasonable cost. Manufacturers of weapons systems are taking advantage of new technologies, particularly the ModelMaker laser scanning…
Denise Robitaille
Some ISO 9001 requirements simply don’t get as much attention as others. One such example is found in clause 6.4, which relates to work environments. It states: “The organization shall determine and manage the work environment needed to achieve conformity to product requirements.” What…
Bill Kalmar
You see and hear them everyday--signs and commercials heralding “Customer service is No.1,” “We treat you like family,” or “The customer is always right.” The other day I came across a particularly revealing motto: “We’re better than we used to be!” Whatever the slogan or motto is, people expect…
Praveen Gupta
A major misunderstanding regarding Six Sigma is its fabricated definition, (e.g. “Six Sigma is a fact-based decision-making methodology…”). I’ve seen people willing to attack anyone utilizing common sense to make decisions without facts. One of the reasons for taking such a strong position…
Praveen Gupta
A major misunderstanding regarding Six Sigma is its fabricated definition, (e.g. “Six Sigma is a fact-based decision-making methodology…”). I’ve seen people willing to attack anyone utilizing common sense to make decisions without facts. One of the reasons for taking such a strong position…
Craig Cochran
Customer focus doesn’t evolve on its own. It’s carefully cultivated over time through a variety of processes. At the forefront of this effort is leadership. The organization’s leadership has the primary responsibility of making every decision and every action based on customer focus.…
Praveen Gupta
During the last couple of years, I’ve interacted with several United Auto Workers (UAW) associates. Irrespective of what the former Big Three do, they’re all trying to do a good job.I’ve had the chance to teach some classes to UAW members. It always amazes me how people make money in the auto…
Russell T. Westcott
Early on you recognized the economic effect of shipping defective products to customers and/or providing inferior services. You countered this deficiency with elaborate inspection proceduresIn more recent times, you’ve focused on improving your organization’s processes and decreasing inspections.…
Denise Robitaille
Time is arguably one of the most precious and least quantified resources that organizations possess. It’s a uniquely intangible, yet indispensable, feature of any process or activity. Things occur over a span of time. It’s an indisputable characteristic of our universe and is so self-evident that…
"Es ris!" (“It’s snapped!”) This apocalyptic line from Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) referred to the thread of fate or destiny that the three Norns, or Fates, had woven since the dawn of time. This ill omen portended the opera’s inevitable tragic conclusion. This year’s…
Peter Dickin
The use of probes on machine tools to assist in setting up jobs is well established. Recent developments in machining and inspection software mean that this equipment can now be used in a wider range of applications that are aimed at increasing overall equipment effectiveness, which consequently…
The purpose of process data analysis is to answer the question, "May the observed data fluctuations reasonably be attributed to common-cause variation?" The principal use of the Shewhart control chart is to guide efforts for process improvement by assisting in the discovery of peculiarities in the…