Today, more than ever, the quest for productivity, quality, and speed has spawned a significant number of techniques and tools: lean manufacturing or service, business process improvement; Six Sigma, total quality management, and so forth. Although the operational i

(ACSI: Ann Arbor, MI)  -- Taxpayers are getting a first hint of potential returns on their investment in the U.S. automobile industry: Detroit is doing a much better job satisfying their customers, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

The “Patient-Centered Medical Home” (PCMH) is the latest in health care quality initiatives. In a PCMH, a medical team—led by a patient’s primary physician—continuously coordinates and manages the patient’s health care throughout their life.

Mario Angeles was stuck.

You see it all the time. After an initial flurry of excitement and support, an organization’s operational excellence effort bogs down. Regardless of the tools or methodologies used, passion dies down and focus gets diverted to other issues.

(Metris: Leuven, Belgium) --  Metris, market-leading supplier of X-ray and industrial computed tomography (CT) systems, launches Inspect-X 1.6 software that boosts throughput by increasing CT reconstruction speed and improving general system control.

(BLS: Washington) -- The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported preliminary productivity data--as measured by output per hour of all persons--for the second quarter of 2009.

W. Edwards Deming has been dead for almost 16 years. In my opinion, he and Joseph Juran were the true quality giants of the 20th century.

As the founder of PowerSteering and a practitioner in strategic management and continuous improvement for more than 25 years, I have seen my share of management fads come and go, and even been in the room when some of them were created. 

Real estate bubble, subprime mortgages, financial system, stock markets, and finally, Main Street.