During the last several decades, many forward-thinking manufacturers have adopted factory automation for all that it promises—greater efficiency, consistency, productivity, and cost savings.

Lean production of multiple products is built on the assumption that the process aim can be properly set for each short production run. This article will describe how to set the process aim so that your short production runs can be on target.

Story update 5/6/2020: The charts and some data have been updated to reflect the data available on the date this article was published.

Each day we receive data that seek to quantify the Covid-19 pandemic. These daily values tell us how things have changed from yesterday, and give us the current totals, but they are difficult to understand simply because they are only a small piece of the puzzle.

The phrase “flatten the curve” means to slow the transmission of the coronavirus (Covid-19) in order to spread the total number of cases out over a longer period of time.

This article is an update to “Tracking Covid-19” that Al Pfadt, Kathryn Whyte, and I wrote last week.

Based on the professional literature available, there are some inconvenient truths about Covid-19 that are not always considered in the chorus of confusion that exists today. Here we summarize what is known, what has already happened, and what is to be expected based

Lean production is built on the explicit assumption that each step is operated predictably and capably.

Given the complexities of healthcare, do basic statistics used to rank hospitals really work well? A study co-authored by MIT economists indicates that some fundamental metrics do, in fact, provide real insight about hospital quality.

Short Run SPC, Part 1 and Part 2 showed how to use zed charts and difference charts to tr