William A. Levinson

Principal, author, auditor, and engineer

Levinson Productivity Systems

William A. Levinson, P.E., FASQ, CPIM is the principal of Levinson Productivity Systems P.C. He is the author of Reshore Production Now: How to Rebuild Manufacturing and Restore High Wages, High Profits, and National Prosperity in the USA, and other books on quality, productivity, and management.

Thu, 04/11/2019 - 09:06
CAPA, FMEA, and the Process ApproachThe AIAG offers a clearly defined and powerful synergy between the three
Mon, 12/19/2022 - 12:03
Corrective action and preventive action (CAPA) is probably the most important process in any quality management system because so much else depends on it. This includes not only its traditional role as a response to defects, nonconformances,…
Many See, Few ObserveWe must train ourselves to recognize the waste around us
Thu, 11/03/2022 - 12:03
‘You see, but you do not observe,” Sherlock Holmes told Dr. Watson in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s (1891) A Scandal in Bohemia. Taiichi Ohno, who developed Henry Ford’s lean production system into the Toyota Production System, told managers to stand in…
Quality vs. Inflation and the DeficitQuality and manufacturing professionals are ideally situated to address inflation
Mon, 08/22/2022 - 12:03
Inflation has skyrocketed during the first half of 2022, which also saw a sharp downturn in the stock market in response to the Federal Reserve’s increase in interest rates to reduce demand. This resulted in a bear stock market and raised the…
Beware of These Common Types of BiasPeople can draw the wrong conclusions due to survivor, survey, and bad news bias.
Tue, 06/21/2022 - 12:03
Quality-related data collection is useful, but statistics can also deliver misleading and even dysfunctional results when incomplete. This is often the case when information is collected only from surviving people or products, extremely satisfied or…
Intermediaries Must Produce or Get OutIntermediaries that don’t add value don’t belong in the supply chain
Mon, 04/18/2022 - 12:03
Ryan Day1 describes how the rise of independent auto dealers is a “gray swan” event for the automobile industry. This was not only bound to happen, as observed by the author, but also long overdue. The article states, “...current state laws prohibit…
Why Ethics Must Be Paramount in Quality“... and never you tell ’em a lie”
Tue, 01/25/2022 - 12:03
The U.S. Military Academy’s Honor Code says that “A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the USMA’s superintendent, elaborated, “The tenets of honorable living remain immutable, and the outcomes…
Ship Product, Not AirPackaged air is of value only to divers and astronauts
Mon, 11/29/2021 - 12:03
Shigeo Shingo was able to summarize entire concepts in single phrases, such as “paint parts, not air.” This meant that paint which misses parts in a spray booth constitutes wasted material and also an environmental aspect. “Ship product, not air”…
It’s Time to Lose the LudditesA ‘robot tax’ would do nothing more than derail almost limitless growth and a high standard of living
Thu, 10/21/2021 - 12:03
Luddism is, as depicted by Henry Ford, “...the theory that there is only so much work in the world to do and it must be strung out.”1 This dysfunctional paradigm is shared today by otherwise highly capable people such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and…
Why We Should Replace the Term ‘Quality’ With ‘Value’‘Utility divided by cost’ encompasses literally everything we need to know
Wed, 09/29/2021 - 12:03
This article contends that we should replace “quality” with “value” to address an enormous array of previously unaddressed risks and opportunities. Poor quality is only one of the Toyota Production System’s seven wastes, and it is rarely the most…
Guard Banding for Non-Capable Gages, Part 2Optimizing acceptance limits to minimize cost of wrong decisions
Tue, 08/24/2021 - 12:03
Part one of this article showed that it is possible, by means of a Visual Basic for Applications program in Microsoft Excel, to calculate the fraction of in-specification product that is rejected by a non-capable gage, as well as the fraction of…