Category Archives: Quality tools

Improving Management with Tools and Knowledge

Too often today I hear people disparaging management tools/concepts (PDSA cycle, mistake proofing, flowcharts, design of experiments, gemba…). The frequently voiced notion is that tools are being applied and not helping improve management in the organization. But it seems to … Continue reading

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Applying Improvement Concepts and Tools to Your Daily Life

This month the ASQ Influential Voices is taking a bit different approach. This month we are looking at applying quality tools in our personal life based on the post from other influential voice, Sunil Kaushik: How Lean Helped Me Travel … Continue reading

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Magnetic White-Board Kanban Card Options

Just some quick ideas for Kanban whiteboard magnetic card options from a question I answered on Reddit. Here is the best lean solution: Trying Out My Agile Kanban Board from Jon Miller. Why, well mainly I am kidding about it … Continue reading

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George Box Webcast on Statistical Design in Quality Improvement

George Box lecture on Statistical Design in Quality Improvement at the Second International Tampere Conference in Statistics, University of Tampere, Finland (1987). Early on he shows a graph showing the problems with American cars steady over a 10 years period. … Continue reading

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Interview on PDSA, Deming, Strategy and More

Bill Fox interviewed me and has posted part one of the interview on his web site: Predicting Results in the Planning Stage (sorry, the link has been hijacked to forward to an unrelated page [so obviously I removed the link], … Continue reading

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Resources for Using the PDSA Cycle to Improve Results

Using the PDSA cycle (plan-do-study-act) well is critical to building a effective management system. This post provides some resources to help use the improvement cycle well. I have several posts on this blog about using the PDSA cycle to improve … Continue reading

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You are a Fool if You Do What I Say

Guest post from Mark Graban There’s an interesting quote from Taiichi Ohno in “Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management,” which I was re-reading today… “You are a fool if you do what I say. You are a greater fool if you don’t … Continue reading

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Design of Experiments: The Process of Discovery is Iterative

This video is another excerpt on the design of experiments videos by George Box, see previous posts: Introduction to Fractional Factorial Designed Experiments and The Art of Discovery. This video looks at learning about experimental design using paper helicopters (the … Continue reading

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The Art of Discovery

Quality and The Art of Discovery by Professor George Box (1990): Quotes by George Box in the video: “I think of statistical methods as the use of science to make sense of numbers” “The scientific method is how we increase … Continue reading

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George Box

I would most likely not exist if it were not for George Box. My father took a course from George while my father was a student at Princeton. George agreed to start the Statistics Department at the University of Wisconsin … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Deming, Design of Experiments, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Respect, Six sigma, Statistics, Systems thinking, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments