Category Archives: Quality tools

Single Piece Flow

Single Piece Flow [the broken link was removed] by Rich Weissman: The transition from batch and queue to lean manufacturing involves converting to single piece flow… In traditional manufacturing, specific operations were done in batches by departments that specialized in … Continue reading

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TPS – Take 2

The cover story in latest issue of Industry Week focuses on what people have missed when applying ideas from the Toyota Production System. Learning From Toyota — Again [the broken link was removed] by John Teresko: “Why is it that … Continue reading

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Zero Defects

Zero Defects by Norman Bodek: Do you believe it is possible to have Zero Defects? I am not talking about six sigma at all. I believe it is possible to have zero defects (in a sense). But I do not … Continue reading

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Leading Lean: Right Tool, Right Problem, Right Thinking

Leading Lean: Right Tool, Right Problem, Right Thinking [the broken link was removed] One look at the kanban card in light of lean thinking helps those using it understand how and why it works, because they see it and understand … Continue reading

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Visual Work Instructions

Via Got Boondoggle? Shorter Text for Visual Work Instructions (link broken 🙁 so removed) by Steven Blackwell: The line worker may not even read text that seems excessive. We have spent the last eight years observing line workers using visual … Continue reading

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Stretching Agile to fit CMMI Level 3

Topic: Management Improvement Stretching Agile to fit CMMI Level 3 by David J. Anderson. I highly recommend reading this article. My work happens to straddle both the management improvement and software development areas that this article covers. But, if you … Continue reading

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Management is Prediction

re: post on prediction [link broken, so removed] on the Deming Electronic Network, Petter Ogland wrote: …that intelligence more or less boils down to updating a predictive model of the world. As far as I can see, this is the … Continue reading

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Control Charts in Health Care

This post is an edited version of a message I sent to the Deming Electronic Network. I find the “control charts in health care” thread quite interesting. From Mike Woolbert’s post [link broken, so I removed it] > I have … Continue reading

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Taguchi Loss Function

Topic: Management Written in response to this post on the Deming Electronic Network (DEN) [broken link removed]. The responses on this topic show the strength of the DEN. 1) thoughtful responses that should help the person posting the original message … Continue reading

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Management Improvement History

I do believe we need to improve our practice of Quality (and to do that we need to understand what happened in the past and why it was not more successful). The idea that Design of Experiments (DoE) was at the core of some Quality Movement to me is not at all accurate. In my experience only a few Quality professionals today understand what it means and how it should be applied. The idea that it was common place in the 40’s I seriously doubt (though I don’t have first hand knowledge of this). I find it difficult to believe we would have decided to stop using DoE if it was commonly done previously. The understanding I have from those that should know (like George Box and previously my father – Bill Hunter) is that it was not at all common practice and still is not outside of a few industries and even there it is isolated in the domain of a few experts. Continue reading

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