During college, a variety of quality metrics and measures were discussed in the classroom. Once in industry, you quickly learn the key to an effective Quality Management System is determining which apply best to your application and when and where to utilize them. Here are a number I’ve used over the years. Pareto Chart of …
A prime focal of LEAN thinking as it applies to organizational metrics should be how any specific measure adds value to the organization and its end customer(s). Without a constant eye on this objective, company managers can quickly find themselves reporting metrics for the measure’s sake or because of institutional inertia. Indeed, over time, for …
We’ve all heard the term empowerment used before, many times over, to the point that it’s becoming a leadership cliché. We’ve also experienced the frustrations of both management and employees as they endeavor to change a culture through “permitting” their employees to do more. The vision of employee teams taking on the problems in their …
In graduate school, while conducting NASA funded Aviation Human Factors research, one aspect stood out. The primary modality of interaction for humans in our world is visual. Though the research focal point wasn’t a typical workplace environment (it was a jetliner cockpit), the system’s center, the human being, was the same. 5S, which originated in …
