When problem solving, you want to be mindful of tacit assumptions. These are the things that are considered to be true and often go...

I was brought in as a problem solving professional by a technology manufacturer that was struggling to find the root cause of a tough...

I've been involved with a good number of problem-solving projects and usually introduced after things have started. One thing that stands...

"We don't need anything as advanced as Six Sigma. We can solve most of our problems using simple problem solving tools." No disagreement...

In manufacturing, a small number of quality problems account for the lion's share of the costs. This follows the 80/20 rule that shows up...

A manufacturer had a costly quality problem and assigned a team of well-skilled people to fix it. After a few meetings they had...

In the previous post, I described how we make mistakes in testing when we draw an incorrect conclusion based on the results of a sample....

In problem solving, we often need to know if a change in the process, recipe or design made an improvement. Did the formulation change...

In manufacturing, much of the profits are eaten up by quality problems. The Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ), defects found on-site as well as...

Manufacturing companies deal with quality problems routinely. The simple ones are easily corrected and so they tend not to draw a lot of...

In a manufacturing company, it's a common situation to be faced with a tough quality problem. One that is proving difficult to resolve....

Most manufacturers lose most of their profits due to quality problems. The costs incurred from defects found on-site as well as defects...

We had two suppliers of parts for one of our subassemblies. A wood products company provided the cabinet and a plastic injection molder...

In manufacturing, most companies have to deal with costly quality problems eating up too much of their profit. Many of these problems...

Statistical process control (SPC) charts were developed by Walter Shewhart and introduced to the world in his 1931 book "Economic Control...

We take measurements every day to control processes and to accept or reject products. Often, there is little thought that goes into...

Too much variation is a common cause of defects in a manufacturing company. This variation causes some items to be over or under the...

Manufacturers lose most of their profits due to Quality problems. Consider that for a moment. Do you think that is true at your...

In this post I want to describe a simple technique that can lead to learning something new. In this case, we found out something...

There are a lot of people who are responsible for business process improvement and it can be a daunting task. Where does one begin? All...