Anyway, this year I have chosen to review the blog of practising Quality Manager, Improvement enthusiast and friend Rob Thompson – Learn Sigma. Rob has been posting his thoughts on quality and improvement on Learn Sigma for a few years now, and the blog is worth a browse for its extensive and growing back catalogue of well written and thought provoking posts. I checked out the “Popular Posts” section of Learn Sigma to see what appeared to have been sparking people’s interest, with these highlights (in no particular order)

PDCA is dead?
I penned an article with a similar title a while back, so this one caught my eye. Rob’s argument was a different one to my own (I’m deliberately not linking to it, as this ain’t about me). Rob’s argument, with nods to Jamie Flinchbaugh and Mark Graban, was that SDCA has now taken the place of PDCA via a natural process of learning and evolution. Life moves on. Of course things must change

Can Lean and ISO 9001 be integrated?
Another question. The post asks  ”is it possible?” and concludes that it is. The post however explores how this might be done in an efficient and practical way as, we all know, initiatives do have a habit of developing lives and reasons to exist all of their own, with efficiency sometimes being little more than an after-thought. Particularly with ISO 9001 in my experience

How beer really, really helps with Lean
Not just a great title, but the post also opens with a great quote

“When you invite the whole world to your party, inevitably someone pees in the beer” (attributed to Xeni Jardin)

The post itself does go on to explore harder concepts of managing quality in the supply chain, using the brewing industry as its vehicle. Some great links in this post too. Read it

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading these posts that I have selected from Rob’s back catalogue, and I hope that if you do bother to click through, you spend a little time browsing the back catalogue for a load of other great stuff that I couldn’t be bothered to list

Finally, from Shaun, thanks for reading, please call again. Have a Happy and Successful New Year

Post from: Capable People Blog

2010 Management Improvement Carnival

How many people really understand “root cause”? How many people really make a serious attempt to apply clause 8.5.2c of ISO 9001 in the correct spirit? How many auditors (presumably for a quiet life) are quite prepared to be complicit in this charade?

These questions and more are considered by Mike Mickelwright in this funny little video clip. We ALL know what he is talking about, right?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Post from: Capable People Blog

Top Ten Unacceptable Corrective Actions

8 ways to get total involvement by Jon Miller: “How do we get total involvement from our people in the good things?”

Total company involvement by Peter Abilla: “Most vision or mission statements are hollow, uninspirational artifacts.  Sloganeering, as it were: they sound good, but fail to mobilize a team”

The limits of customer involvement by Shaun Sayers: “I’m noticing a growing tendency for an over-use of certain platitudes, such as “customer involvement” and “leadership” without much of an attempt to add substance, or give any clues as to what that may add up to in terms of planning, implementation or measurement”

The trouble with performance reviews by Jeffrey Pfeffer on Curious Cat: “Managers don’t like giving performance appraisals and employees don’t like getting them …”

Elegance and encapsulation by Peter Abilla: “Hiding unnecessary information from a customer is good business. Have you ever had an interaction with a business, where your goal was to get served, but instead the business shares their problems with you?”

Japanese CEOs and Leadership by Mark Graban: “We were lacking in the scope and speed of dealing with various problems and issues, and for that I am sorry,” Mr. Watanabe said, adding that the global economy won’t recover soon”

Post from: Capable People Blog

Management improvement carnival #70

Negativity by Jon Hunter
“…there are some people that won’t stop just expressing negative opinions without exploring what that means about how we can cope with potential dangers and find more effective solutions” – it’s topical …

3 simple and easy steps to Kaizen success by Rob Thompson
” … how does a company create a vision for a Kaizen culture and ensure long term cohesiveness?”

Quality – the Men-Tai approach by Shaun Sayers It’s quality – with noodles

Sears improving its customer service by Maria Palma
“Many retail establishments are cutting costs by laying off personnel because of the economic slowdown, but Sears proved that ramping up its sales staff and offering extraordinary service can actually weather any economic climate”

Cost of changes vs risk & uncertainty by Darth Sidious
” … as the project matures, cost of changes sky rocket, and stakeholder influence drops off quickly”

The correct sequence for doing 5-S? – by Jon Miller
“Why would people alter the order and still call it 5-S instead of my version of 5-S?”

What sigma value is your food? by Holly Hawkins
“as a consumer, should I be happy with a food that currently has a value of 5.66 sigma?”

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Management improvement carnival #53

3 Steps to Statistical Thinking (by Rob Thompson) “When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it. When you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind”  HG Wells

Is long term goal driven planning a waste of time? (by Shaun Sayers) like the idea of an after-life, it’s nice to think that we can develop and execute long-term plans, because the alternative may be an uncomfortable thought

How to change the way we think about customer service (by Maria Palma) “it is not that people don’t care about relationships and don’t consider Service Excellence their job … it is simply that they do not appreciate the significance that their interactions may have on the person or client they are serving”

The sustainable way (by Martin Brown) Sustainable design and construction are no longer quirky one off projects; clients and occupiers expect buildings to be both environmentally sound and cost effective

The art of differentiation (by Chris Angus) from an emotional design point of view, Wi-Fi is an interestin addition to the in-flight service … many emotional terms (are used to describe air travel) such as trapped, bored and distressed … Wi-Fi access will increase their feelings of comfort and peace-of-mind

Operational excellence is not a substitute for effective leadership or a good strategy (by Peter Abilla) Deploying a Lean or Six Sigma culture within your firm … is not a panacea; by itself, a culture of Operational Excellence will find itself lacking in a hyper-competitive world

If Peter Piper picked a peck of prioritised projects (by Sue Kozlowski) even if significant costs can be saved – even if reliability can be improved – even if staffing efficiencies can be realized – if the project or deployment champion isn’t engaged, you may end up with a beautiful project that won’t be sustained

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Post from: Capable People Blog

Management Improvement Carnival #42

Trends in customer loyalty programs (by Maria Palma) a short review of where some retailers are going with their loyalty and rewards programs

The super-quick guide to lean manufacturing (by Rob Thompson) a nice little potted intro to this topic with some useful links

Lean six sigma for health care (by Sue Kozlowski) a short and timely guide to implementation of the methodology in the health care profession

Another way of learning to see (by Jon Miller) on the use of imagery in lean training

Boredom’s your choice, research suggests (by Dr Ellen Weber) reduce boredom to increase motivation and performance, but here’s an article that sheds light on how the process of boredom actually initiates and thrives

System design – make the right thing also the easiest thing (by Shaun Sayers) an examination of some key behavioural criteria for making system compliance much more likely

Lean and six sigma at Amazon (by Peter Abilla) a tiny peek inside the quality philosophy of this highly successful but intensely secretive corporate beast

Thinking outside the wooden pallet (by Mark Wroblewski) a critical examination of the role traditional materials management methods on efficiency and work flow

Subliminal creativity, courtesy of Apple (by Kevin Meyer) is it really feasible that we can stimulate creativity subliminally by the subtle placement of the Apple logo around the workplace?

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Management improvement carnival #33