• Five Guidelines on Effective 5 Why Analysis

    Five Guidelines on Effective 5 Why Analysis0

    Asking why 5 times: “the 5 Whys”, is a simple but powerful tool to use with any problem solving activity. It’s a technique to help you get past the symptoms of a problem, and to find its root causes. Simply ask the question “why” up to five times.  Sakichi Toyoda, one of the fathers of

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  • Seven Best Poka-Yoke Devices

    Seven Best Poka-Yoke Devices0

    Generally the most effective way to achieve quality is to avoid having defects in the first place. It is much less costly to prevent a problem from ever happening than it is to find and correct the problem after it has occurred. Focusing on prevention activities whose purpose is to reduce the number of defects

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  • Reprise: The Seven Basic Quality Tools

    Reprise: The Seven Basic Quality Tools0

    Pascal Dennis recently said that the so-called ‘Seven QC Tools’ aren’t second nature to everybody. I couldn’t agree more with Pascal. In that spirit, I’ll describe these core tools & how they can help. The Seven Basic Tools of Quality is a designation given to a fixed set of graphical techniques identified as being most helpful

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  • Problem Solving Starts With Defining The Problem

    Problem Solving Starts With Defining The Problem0

    Accurate problem statements save time and effort by focusing the team on root cause identification. A well-stated problem statement is a clear and concise statement that describes the symptoms of the problem to be addressed. It speeds a robust corrective action process by identifying potential root causes and eliminating bias and noise. Unfortunately, many don’t

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  • Quality is Defined by Customer

    Quality is Defined by Customer0

    Like beauty and truth, quality is in the eye of the beholder, your customer. Quality is an ever evolving perception by the customer of the value provided by a product. It is not a static perception that never changes but a fluid process that changes as a product matures (innovation) and other alternatives (competition) are

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  • Guest Post: GM Ignition Switch Recall vs. Sunroof Recall: An ISO 9001 Case Study

    Guest Post: GM Ignition Switch Recall vs. Sunroof Recall: An ISO 9001 Case Study0

    Today I am pleased to be able share a guest post sponsored by one of our sponsors 9001 Academy. This post compares two product recalls in terms of a quality management system. Product recalls are something we have become used to in our society. As I argued in my article Does a QMS ensure 100%

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