Did Taguchi design Kimonos? He could have, if he’d spent his life working in the family Kimono business (and I’m sure they would have been stunning), but lucky for us, this quality rebel devoted a lifetime to the idea that customers deserved better. This year would have marked Genichi Taguchi’s…
If Bill Smith was the father of Six Sigma, Mikel Harry, in his words, was the godfather. We lost Dr. Harry in 2017 but this month would have marked his 68th birthday. Dr. Harry worked with pioneer Bill Smith at Motorola to refine the Six Sigma method and spread it…
Dr. Juran was a Quality Man with a Quality Life, and, after celebrating 81 years, clearly a Quality marriage! Time to tip our hats to the man who pointed out that sometimes inspection costs more than the defects themselves. Huzzah! December 24th would have marked Mr. Juran’s 115th birthday -…
Did you know Dr. Kano was a student of Dr. Ishikawa? Did you know Dr. Kano was still with us? Does he know everyone still uses the Kano Model? Would that be a delighter for Dr. Kano? Inquiring minds want to know! This November marks Noriaki Kano’s 79th birthday (we’re…
“Don’t rule by fear,” “Stop inspection,” “Remove silos” and "Clarify your purpose.” Dr. Deming’s principles are as applicable today as they were when he was alive. He challenged managers to rule without fear, without targets or quotas and focus instead on setting the stage for pride of workmanship. What workplace…
The Lean Enterprise Institute is coming up on it’s 22nd Anniversary which means founder James Womack must be proud! We know he’s proud of his of meeting his daily goal of 10,000 steps. Time to celebrate the nonprofit LEI and its generous founder. Happy Birthday to both of you! Like…
He’s in Lean. He’s all Shook up! Musical puns aside, John Shook recently did a good job of connecting Lean to Baseball which ties together two of America’s favorite past times. Okay, Lean my not have risen to “favorite” yet, but John Shook is working on it! We don’t actually…
Did you know that the secret behind “any color as long as it’s black” was that Henry Ford figured out black paint dried faster? Did you know that Kingsford Charcoal originated from when Ford burned the pallets transporting his raw materials? Did you know he identified 2 of the eventual…