Shmula.com gets a lot of traffic. I've been through the website hosting seesaw of trying different website hosting companies. After using shared hosting, I finally went with dedicated hosting through … [More]
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Customer Experience, Lean and Six Sigma, Leadership
Customer Experience
Call Center Balancing Act: Cost and Customer Satisfaction
It's not a surprise that most call centers are very cost focused and not completely customer focused. There's an upside and a downside to this approach: on the one hand, call centers are traditionally … [More]
How to Game the Net Promoter Score
Among other philosophical questions you've pondered, I'm sure you've also asked yourself "How to Game the Net Promoter Score?". Well, I'm here to answer that question for you. How to apply an … [More]
Where’s My Pizza? Behind The Scenes at Domino’s Pizza Tracker
Domino's Pizza Tracker Process - A Behind the Scenes Look at what actually happens in the Domino's Pizza Kitchen and how the steps in the kitchen connects to the steps in the Pizza Tracker - the tool … [More]
Customer Service Awkward Moments: Live Human is Busy
Have you ever experienced an odd customer service moment? That was a trick question - of course you have. We all have. And, I just experience one yesterday. So, I'm naming this article "Customer … [More]
Developing Customer Personas To Create Customer Journey Maps
Developing Customer Personas are a critical step in building Customer Journey Maps. Keeping in mind the purpose of the exercise is key: We develop customer journey maps in order to gain empathy for … [More]
Applying Continuous Improvement to Service Delivery with Adam Ramshaw
We're please to host Adam Ramshaw today, a Customer Experience consultant with more than 20 years of experience in helping organizations improve their service delivery. In this article, he shares with … [More]
The Rackspace Customer Experience Secret Sauce: An Interview with Rackspace COO Mark Roenigk
I am very excited to present this interview with Mark Roenigk, the Chief Operating Officer of Rackspace. For those who may not know, Rackspace is a hosting and cloud computing company, that has grown … [More]
Ignore the “Net” in NPS: Manage Promoters and Detractors Independently
Mobilizing an entire organization to a single number, such is the benefit of the Net Promoter Score. But, doing so can be misleading and can lead to behaviors overly-focused on the score and, moreover … [More]
Shep Hyken on Customer Service, Customer Experience, and Leadership
I am very excited to present to you an interview that I conducted with Shep Hyken. He is a recognized thought leader and expert on customer service, known worldwide for his insights on customer … [More]
Lean Manufacturing
5 Words That Have a Totally Different Meaning to Practitioners of Lean Manufacturing
Practitioners of Lean Manufacturing are sometimes criticized for using buzzwords. It's fair to say that this criticism is … [More]
Total Quality Management Models and Why I Hate This Chart
Total Quality Management has been around for a long time. If you look at the history of continuous improvement, it formally … [More]
Kaizen Before and After Template
The Kaizen Before and After Template is simple and effective and can help communicate the results from your Kaizen Efforts. … [More]
Hoshin Kanri X Matrix Template for Lean Policy Deployment
The purpose of the Hoshin Kanri X Matrix Template for Lean Policy Deployment is to develop and implement plans that are both … [More]
Nike Lean Manufacturing: An Example of Good Policy Deployment
I was invited to the Nike Headquarters several months ago, where I met with most of the leadership team of the Nike.com … [More]
Pick and Choose Your Lean Tools if You Want to Fail
In the world, tools can operate independently. Take a hammer. If there's a nail, a hammer is a great tool to use to either … [More]
Eliminating Delays with Lean
I've been traveling a lot lately. I've had a lot of opportunity to think and observe airline operations and one thing is … [More]
PDCA Cycle or PDSA Cycle – Which is Right?
There's quite a bit of confusion between the use PDCA Cycle versus PDSA Cycle. For those unfamiliar with the acronym, PDCA … [More]
Most Lean Workshops are Waste
There, I said it.As a lean practitioner, we are involved in probably many lean workshops, training sessions and, dare I … [More]
Kaizen Newspaper
In Lean, there is plenty of talk about pretty diagrams, data, charts, etc. But at the end of the day, Taiichi Ohno was … [More]
5S Shadow Board Example: Rastafarian Style
We know that 5S is an important foundation in any implementation of Lean. Within 5S, there are many ways to apply its … [More]
9 Emotions Only Kaizen Event Leaders Understand
Kaizen Leaders - this article is for you. Don't forget - at the bottom of the article, you can download a FREE Kaizen Event … [More]
Visual Management at a Hotel
Don't you hate it when you attempt to get a fork from a condiment stand, but end up picking up a spoon? Has that ever … [More]
Check Sheets
A Check Sheet is one of the Seven (7) Basic Quality Tools. A Check Sheet is a simple tool for data collection. In this post, I'll show how to create and use a Check Sheet and provide some basic … [More]
Red Bead Experiment: Part 1
The Red Bead Experiment is a metaphor for problems, where the red beads represent "bad" and white represent "good". It is a teaching tool mostly used in manufacturing or instruction in quality … [More]
Value Stream Map Symbols [video]
For Premium Shmula.com members, we've provided two videos for you that shows you how to create a value stream map. The first video is 4:41 minutes long and the second is 4:27 minutes long.You can … [More]
Scatterplot in Excel and 7 Quality Tools
Continuing our series on the 7 quality tools, today we’ll discuss the Scatter Plot. The 4:27 minute video explains the Scatterplot in Six Sigma projects and the article below shows examples that you … [More]
How Do I Sell Lean to My Boss and Organization?
This is a question I get frequently. How to sell lean to your boss is a question we have all asked at one point or another. The more fundamental question is really about influence, persuasion, and … [More]
The DMAIC Framework
Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that was developed at Motorola to systematically reduce or eliminate defects and reduce variation. Six Sigma typically follows the … [More]
The Project Charter in Six Sigma
The Project Charter in Six Sigma DMAIC Project is one of the most important artifacts that will keep the team on the same page, stakeholders aware and communicated to, and will help the Black Belt … [More]
Why Heijunka is a Block in the Foundation of the Toyota House
There is a reason why Heijunka is a block in the foundation of the Toyota House, or the Lean House as some call it. The short answer is stability in an operation. The rest of this article will show … [More]
Data Types in Six Sigma
In the introduction to the Measure Phase, I mentioned that our focus is in the practical use of data. In that spirit, by the end of this module on Data Types in Six Sigma,You’ll understand the … [More]
Graphical Representation of Data
Graphical methods includes boxplots, stem and leaf plots scatter diagrams, pattern and trend analysis, histograms, normal probability distributions and Weibull distributions. This premium article for … [More]
Types of Distributions Used in Six Sigma
This article discusses the common probability types of distributions in Six Sigma Black Belt Projects. Many statistical approaches you'll learn later are built on the assumption that the data is … [More]
Red Bead Experiment: Part 2
Part 1 explained the Red Bead Experiment. In Part 2, I'll share the a video tutorial on the Red Bead Experiment - part 2 of that video series.Before we get to the video, below are Dr. Deming's … [More]
Toyota Floor Management System
Want Lean Training like the one Taught at Toyota? [1. Disclaimer: This course material is not endorsed by Toyota. This material is inspired by my time at Toyota.]Learn the Toyota Floor Management Development System Learn and Implement Real LeanTraining Content Trusted by Brands WorldwideFor only $299 $199 You GetLean is Simple, but many overcomplicate … Learn Today
Management Consulting Templates
PowerPoint Presentation Business Templates Downloads Save HUNDREDS of hours and Deliver Professional PowerPoint PresentationsYou and I are a lot alike. You are likely a professional or an MBA student that wants to deliver amazing, professional presentations. But, you have a few obstacles:You don't have the time and your PowerPoint skills may not be up to snuff.That's okay. I'm here … Pricing Details
Queueing Theory
DMV Queueing Properties: Waiting in Line at the Local Department of Motor Vehicles
No matter who you are - rich, old, poor, young, famous, infamous, or not known to anybody - there are a few things that unite … [More]
Poka Yoke
What a Coffee Cup Taught Me About Poka Yoke and Human Errors
One can learn a lot about Poka Yoke and Human Errors. This is a story about what a coffee cup taught me about how poor design in our products and systems invite human error. Many years ago, I had to travel to Dublin every few months for work. I had team members there and part […]
Leadership Interviews
Leadership Interviews | Innovation and Thought Leaders
This page contains a comprehensive list of interviews Shmula.com has held with business leaders, innovation thought leaders, and customer experience practitioners. It's my hope that the words found in these interviews may be helpful to you in some … More
About Shmula
My name is Pete Abilla. This website is my take on the Customer Experience, eCommerce Operations, The Toyota Production System / Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Queueing Theory, Operations Management, building software, Customer Service, and you'll