From the monthly archives:

August 2007

The Gemba is the Dojo

by Pete Abilla August 27, 2007

In my Wing Chun training, my Sifu emphasizes the “learn as you go” philosophy — that is, I learn the material slowly, but my way of learning is also emerging — that is my capability to learn gets better and my capacity to learn increases.  This notion is very much what I also experienced at [...]

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Aza Raskin on Feature Bloat & Clutter

by Pete Abilla August 26, 2007

In a previous post on Ethnography, I invited Aza Raskin, founder of Humanized, a company that designs more humane products — from consumer packaged goods to software interfaces — and, son of Jef Raskin, the inventor of the Macintosh and author of The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems — to possibly answer [...]

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Aza Raskin on Quasimodal Design & The ATM

by Pete Abilla August 21, 2007
This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Aza Raskin

In a previous post on Ethnography, I invited Aza Raskin, founder of Humanized, a company that designs more humane products — from consumer packaged goods to software interfaces — and, son of Jef Raskin, the inventor of the Macintosh and author of The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems — to possibly answer [...]

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Aza Raskin on Poka-Yoke & Humane Interfaces

by Pete Abilla August 19, 2007
This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Aza Raskin

In a previous post on Ethnography, I invited Aza Raskin, founder of Humanized, a company that designs more humane products — from consumer packaged goods to software interfaces — and, son of Jef Raskin, the inventor of the Macintosh and author of The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems — to possibly answer [...]

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Wing Chun & Lean Manufacturing

by Pete Abilla August 17, 2007

I recently started studying Wing Chun.  I had previously taken martial arts — about 12 years ago.  I studied juijitsu and a little arnis; in juijitsu, I obtained my blue belt, but since then, I haven’t done any martial arts.  I am very excited to be studying Wing Chun and feel honored to be connected [...]

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Advisory Board at iSixSigma Magazine

by Pete Abilla August 15, 2007

I have accepted a board position at iSixSigma Magazine.  This is typically a one year, nominated position; I’m honored and look forward to contributing.  If you are not currently a subscriber to the magazine, I’d seriously consider it: compared to other publications on quality, I consider iSixSigma to be above par.   The magazine has ~6,000 [...]

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A Lean Case Interview

by Pete Abilla August 12, 2007

Suppose you were presented with the following: "You have been hired to help a fast food franchise, a market leader in the South West Region of the U.S.  This franchise collects and reports on a metric they call "scrap rate".  Scrap Rate has been increasing for the previous 3 quarters for this 60 store franchise.  [...]

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Timeline — Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, & Amazon

by Pete Abilla August 2, 2007

Back by popular demand, I’ve updated the ajax, draggable timeline of mergers & acquisitions completed by Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Amazon. The timeline only looks at mergers and acquisitions from 2000 on, not before.  Click on the image below and Enjoy!

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