People with targets and jobs dependent upon meeting them will probably meet the targets – even if they have to destroy the enterprise to do it.’ W. Edwards Deming There are few people who have had more impact on the science and practical application process management than Dr. William Edwards Deming. His impact on the […]
These articles celebrate the pioneers and current leaders in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and Customer Experience
Henry Ford
History of Six Sigma: Main Influencers and Their Biographies
Below are just some of the well known quality pioneers, their brief background, and what they contributed to the foundations and History of Six Sigma. Remember, this is a sample of the influencers of Six Sigma. There are more in the video below. Following the summary table, you can view a 7:36 HD Video that […]
Genichi Taguchi Contribution: A/B Testing and Design of Experiments
Continuing our series on the leaders that have made a significant impact to the quality movement, lean manufacturing, and six sigma, we’ve featured Sakichi Toyoda, Walter Shewhart, and Armand Feigenbaum, and today we feature Genichi Taguchi. Genichi Taguchi contribution are many. This article just highlights a few. Perhaps Taguchi is best known for his influence […]
Taiichi Ohno Quotes: Let the Student Answer His Own Question
In a previous Book Review of The Toyota Mindset, I promised to highlight each chapter of that book, showing actual stories from those who associated with Taiichi Ohno. In a previous post, I shared Taiichi Ohno’s belief that Wastes Hide, Begin by Disclosing Mistakes. In this post, we discuss the concept of Observation at the […]
Shoulders of Giants: Sakichi Toyoda
In keeping with our series of honoring those that came before us and, on which shoulders we stand, today we’ll revisit the life of Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the eventual Toyota Motor Corporation. We are indebted to Sakichi Toyoda primarily for his invention of the Toyota Automatic Loom and, specifically, one piece that, at […]
Shoulders of Giants: Walter Shewhart
On this episode of “Shoulders of Giants”, we remember Walter Shewhart. Walter Andrew Shewhart (pronounced like “shoe-heart”, March 18, 1891 – March 11, 1967) was an American physicist, engineer and statistician, sometimes known as the father of statistical quality control and the person who developed the Control Chart. From the late 1930s onwards, Shewhart’s interests […]
Lean History and Timeline
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSSThis article shows a timeline and video of the History of Lean Six Sigma. As with most things, The Toyota Production System (later to be called Lean in America) has been influenced by previous thought and influences current thinking. Below is a historical timeline of […]
Shoulders of Giants: Toyoda Automatic Loom
We stand on the shoulders of giants. In other words, what we enjoy today – by and large – come from those that came before us. So, today I’m starting a new series I’m calling “Shoulders of Giants” to signify the gratitude we can show to those that have greatly influenced our current practice of […]
Shoulders of Giants: Armand Feigenbaum Quaity Philosophy
The Mckinsey Quarterly recently published an interview with Armand Feigenbaum, a long-time proponent of Quality, former Director of Worldwide Manufacturing at GE, and renown author on Quality. The interview is not terribly interesting, but he does share some very obvious things worth reiterating: the customer is not an inspector and the customer judges quality based […]