Teaching an old dog new tricks…

Teaching an old dog new tricks…

Improving a process is sometimes like teaching an old dog new tricks — although it sounds like it might be fun, the dog may disagree. “I like the way I’m doing something now.” “We’ve always done it this way.” “This is the way I was trained to do it.” “I can do it this...
Eliminating Defects – Part Six (and Final)

Eliminating Defects – Part Six (and Final)

OK, here’s our saga to date: In part one we talked about definition; in part two we discussed data identification and collection, and interim containment; part three discussed identifying the root cause. Part four discussed fixing the true causes of the problem, and...
Eliminating defects – Part Five

Eliminating defects – Part Five

OK, quick recap: In part one we talked about definition; in part two we discussed data identification and collection, and interim containment; part three discussed identifying the root cause. Part four discussed fixing the true causes of the problem. Now that...
Eliminating Defects – Part Four

Eliminating Defects – Part Four

OK, quick recap: In part one we talked about definition; in part two we discussed data identification and collection, and interim containment; part three discussed identifying the root cause. Now we’ll discuss what to do once we know the true causes of the problem. It...
Eliminating Defects – Part Three

Eliminating Defects – Part Three

In part one we talked about definition; in part two we discussed data identification and collection, and interim containment; now we’ll discuss identifying the root cause. Identifying root cause isn’t as easy as it sounds, since sometimes we confuse symptoms...
Eliminating Defects – Part Two

Eliminating Defects – Part Two

In Part One, we talked about defining the defect or error we are trying to eliminate. We know that the definition may not be correct due to our lack of knowledge of all the aspects of the problem; so we want to develop a list of data that we want to gather. The data...