A modular FMEA is a modification of the standard Failure Mode and Effects Analysis tool into meaningful components. For example, we can select “stepper motor” as a component of a typical instrument cluster used in the dashboards of truck and autos. We would then create our FMEA to deal with all issues related specifically the […]

We have heard executive complain when an employee they put through external training left the company to pursue a better-paying job somewhere else. Our question has always been “Why didn’t you take care of your investment?” Training employees is an investment of time and money in much the same way as tilling and seeding the […]

Brainstorming as neologism began with Alex Osborn of the advertising agency BBDO in 1942. His primary concern was creative thinking. In general, classical brainstorming generally follows this pattern: Gather a group of people Decide on a duration and quantity of ideas desired Solicit ideas from group members No editing, snide comments, or insults Collect ideas […]

Over the years, we have heard executive level individuals cry out for cultural change in their organizations without understanding the ramifications of what they are saying. With cultural transformation as usually touted, we are talking about massive levels of upheaval. The upheaval approach can be counterproductive if it does little more than produce a culture […]

The real kaizen is all about the 10,000 things. Maasaki Imai’s description of relentless, creeping quality improvement is apt. It also fits with the comprehensive philosophy of total quality management (TQM). We say “real” kaizen because we have so-called kaizen events that have nothing to do with inexorable cultural change and a whole to do […]

Project managers need to be able to assess product quickly with an intelligible set of quality metrics. In general, we recommend paired metrics; for example, in software development we can look at lines of code versus errors per line to keep both metrics “honest.” In the automotive world we like to see Cpk, which is […]

To reduce the chances of going too far down the wrong road, we qualify our projects with some sort of business analysis, for example internal rate of return or return on investment or some other fiduciary measurement.  If we are working from a staged-gate project management system, we will relentlessly review our project condition against […]

Not all risks are associated with technology, processes, or missing resources.    Sometimes an individual assigned to your project can be the riskiest aspect of your entire project.  Technology and processes are predictable by their very nature.  And finding resources may be difficult, but the lead-time and process are well understood.  But humans are, in the […]

I have been having a running discussion with one of my colleagues regarding project and cost, specifically the cost of a project that is under consideration for termination.  A project is going through a gate review. During this review we find that the objectives are not met by this phase and further action has little […]