Learning From Mistakes

An event occurred this afternoon that required an immediate resolution. When asked whether we were going to pursue the root cause, I could only respond with this question: What’s the point of making mistakes if we’re not going to learn from them? This is likely the shortest post I ever published here, however, I think the simplicity of the message […]

Lean – Burnout, Apathy, and Pareto’s Law

The Premise:  Pareto’s Law The late Josheph Juran introduced the world to Pareto’s Law, aptly named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto.  Many business and quality professionals alike are familiar with Pareto’s law and often refer to it as the 80 / 20 rule.  In simple terms, Pareto’s Law is based on the premise that 80% of the effects stem from 20% […]

How Effective is Your Problem Solving?

Background Of the many metrics that we use to manage our businesses, one area that is seldom measured is the effectiveness of the problem solving process itself.  We often engage a variety of problem solving tools such as 5-Why, Fishbone Diagrams, Fault Trees, Design of Experiments (DOE), or other forms of Statistical Analysis in our attempts to find an effective […]

Using TRIZ for Problem Solving – Introduction

Using TRIZ for Problem Solving – Introduction A famous quote from Albert Einstein, “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.“, applies to the discussion of problem solving and more so to the topic of TRIZ, The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, developed by Genrich S. Altshuller. TRIZ – Theory of Inventive Problem Solving […]