And Now a Few Words from Mike
13 May 2012
It's college graduation season, so once again we get to listen to a bunch of commencement addresses by supposed dignitaries launching kids still r…
Blaming Deming, Lean, and Six Sigma and the Importance of "Why?"
9 May 2012
There have been a couple articles in noteworthy rags over the last couple days that have raised my ire a bit - even if I eventually agreed with one of…
The Value of a Zipper
7 May 2012
Great article in Slate of all places on YKK - you know, that zipper company you've never heard of. Maybe some of you have seen the initials on you…
The Online Education Tsunami
6 May 2012
As one of the partners in Gemba Academy, online education is something I'm a bit interested in. Of course the 230+ lean training videos we offer a…
Silly CEO, Pricing is for Customers
28 April 2012
Probably the biggest hurdle for ops guys when they transition into general management roles is learning about sales, marketing, and especially pricing…
Missing the Point on People
20 April 2012
It started off well. I had high hopes. An article in the April 21st The Economist (wow... reading the future!) on manufacturing in the future. BACK…
When Your Customers Flee Complexity
16 April 2012
So it's that time of the year again, and I'm sitting down to write a nice big check to the IRS. For the most part I'm ok with that. Writin…
The Importance of the Knowledge Distillery
15 April 2012
Over the last several years I've become fascinated with learning systems inside organizations. I've also found that the best leaders are gener…