Suppose I were to ask you to count the apples in your house and tell me the result. Seems like a simple enough proposition, but as soon as you start t…

The other day I took a jab at managers who run purchasing guided by standard costs, describing how life might be if they were to run their homes by th…

No I'm not talking about the plethora of silly lean certifications - regular readers know that I believe only one, the AME/SME/Shingo Prize certif…

In my Supply Chain Risk 101 post last week Jim Fernandez asked a very good question - to wit, what if the stuff from the high risk place is really a l…

The supply chain disruption stories resulting from the disaster in Japan are reaching a ridiculous level. As much respect as I have for Ford and the w…

Digging for facts to support our opinions and preconceived beliefs is not the same thing as learning, yet that is what most of us do. Conservatives on…

Imagine a five story building burning out of control, and some poor soul jumping from the roof in a desperate attempt to save his life, but missing th…

In this edition of Fun With Statistics we'll take a quick look at a common problem when communicating statistics: describing orders of magnitude.…