VOC: An Important Source of Customer Information & Improvement Projects
VOC or voice of the customer is a set of tools, method, and techniques that allow an improvement team to methodically collect and analyze customer needs and how customers value those needs. Some basic needs are unspoken and expected. If those needs are not met, the result will be extreme customer dissatisfaction. An example might be buying a new car and finding it won’t...
Read MoreUse Defined Criteria to Select Your Lean Six Sigma Projects
Organizations seem to struggle when it comes to identifying Lean Six Sigma or continuous improvement projects. Sometimes they may be so overwhelmed with issues that it’s hard to know where to start. When faced with this dilemma, the last thing you want to do is to select the project that is most obvious or let your Lean Six Sigma teams determine their own projects. Instead, you want...
Read MoreDefects Create More Waste Than Meets The Eye!
Defects, mistakes, and errors are a major source of frustration for customers and cause them to look for other providers for the products and services they purchase. But in addition to customer dissatisfaction, these defects, mistakes, and errors create waste that suck up our precious resources of time and money. Employees are forced to rework and repair products and provide services all...
Read MoreContamination, Perception and The Story of the Dirty Rug
Several years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a relay manufacturer in China. They wanted help implementing lean in their stamping operation, reducing changeover times and help resolving some long standing quality issues. During my initial visit, they told me that one of their biggest problems was product contamination due to dirt, dust, human skin, fibers, etc. As they took me on a...
Read MoreDon’t Let Operator Issues Be An Excuse Not To Do Your Job!
I recently visited a client that is experiencing a number of quality issues both internally and externally with their customers. A large portion of their manufacturing process relies on operators doing their job properly. In reviewing their process, it was evident that operators were not handling material properly, not using process fixtures, and not following the methods they were taught....
Read MoreAre your improvement efforts being deceived by the average?
In his recent book, The 4-Hour Chef, Timothy Ferriss talks about the documentary, Objectified, where Dan Formosa, PhD, then with Smart Design’s research department, explained one of the first steps in its innovation process: “We have clients come to us and say, “Here is our average customer.” For instance, “Female, she is 34 years old, she has 2.3 kids,” and...
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