Within the overlapping spheres of Total Quality Management and Lean Manufacturing, one Japanese word continues to raise consciousness among quality professionals of Western orientations: “Kaizen.” The concept of Kaizen, which direct translation means “continuous improvement, was first coined and introduced…
Facing problems is a fact of life. And it can get trickier if you’re running a business or an organization. The stakes are higher and a single misstep in handling risk and damage can cause your reputation, damage to property,…
Japan is known for providing quality products and services that are praised all over the world. One of the reasons why the Land of the Rising Sun’s global performance is always on top is because of their A + quality…
It has been three decades since Philip Crosby’s ground breaking book, Quality is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain has been published. But despite this, Crosby’s book, published in 1979, still remains as one of the most influential text…
The term, “Taguchi Methods” is one of the most popular terms used in the quality management industry. Taguchi Methods are statistical methods that aim to reduce cost and decrease failures in product design. Aside from statistics, Taguchi Methods emphasize the…
Dr. Joseph Moses Juran (1904-2008) is regarded as the Father of Modern-Day Quality Management, thanks to his many contributions in the field of quality. His teachings and quality philosophies helped Japan into becoming a market juggernaut, and he influenced the…
Dr. William Edwards Deming (1900-1993) was one of the pillars of the quality revolution after World War 2. As statistician, engineer, and a physicist, he’s the first American quality guru who brought the message of Quality to Japan in the…
A process is defined as a series or group of activities that takes input, adds value, and provides output to internal or external customers. Every business has a process, and among the many processes that occur inside an organization, there’s…
When problems arise in the process, the knee-jerk reaction is often packaged two-fold: (1) solve the problem, and (2) blame the culprit, the one responsible for subverting the process status quo. While we cannot stress enough the value of being…