Oct 5 2020
20 years ago, Honda stood out through its reputation for quality. Outsiders were studying Honda’s approach and Youtube now offers several videos shot at that time about it. Today, quality is no longer the differentiator among carmakers that is used to be but the practices of a company like Honda — past and present — remain a worthwhile object of study.
Jul 16 2019
A conversation with Franck Vermet about problem-solving tools for factory operators caused me to revisit the 7 tools of QC from 50 years ago and ponder how they should be updated with current data science.
Data Science for Operators, as a book, remains to be written. If you google this phrase today, what comes up is training courses offering to “change your career” by attending a “data science bootcamp.” TIBCO Spotfire has “Workflow Operators” but these are programs, not people.
So the following are tentative answers to questions that haven’t been asked before.
Feb 4 2018
Michael Ballé opens his 1/29/2018 Gemba Coach column with “all methodologies are about making a better use of our minds.” Are they? Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister disagree. In Peopleware, they describe methodologies as follows:
“A Methodology is a general systems theory of how a whole class of thought-intensive work ought to be conducted. It comes in the form of a fat book that specifies in detail exactly what steps to take at any time, regardless of who is doing the work, regardless of where or when. The people who write the Methodology are smart. The people who carry is out can be dumb. They never have to turn their brains to the ON position. All they do is start on page one and follow the Yellow Brick Road, like happy little Munchkins, all the way from the start of the job to its successful completion. The Methodology makes all the decisions, the people make none.”
Dec 10 2017
Six years ago, one of the first posts in this blog — Is SPC Obsolete? — started a spirited discussion with 122 comments. Reflecting on it, however, I find that the participants, including myself, missed the mark in many ways:
Oct 28 2017
5 years ago, I pointed out several omissions in the ASQ’s History of Quality pages, which have not been corrected. Specifically, I faulted them for ignoring the TPS/Lean approach to quality, the role of interchangeable parts technology, and the Roman philosopher Cicero, who coined the word “quality.” The first page, however, also contains what I think is an error of commission, where it credits the guilds of medieval Europe as precursors in the field, as follows:
“From the end of the 13th century to the early 19th century, craftsmen across medieval Europe were organized into unions called guilds. These guilds were responsible for developing strict rules for product and service quality. Inspection committees enforced the rules by marking flawless goods with a special mark or symbol.[…] Inspection marks and master-craftsmen marks served as proof of quality for customers throughout medieval Europe. This approach to manufacturing quality was dominant until the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century.”
Dec 15 2020
Nissan’s Quick Response Quality Control (QRQC)
Nissan’s Quick Response Quality Control (QRQC) is a management approach. It’s about organizing the response to quality problems, not about the technical tools used to solve them. It is intended to help detect problems, solve them, and document solutions, thereby growing the skills of the workforce. QRQC neither mandates nor excludes mistake-proofing or any statistical/data science tool.
This is meant to introduce QRQC to those who have not heard of it but it is also a call for practitioners to correct any misperceptions, add details, or share their experience.
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By Michel Baudin • Management • 8 • Tags: Faurecia, Lean Quality, Nissan, QRQC, Quality, Quality Assurance, Valeo