As I listen to expert epidemiologists explain the structure of the pandemic and anticipate the devastating shortages that might come next, my gut says that our “system” (President, politicians, healthcare industry, manufacturers, supply chain pros, and pretty much everyone else)…
Disclaimer: I am not an epidemiologist. I do have a pretty good grasp of the behavior of complex systems in a variety of fields. FWIW, I would love to be wrong in this analysis. I wasn’t planning to start writing…
Imagine an industrial facility with dozens of video cameras that continually record and store video of plant operations … for weeks, if not months. If the cameras are strategically placed, they will capture a visual record of nearly everything that…
Over the years, we’ve asked people if they love writing standard operating procedures (SOPs). Their answer is almost always NO !!! SOPs (AKA work instructions or written procedures) are the lifeblood of standard work and continuous improvement. How can something that…
Security video systems are promising tools to investigate value-added business processes and operations. The technology is mature and the potential benefits are manifest. However, it requires a new skills ecosystem that most organizations currently don’t have. This article lists six key areas…
Industry has embraced continuous improvement for at least a century. Arguably, it started with Frederick Taylor and evolved to Six Sigma and beyond. There were many advances, and a few fads, in between. Still, Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is a common…
A New World of High Resolution Cameras We see footage from convenience store security cameras … usually in a police report or plea for citizen help … and the videos are colorless, grainy and lack detail to see the action…
Typical manufacturing and business operations involve a huge range of independent activities. One of the key differences between the various activities is the way in which they unfold over time … their speed and timing. Sad to say, our traditional…
In previous blog articles, I advocated using video monitoring technology in standard production operations. In writing these notes, I often wondered why this hasn’t happened already? The opportunity and benefits seem obvious and the costs are reasonable. I never found…
Factories need time machines! It would be really cool if a quality manager could go back in time and watch how (ultimately) defective units were made … their actual journey through production. It might help the maintenance engineer to watch a (later…