These posts have timely content (anniversaries, birthdays, etc.) that would look odd if re-posted. Hence, this catzegory reminds me not to repost these articles for twitter etc.
Quality starts at the top with management. Top executives like to talk about quality, but employees below usually know very well if the manager only talks the talk or also walks the walk. Words are cheap. Quality (and pretty much everything else that is important) requires attention by management.
With the end of last year, Daimler stopped selling its flagship vehicle, Maybach. I would like to use this opportunity to talk about the danger and harm to your company by increasing the number of product types sold. As an illustrative (and expensive) example, I would like to split the total cost of the Maybach in its individual parts (as far as I can estimate them). My hope is that this motivates you to reduce, or at least no longer increase, the number of variants in your product portfolio.
Whenever you work with people, the impression you make on these people is important. Your clothes and behavior have a great influence on this impression. This post discusses strategies for your appearance to increase your chances of success on lean manufacturing projects.
Shigeo Shingo is a name that everyone in the United States lean community knows. He is sometimes considered “the world’s leading expert on manufacturing practices and the Toyota Production System,” an “engineering genius,” and the foremost guru of lean production. Some sources even claim he invented the Toyota Production System and taught Taiichi Ohno. Shingo greatly helped to popularize the idea of Lean in the USA. However, he invented much less than what is sometimes claimed, and there is also quite some disagreement in the lean community on this. Let’s have a look at his life and his achievements.
The next Euromold trade show in Frankfurt will be in a few weeks. While the show generally presents products related to moldmaking and tooling, they also have a large section on 3D printing. This is a good time for me to talk about 3D printing and my last visit to Euromold last year.
Today is a very special day. As a good friend of mine calls it, it is the start of my second life. Yesterday was my last day as an employee in industry, and today is my first day as a university professor. And, indeed, life will be very different.