Month: August 2013

As parents of young children know, “Why?” is one of the most frequently asked questions they hear. And not just once. A girl asks, “Why is the sky blue?” and will proceed with further “Why?” demands to each subsequent answer for as long as the parent is willing (or able) to play along. As frustrating […]

FMEA is a risk assessment tool. Through the structured approach of an FMEA, improvement teams identify possible ways in which a product or process can fail, specify the subsequent effects, quantify the severity of those potential failures, and assess the likelihood of their occurrence. FMEA can be used to rank and prioritize the possible causes […]

The capability of a process, statistically speaking, is the ability of that process – based on historical performance – to achieve measurable results that satisfy established specifications and statistical limits. In a nutshell, process capability indicates how well a process is able to perform its specified purpose. Why is process capability important? When the capability […]

The Harada method helps individuals achieve self-reliance that in turn facilitates a company’s process improvement journey. Part One provides an overview of the method and its genesis. Part Two presents five templates to use to plan a goal, measure the goal’s progress and assess success. An example helps illustrate their practical use. As described in […]

With the goal to boost employee efficiency and streamline the execution of various activities, the University of Colorado Boulder has launched a new office to focus on improving the way the university does business. The opening of the Office for Performance Improvement (OPI) is meant to not just preserve the quality of education and academic […]