Quality Archives - Dumontis

Understanding Muda: Unnecessary or Waste?

One of the basic concepts in Lean thinking, if not thé underlying concept, is the concept of “waste”. A recent discussion on LinkedIn made me rethink the way in which I treat this important notion when working on improvements with client teams. The discussion centered around the translation of the word “muda” meaning “unnecessary”, and whether this should be the criterion for labeling an activity as “waste”. In my work I do look at “necessary” vs “unnecessary” but I do not consider it the main criterion for identifying targets for improvement, thereby lowering cost and reducing lead times. I will try to explain my standpoint in this post.
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Zero Defects is Not Unreasonable

One of the most often witnessed symptoms of Lean Management that I come across nowadays are whiteboards with performance indicators. These serve as one of the central elements in weekly (or when I’m lucky, daily) huddles that are so fashionable nowadays. Now of course a lot of good things can actually be said about these huddles and indicators when done correctly. However, there are some risks in using these type of representations as well, as for instance Mark Graban rightfully wrote about last August in his blog when discussing the use of charts. You can also read more on correctly interpreting data on charts using Statistical Process Control (SPC) on my own blog, while writing on climate change. But even if applied correctly, I think there is a more structural issue with concentrating too much or even solely on these type of charts. (more…)

The Quality Department is Dead, Long Live the Quality Department!

“Is it really true, that we do not add any value?” People in supportive functions pose me this question quite regularly. Recently it was someone from the quality department that confronted me with this question. Coincidentally or not, the quality department plays a role in each of the three Lean initiatives that I currently accompany. All of the quality departments involved are experiencing a change in the role they play as a result of the Lean transformation their organization as a whole is going through. In anticipation of the answer to the question: although I don’t think it is the right question to ask, yes, from a Lean point of view the quality department does not add value to the product. Not even when the customer has asked for it specifically and is willing to pay for it… (more…)

Statistical Process Control and Climate Change

Nu.nl (the most popular Dutch news site) heads: “Warmest October 22nd ever”. At the same time, the comments speak about the insignificance of the headline as the 23rd of October 2003, for instance, the Netherlands saw a record cold temperature and we had snow. Is something really going on now as suggested by the heading, or is this just ballyhoo? Of course you also see this happening in organizations. We proudly announce something has been significantly improved but if we look closer, we see that the data that is being compared has been picked very selectively. Or after a few weeks or months, it turns out that the so-called improvements were apparently not so sustainable. Most companies lack the basic competency of interpreting data it seems. (more…)