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Quality Control Doesn’t Work (and how to fix it)

12 January, 2013 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Here is a bold statement, “inspection doesn’t work“; (literally bold).  Yet every organisation I have ever worked for uses and pays for quality controllers.  They can’t all be wrong can they?  What makes me think I am so right? Maybe, if you read this I will convince you: The shadow illusion. Or perhaps this: Fooling […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: error proofing, human nature, quality control, vigilance decrement, wasted intellect

How Come Your Projects Are Always Late?

15 December, 2012 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Scafolding and Rain

Mrs Lawther wants an extension to the kitchen, she also wants us to break into the loft and build (or, as she says, create) another bedroom.  Her friend is an architect, she tells us that all the natural light will be uplifting.  My heart on the other hand, is sinking. Think of the noise and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: planning, planning fallacy, project management, risk assessment

92 People Die for Lack of Trust

8 December, 2012 by James Lawther 8 Comments

TWA flight 514

In 1974 TWA flight 514 was flying into Washington Dulles airport.  As it came into land the air traffic controller said “cleared for approach”.  The flight crew thought it meant one thing (we will guide you in) but the control tower meant something ever so slightly different (guide yourself in).  It was simple miscommunication. Flight […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: accident prevention, aviation, Aviation Safety Reporting System, bad process, blame, reinforcing behaviour, trust

Does the Small Stuff Matter?

1 December, 2012 by James Lawther 3 Comments

How you set your stall out matters.  Even the small things make a huge difference to what your customers think and the way they act.  The design critic Donald Norman made the point beautifully in his book The Design of Everyday Things discussing domestic cookers… Are the controls and gas rings arranged like this:   […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: error proofing, service design, tools to do the job

The Multi-Tasking Fallacy

28 November, 2012 by James Lawther 8 Comments

Multitasking

I used to make sweets in a factory for a living.  We obsessed about “set up time”.  The amount of time it takes to switch from one product to another.  Just think about it for a second, every time we switched from making a product with nuts to one without, maybe Snickers to Mars bars […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: complexity, focus, manufacturing, wasted intellect

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