Lean thinking is often associated with manufacturing floors, production lines, and complex value stream maps. Yet waste exists in every type of process. Once you begin to see it, you realize that inefficiencies appear not only in factories but also in the everyday services we interact with.
Before I get into the focus of this column, I’d venture to guess that many quality professionals reading this column’s title did an about take thinking this guy has lost his mind. To discover the real intent, read on…
You see it a lot with e-commerce. Online shopping is said to offer an advantage. An array of “reviews” posted by other shoppers of the product you are considering. Amazon and others have converted these comments on the worthiness of a product into tools that help browsers decide if they want to become purchasers.
Keri Ginn is an NDT ASNT Level Three as well as a senior quality manager at AAR Government Services. She's an expert in NDT quality management, supplier audits, and business analytics and she's recently written an article for Quality about recruiting the next generation of NDT professionals.
We all have likes and dislikes. When I was young, I liked to wear sneakers and play; what kid didn’t? Sunday mornings were the worst; not only did attending church cut into playtime, but I had to dress up and wear shoes.
Bennie Caldwell is the director of quality at Bullen Ultrasonics. He oversees the full spectrum of quality operations, including quality engineering, CMM programing, calibration, and final inspection. He also recently wrote an article for Quality.