TRIZ - Managing Creativity

The World According to TRIZ by Reena Jana:

TRIZ is the brainchild of late Russian inventor Genrich Altshuller (1926-98), who worked as a patent inspector. In the process of observing invention after invention, Altshuller sought to identify a consistent formula for innovation. In 1946, he published an article laying out his theory of structured innovation, which he titled "Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch." That translates roughly into "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving," or TRIZ, for short.

Creativity related:

• The Art of Work Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  
• Managing for Creativity
  
• Schoofs Prize for Creativity
  
• Six Thinking Hats - Edward de Bono
  
• articles on TRIZ
  
• Deming on Innovation
  

Tags: management improvement - creativity

Six Sigma Spells Success in India

Six Sigma spells success for BPOs by Pradeep Kapur:

However, while Six Sigma’s pedigree can indeed be traced to TQM, it is differentiated from these earlier approaches by the bottom-line focus and intensity of its application. Experience has shown that Six Sigma works and if applied appropriately, it can be the key to enhance customer experience by adding to the bottom line. This can provide you a winning edge.

Related:

• Six Sigma Won't Fix Bad Management?
  
• Curious Cat Six Sigma Portal
  
• Deming and Six Sigma
  
• Articles on management improvement in India
  

Lessons From Visit to Toyota's Kentucky Plant

Construction Executive Lessons from the Toyota Visit by Hal Macomber including:

Stopping to fix the problem - jidoka - could lead to far fewer quality problems.
...
Establish standard work - the currently understood best way - for key project operations.
...
As leaders, involve yourself to ease the work of the project team members rather than operating in the illusion that you can control.

via: Constrution Executives Visit Toyota, Learn Kaizen

Lean Transformation Tips

The 12 ½ Truths of a Lean Transformation by Charles Hagood. A one page article reinforcing what adopting lean methods will require.

The process of improving never ends. A Lean transformation has no end date! The process is ongoing and is never a closed out action item. There is no such thing as the perfect company or process, therefore the closest to perfect you can become is to recognize that it is a continuous process of improvment.

Forget Targets

Forget about targets - and decide what really matters by Simon Caulkin:

The attraction of targets is their simplicity. But it's a fatal one. As part of the misguided managerial obsession with quantification, they misapply partial, linear measures to a complex, shifting world.

While targets and goals can distract from improvement some guidance is useful. Systems thinking is important when using targets. As is an understanding of psychology (given the tendency to manage to what is measured the system can often be distorted to achieve a target). See more in: dangers of forgetting proxy nature of data.

Related:

• Targets Distorting the System
  
• Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations
  

UK Lean Electronics Manufacturing

CEO viewpoint: Lean and keen manufacturing by Eamonn Walsh, chairman and technical director of Brainboxes:

At Brainboxes we have been manufacturing for 22 years so far and we believe that the way we work will keep us there. If we adopt the best practice of lean manufacturing methods and apply them to all manufacturing in the UK, electronics or otherwise, then the industry will be transformed for the good. Unreformed manufacturing will fall by the wayside.

Lean Construction

Lean Manufacturing in the Construction Industry by Eric Sander:

In a radical departure from construction on site, Bensonwood Homes of Walpole, New Hampshire, has begun assembling major wall and floor components of their custom homes in their shop. These sections are delivered and assembled on site to reduce the construction time and improve quality. This approach is common in Japan. Toyota Homes and Misawa Home prefabricate custom homes in their factory for onsite assembly. Tedd Benson has recognized the advantage of this approach and is attempting a new approach for custom homes in the US.

Related:

• Toyota as Homebuilder
  
• Lean Construction Institute
  
• Lean manufacturing articles
  

Hospital Poka Yoke

Hospital Lean: Error Proofing by Mark Graban

Some hospitals are making a systemic process change that they hope will prevent this error. They are banning the typical abbreviation for micrograms. They want everyone to use "mcg" for micrograms and "mg" for milligrams.

Much better than telling everyone to "be careful."

Nice poka yoke example.

• Saving Lives: US Heath Care Improvement
  
• Going Lean in Health Care
  
• Improving the Health Care System
  

Airlines Try Smarter Boarding

Airlines Try Smarter Boarding by Dave Demerjian

An airplane that spends an hour on the ground between flights might fly five trips a day," he explains. "Cut the turnaround time to 40 minutes, and maybe that same plane can complete six or seven flights a day." More flights mean more paying passengers, and ultimately, more revenue.

Good lean thinking and faster boarding is a customer service improvement as well.

Convinced that there was a statistical solution to the problem, Lindemann approached Arizona State University's industrial engineering department.
...
Professor Rene Villalobos and graduate student Menkes van den Briel began reviewing boarding systems used by other airlines. "The conventional wisdom was that boarding from back to front was most effective," says van den Briel. The engineers looked at an inside-out strategy that boards planes from window to aisle, and also examined a 2002 simulation study that claimed calling passengers individually by seat number was the fastest way to load an aircraft.

The two then developed a mathematical formula that measured the number of times passengers were likely to get in each other's way during boarding. "We knew that boarding time was negatively impacted by passengers interfering with one another," explains van den Briel. "So we built a model to calculate these incidents."

Another recent airline post: Airline Quality

Six Sigma and Process Drift

Quality Quandaries: Six Sigma, Process Drift, Capability Indices, and Feedback Adjustment by George Box and Alberto Luceno. This article is for the more statistically inclined.

The Six Sigma specification makes an allowance of 1.5 standard deviations for process drift. Simple ways in which a major part of such drift can be removed are given. These employ feedback adjustment methods specifically designed for SPC applications.

Feedback adjustment can be dangerous: tampering. In fact, I would say attempting it is likely to be tampering, unless those doing so are careful and knowledgeable. It might be wise to read Box and Luceno's book on the topic - Statistical Control: By Monitoring and Feedback Adjustment if you are tempted to try.

• Six Sigma related articles
  
• articles by George Box
  

Innovation at Google

Turning Limitations into Innovation by Marissa Ann Mayer:

people working on it have spent so much time and are so personally invested that it's too painful to walk away. They often know the project is misguided, yet they see the effort through to the painful, unsuccessful end. That's why it's important to discover failure fast and abandon it quickly. A limited investment makes it easier to walk away and move on to something else that has a better chance of success.

Related

• Managing Innovation
  
• Innovation and Research and Development
  
• Deming on Innovation
  
• Innovation at Toyota
  
• Innovation and Customer Focus
  

Production Preparation Process

The Top 5 Reasons for Using Production Preparation Process (3P) by Jon Miller:

Production Preparation Process (3P) is one part of an overall Lean design approach that includes QFD, design reviews, and post-start up monitoring by a cross functional team to kaizen any bugs in the new system. The benefits of Production Preparation Process are a cross-functional team approach, rapid testing of ideas and the embedding of Lean manufacturing principles into process and product design.