New Stuff!
Below, I’ve described quality issues I’ve worked on that interest me. I find robust and efficient processes fascinating. Bureaucratic, rigid, and inefficient processes lead to organizational frustration and process avoidance. Alternatively, people make mistakes when a process is too loosely structured.
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I love to discuss quality with people who are interested in it! Click here to message me about a quality topic you want me to write about, or click here to schedule a short conversation.
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Process automation for outstanding operational success
What is Process Automation? Process Automation refers to using software to automate repetitive tasks. Adopting such software across a business is a Digital Transformation. When this software is used to improve and control quality, it becomes part of a company’s Quality System. There are software packages that tackle the most common types of quality issues. These packages are marketed as QMS or Quality Management Systems. Process automation forces accomplishing a task through a predetermined sequence of steps and entering information at steps when required. Help desks often use process automation to track help requests. Often, a user fills out a…
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Outstanding Root Cause Analysis with a “Fishbone” or an “Ishikawa” Diagram
The Ishikawa Diagram (often called a Fishbone or Cause and Effect Diagram) is one of my favorite tools for finding the root cause (or causes) of problems. It is named after Kaoru Ishikawa, an organizational theorist and professor at the University of Tokyo. The diagram looks like a fishbone and is often called a fishbone diagram. It is also called a Cause and Effect Diagram. At the “head” of the fishbone is the problem to be solved. Traditionally, there are six bones attached to the spine. I have added two more (the last two below). To have all of the…