Articles by Jim L. Smith

This may sound familiar. Manufacturer’s efforts to do more for less have resulted in the purchasing department sourcing products to the cheapest provider. Such cost-cutting certainly makes purchasing groups look like heroes to management, but the effect on manufacturing and quality may be just the opposite.

We’ve all heard about or experienced the blame game. The customer is upset because a product doesn’t meet expectations. Once notified, the manufacturer apologizes, makes restoration, but blames a supplier for poor workmanship. Soon the blame game between manufacturer and supplier restricts the flow of meaningful information.

Real-life quality problems are conundrums. Dorian Shainin realized that recognizing the distinctive characteristics of a problem was critical. He also knew that applying the right tactics was the key to the solution; however, many of the analysis tools of his time were not effective.

I recently attended a lecture by an industrial statistician. Part of the lecture included a summary of Dorian Shainin’s body of work. I had to smile as the lecturer spoke about Shainin’s “exaggerated claims” of the results attributed to his methods and his infamous “pre-control.” 

Throughout years of mentoring and teaching aspiring quality professionals, I still review the Shainin techniques.

It did not happen quickly but advocates of Six Sigma and lean methodologies have worked together to achieve a partnership of both approaches.

In my two previous columns I discussed specification limits and process control limits, which led to thoughts about product disposition limits.

In my previous column I discussed the role of specification limits in manufacturing, which led to thoughts about process control limits.

It is still surprising how many people, from engineers to managers to quality professionals to technicians, possess limited understanding of product and process (manufacturing) limits.

Certainly there are many types of teams, but in recent times it’s been similar to the alphabet soup of quality tools and techniques. Top executive teams, project teams, six sigma teams, cross-functional teams, improvement teams, self-directed teams, and ad hoc teams are some of the more recognizable forms.