A person’s work ethic is directly correlated with their productivity and is best developed through guidance and encouragement. But sometimes identifying the values we want to emphasize becomes difficult if we don’t have a clear set of goals.We asked experts to share their most valuable tips in successfully promoting strong work ethic to their employees. […]
Value Transforming Blog
Brainstorming and Cost Improvement The brainstorming technique is attributed to Alex Faickney Osborne as explained in his 1953 book, Applied Imagination. The technique arose from frustration with the inability of employees to develop creative solutions for problems. Personal experience suggests this is a valuable tool when deployed appropriately and the guidelines are followed. If we […]
by: Jon M Quigley There has been some twitter-go-round regarding estimates. Estimates are not always guesses, but very frequently these maybe just that. If we chose not to delude ourselves, we know when we have some substance behind our estimates, that is our estimates are based upon some relevant historical data that allows us to […]
Poke Yoke Jon M Quigley There are a set of tools and techniques that come with developing products for the automotive industry and are part of the Advanced Product Quality Planning for the product. We have written about APQP or some years and have decades of experience in this approach to product development. In general, […]
Expectations of Contractors and Engineers Written by Steven G. Lauck & Jon M. Quigley To ensure the team is working from the same set of expectations, we may develop a document or set of documents that describe those expectations. The work below may help you set up your own documentation on the expectations you have […]
I have been speaking at many PMI chapter events in North Carolina this year. I enjoy doing these events, meeting new people, discussing different and new things, and sometimes, being introduced to cool old things. One such event was the PMI Asheville Chapter where I met some really interesting people including Eric W. Mythical Man […]
Missing Requirements Sometimes the best way to convey the challenges in product development, is to show some of the reasons things can go wrong. To that end I am going to regale you with a tale of requirements gone astray. Wearing Many Hats I worked at a small company a long time ago. I am […]
It is clear to me that some people think an agile approach means you can willy-nilly delete things in the process. This is also true for conventional project, but I do not think for the same reasons. For conventional projects, it seems time pressures cause elimination of certain functions or processes to keep the schedule. […]
Why formalize root cause analysis? There are many approaches to determining the root of our problems. In the automotive world, there are two typical approaches, the 8D or the 8 Discipline, or the A3 (named for the paper size). We will not go into the details of either of these approaches but you can find […]
Communication and Project Team Distribution There are times when our business does not have all the requisite talent within the walls of the organization. It is nearly impossible to be fully prepared for every opportunity available, and the business and time investment in expertise that is only transitory seldom passes muster. However, when we build […]
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