We addressed the issue of the modular FMEA in a previous blog. We also suggest that the FMEA in its various guises is also a great place to capture lessons learned. In the medical, aerospace, automotive, and food industries, some kind of FMEA is a required document. Since we already must create these documents, why […]
A modular FMEA is a modification of the standard Failure Mode and Effects Analysis tool into meaningful components. For example, we can select “stepper motor” as a component of a typical instrument cluster used in the dashboards of truck and autos. We would then create our FMEA to deal with all issues related specifically the […]
We have heard executive complain when an employee they put through external training left the company to pursue a better-paying job somewhere else. Our question has always been “Why didn’t you take care of your investment?” Training employees is an investment of time and money in much the same way as tilling and seeding the […]
Brainstorming as neologism began with Alex Osborn of the advertising agency BBDO in 1942. His primary concern was creative thinking. In general, classical brainstorming generally follows this pattern: Gather a group of people Decide on a duration and quantity of ideas desired Solicit ideas from group members No editing, snide comments, or insults Collect ideas […]
Over the years, we have heard executive level individuals cry out for cultural change in their organizations without understanding the ramifications of what they are saying. With cultural transformation as usually touted, we are talking about massive levels of upheaval. The upheaval approach can be counterproductive if it does little more than produce a culture […]
Project managers need to be able to assess product quickly with an intelligible set of quality metrics. In general, we recommend paired metrics; for example, in software development we can look at lines of code versus errors per line to keep both metrics “honest.” In the automotive world we like to see Cpk, which is […]
Many organizations struggle with the development of risk response plans. Often they ignore this important step altogether. The reasons for this are numerous, but mostly involve the desire to avoid tying up scarce project resources in the development of a plan the project hopes to never use. So why don’t organizations out-source this effort? The […]
One of the ways to reduce our risk is to outsource. If we do not have the requisite knowledge or available talent readily available, we can chose to outsource to organizations with this expertise or volume of talent. Outsourcing can improve our chances of success in this regard. We also have recourse should the outsourced […]
A project comes to an end and now we are in a position to really critique or learn how things went. Ideally, we were learning all along, and now we have the final opportunity to review the project. If our organization has heavy project management influences, we may have a “white book” that captures the […]
Knowing a risk exists and not taking action is similar to standing on the tracks watching as the train nears. You must spend time creating alternative plans in the event the train does, in fact, come. It has been our observation that most project teams, under the pressure to deliver to the current plan, do […]