Below is an excerpt from our book Pries, K., & Quigley, J. (2013). Classical Techniques. In Reducing process costs with lean, six sigma, and value engineering techniques (pp. 135-138). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. This is the second part, part one is located here. Miles also identified the concept of basic and secondary functions. Basic functions are the […]

Thinking back I have been working on the introduction to product testing course at Value Transformation’s learning portal.  Working through the material reminded me of some experiences I have had that I think should make it to the rest of the world. I was once a verification and test person; I have been a tester, […]

Why do we use tools? We use tools to make our lives better. It would not be very fun to hammer a nail into wood with our hand.   Imagine the situation if we continued communicate via pony express. Sometimes, when we are not aware a tool exists, we may try to fabricate something.  We make […]

Concurrent engineering problem take many forms From our last blog, we have learned that of an organization that has concurrent engineering difficulty, specifically coordinating the design work.  We will further explore this situation.  One of the subsystem groups decides to improve the coordination effort internal to that specific department. For example, System 1 chooses to […]

Once upon a time There once was a company, with a systemic problem with concurrent engineering and change management.  This was a complex organization, with many functional areas.  Each functional area, had sub-function divisions.  This type of organizational structure is often referred to as a functional organization with the associated hierarchy.  These various functional areas […]

We continue the exploration of the Poka Yoke post.  In the last post we discovered in building the product (late iteration) we have found that building the product has some undue complexity.  Upon further exploration we find that the design engineers suggested spending some time to Poka Yoke these devices.  The project hierarchy decided to […]

There is nothing like a real life story for demonstration.  This is a true story on product design, and a technique called Poka Yoke. In this case, the product is a complicated set of vehicle systems.  There are a number of pressure sensing elements, all the same type of sensor and distributed in a relatively […]