Moving to Zero

In the 1990’s, we all got involved looking for “zero.”  DuPont tried to lead the way in the slogan department.  “Our goal is zero – zero accidents, zero wastes, zero emissions, and zero excuses!”  I loved the last part.  Despite all of the whoopla, DuPont and a lot of other companies are still searching for zero.  This despite that the zero advocates set the null point as something “north of zero.”  Consider six sigma, which some people referred to as zero waste.  This term represents 3.4 defects per million operations.  If you are a scientist, this is not zero.  If you are an engineer, it is darn close. Continue reading →