I was going through some old papers the other day and discovered an article I wrote in September 1990 about design for manufacturability (DFM). I had just completed my first assignment at Hewlett-Packard’s now-defunct Printed Circuit Division, co-authoring a DFM manual for circuit designers to guide their decision-making when evaluating options. Continue reading
In today’s vastly complex economic landscape, many companies would like to be the “disruptor” instead of being the “disrupted” — that is, they want to find a new niche in a certain industry, a problem no one’s yet been able to solve or one nobody’s aware of, and they want to exploit this niche and solve this problem, thereby upending their industry with next-gen technology and unprecedented business methods. Continue reading
The 2015 revision of ISO 9001 adds the concept of “Risk-based Thinking” to quality management systems (QMS) requiring registered organizations to “determine the risks and opportunities” needed to ensure that the QMS achieves expected results and improvement. Clause 6.1, (Actions to address Risks and Opportunities), is one of several clauses created by ISO’s new “high level structure” designed to produce a common format and base level text within its catalog of management systems standards. The addition of risk-based thinking is a welcome addition to ISO 9001, currently the largest selling standard in the world and applicable to any organization seeking third party registration of their products and/or services in the marketplace. Continue reading
How many times do we experience the situation when something bad happens and the manager who feels they may be responsible has his, or her, moral-fortitude challenged? The challenged manager inevitably goes into self-preservation mode. “Can I duck for cover?” and avoid the flak is their first question. But, and as with most bad situations, there is no time so how can blame be diverted? Continue reading
Our brains really struggle to be rational. This is a big problem when it comes to management and making decisions, especially decisions about risk. What can we do about it? Continue reading