A Surge in Major League Baseball Giveaway Defects TAGS: american | blitz | bobblehead | china | consulting | continuous improvement | defect | giveaway | jersey | king soopers | league | lean | major league baseball | mets | miguel cabrera | mvp | national | oops | operations | phillies | process | promotion | sports | troy tulowitzki | truck | tulowizki | w.b. mason Over the last 30 days, there have been at least three significantly notable Major League Baseball giveaway snafus with roots in poor quality. First, the Colorado Rockies celebrated their superstar …Continue reading →

Seth Godin, Lean Thinker TAGS: blog | cell phones | consulting | defect | error-proof | godin | kodak | lean | lean blitz | polaroid | process | purple cow | quality | scuff | seth | seth godin | shoes I concede that I am one of the world’s biggest fans of Seth Godin’s work. For those of you who don’t know, Seth is more than just a marketing and …Continue reading →

Another College Football Cup Defect, This Time in Missouri TAGS: columbia | consulting | defect | football | lean | lean blitz | missouri | operations | process | quality | sports | toldedo | toledo | uni-watch | university We have yet another cup typo at a college football game! This one comes to us from the University of Missouri, where they juuuust missed the correct spelling of Toledo. …Continue reading →

Nike Polos and Defects Leading to Recalls and Rework TAGS: alabama | college | consulting | defect | football | frank beamer | hubris | inventory | lean | lean blitz | nick saban | nike | operations | polo | process | pullover | quality | recall | rework | sports | swoosh | uni-watch | virginia tech I spend more words beating up on jersey, polo, and t-shirt manufacturers in my posts (see here, here, here, here, here, and here). Truth be told, they are organizations ripe …Continue reading →

Defects, Inventory, and Johnny Football Jerseys TAGS: aggies | amateur | college | consulting | defect | football | ineligible | inventory | jersey | johnny | lean | lean blitz | manziel | ncaa | process | sports | tamu | texas a&m | transportation | university | warehouse | waste Last year Texas A&M ran into an issue of backordered Johnny Manziel football jerseys – they had not adequately planned for his popularity surge and could not keep his #2 …Continue reading →

Defective Voting Machines During 2012 Election TAGS: 2012 | barack | blitz | broken | consulting | defect | election | error | lean | machine | mitt | obama | operations | pdca | pdsa | poll | president | process | romney | six sigma | sports | technology | touch screen | vote | voting | waste Yesterday a video was posted online of someone trying to use the electronic voting booth machine with some potential unintended consequences. Defective voting machines!! That could be a big problem. …Continue reading →

Lean is a Revenue Driver TAGS: american | asq | black belt | blower | briggs | certification | constrained | continuous improvement | customer | cycle time | defect | driver | eliminate | engineer | flywheel | lean | lean blitz consulting | lean is | machines | margin | operator | processes | project | quality | revenue | schedule | six sigma | society | standardization | stratton | thomson plastics | time studies | tonnage Lean is obviously a lot more than just elimination of waste activities in processes. It has the power to impact other areas of operations. One of the projects I managed …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Graphics Gaffe TAGS: #chyronfail | 2012 | blitz | broadcast | canada | consulting | defect | error | flags | germany | great britain | lean | london | nbc | olympics | operations | process | russia | sports | summer | tape delay | united states | wrong This is a shot of an NBC broadcast during the Olympics. I located this image as I was perusing the internet this weekend for Olympics coverage. For NBC to get …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Women’s Gymnastics Vault Problems in Sydney Olympics TAGS: 2000 | 2012 | all-around | allana slater | annika reeder | audit | australia | bad | blitz | consulting | david haviland | defect | elise ray | error | error-proofing | five whys | fulltwist.net | gymbits | gymnastics | height | horse | ignored | judges | khorkina | lean | london | mckayla maroney | medal | officials | olympics | operations | poka-yoke | process | root cause analysis | russian | setting | specifications | sports | svetlana | sydney | table | unsafe | vault | women's gymnastics Many of you watched women’s gymnastics at the Olympics this year, so you got the chance to see the gymnasts perform the vault event using a vaulting table. However, twelve …Continue reading →

Know Why You’re Being Paid TAGS: accounting | baits | barista | blitz | brand | burger | burgers | bushes | coffee | concession | contract | customer | defect | delicious | demand | expectation | exterminator | flip | follow | guarantee | hunger | infestation | investment | landscape | lawns | lean | machine | memories | money | mow | operations | paid | pictures | process | rats | refund | repair | research | resources | roof | satisfaction | save | six sigma | sports | stand | starbucks | status | symbol | taxes | time | tools | traps | trim | wedding | why This past weekend I visited some friends in Columbia, South Carolina and they shared horror stories of a trio of rats that have invaded their house’s walls. One of those …Continue reading →

Defects and Excess Motion at a Sandwich Shop TAGS: activity | beach | beef | blitz | boar's head | carolina | charleston | defect | deli | edisto | excess | ham | hog | lean | mayo | meat | motion | operations | peppers | piggly wiggly | process | reduce | roast | sandwich | six sigma | south | sports | tomato | transportation | turkey | waste | wild This past weekend I visited Edisto Beach in South Carolina. (If you’ve never been, it’s lovely and relatively quiet.) After hitting the driving range just off the main drag on …Continue reading →

NFL Draft – Player Names on Jerseys TAGS: 2012 | aerys | arizona | backstage | blitz | cardinals | championship | dame | darren | defect | draft | first | floyd | football | goodell | heyboer | hot | inventory | jersey | league | lean | melissa | michael | national | new york | nfl | notre | operations | personalized | player | press | process | production | rack | roger | round | rovell | scrap | six sigma | sports | thursday | university | waste | wsbt Thursday night featured the first round of the NFL Draft in New York. One of the most notable things about the prime time coverage of the draft was the players …Continue reading →

Lean Oops: Soda Can Vending Machines TAGS: 5S | anomaly | blitz | can | coca-cola | defect | dented | diet coke | fanta | lean | operations | organizations | processes | purple | six sigma | sports | visual Some styles of drink vending machines don’t just use buttons with logos – they incorporate representations of the actual product being vended. In the above case, it’s not really a …Continue reading →

Defects Example – FedEx Office TAGS: baseball trade show | baseball winter meetings | brochures | copies | dallas | defect | defects | fedex | fedex office | lean | printing | rental car | rework | scrap | texas | waste | xerox My experience at the Baseball Winter Meetings in Dallas has provided me with an excellent illustration of where defects can be costly for consumers and for suppliers. I chose to …Continue reading →