Service Design increases Customer demand

Design and Customer Experience, incorporated in Service Design Thinking are not the future but already upon us as the new norm for being successful in business. These principles address the demand side of the equation. Examples being Amazon, Starbucks, Xerox and IBM to name a few high profile companies. As a side note these companies Read More …

Is Lean and Six Sigma a waste of time?

Most large manufacturers last year failed to reach their cost-savings targets, despite significant investments in “lean manufacturing,” “Six Sigma” and other productivity programs as part of their overall retrenchment efforts in this tepid economy.  Nearly 70% of manufacturing executives say that their manufacturing-improvement efforts led to a reduction in manufacturing costs of less than 5%, Read More …

Work on demand, ‘It’s the demand side, stupid’

Working on supply side economics is not putting people back on the payrolls. Commentator Robert Reich has another idea: Work on increasing demand for goods and services here at home. Listen to this audio: I am not arguing political issues, I am just trying to build supporting evidence for why supply side solutions are not Read More …

The Internet of Things

This is very interesting concept and one of the foremost thoughts that I have seen lately. It is not about one particular “thing” but about a collection of components. Watch live streaming video from mobilize2011 at livestream.com What this does allow is for niche players and ideas to take hold. But what you will have Read More …

The Death of PDCA

The concept of PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) is based on the scientific method, as developed from the work of Francis Bacon (Novum Organum, 1620). The scientific method can be written as “hypothesis” – “experiment” – “evaluation” or plan, do, and check. Shewhart described manufacture under “control” – under statistical control – as a three Read More …

Spontaneous Marks help you think – Doodling

A doodle is an unfocused drawing made while a person’s attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes. Stereotypical examples of doodling are found in school notebooks, often in the margins, drawn by students daydreaming or losing interest during class. Other common examples Read More …