Walt McIntyre

Fearless Moral Inventory

Belief System What do you believe? This is not an easy question to answer. We are complicated beings living in a complicated world. With that in mind, let’s make the answer easier to get by being honest with ourselves. A fearless moral inventory will onl... Read >

Listening Strategies

Listening Strategies We spend our lives being taught how to read, how to write, and how to speak. We generally have very little training on how to listen. This is big problem since listening is a top-level skill in a world where the spoken word is so i... Read >

30 Things I Believe

30 Things That I believe: - I am not here by accident. - We are not here by accident. - My life's wake tells my life's story. - I will make a difference with my life whether I want to or not. - I will make a positive difference in the world. - We ... Read >

Standardization of Processes

When working to improve a process, it is not enough to implement a solution and stop. Without a plan to maintain the gains, at the first sign of trouble, systems will revert to what has been comfortable in the past. That usually means a return to some pas... Read >

Lean ENgineering and Waste Elimination

5-S The 5-S philosophy is associated with lean thinking. The objective of lean thinking is to provide a business with long-term profitability by developing a more effective workplace, which is accomplished by eliminating waste in the work environment. ... Read >

Mistake Proofing

Mistake Proofing Mistake proofing is an effort to stop defects at the source. The prime objective is to prevent defects from occurring in the first place, but if they do occur, to stop their progression through the process. By stopping a defect at its ... Read >

Central tendency: Mean, Median, Mode

Central tendency: Mean, Median, Mode Before discussing measures of central tendency, a word of caution is necessary. Customers do not feel averages. They feel their specific experience. As a result, while central tendency is an important descriptive st... Read >

Cost of Poor Quality

Cost of Poor QualityThe cost of poor quality (COPQ) is the total cost impact of defects produced by the process. There have been many discussions,some heated, about what categories of costs should be considered in the calculation of a process' cost of poo... Read >

Performance Teams

Team Selection If you were selecting a basketball team, what criteria would you use for the selection of players? If an academic team were being selected, what would your criteria be? If the selection of a process improvement team were the objective, wha... Read >

Requirements vs Delighters

Requirements are those service or product characteristics that the customer requires in order to satisfy their needs. When the business fails to meet these requirements, the customer will not be satisfied. The result is a lost business opportunity. The an... Read >

Speaking and Listening Skils

A process improvement team is from the beginning a team of investigators. They investigate process performance by looking for improvement opportunities and the root causes of problems. All of us have seen detective programs on TV where a sleuth investi... Read >

Process Analysis and Six Sigma

There are different ways to see a process. As we think it is, as we think it should be, and as it really is. When we see a process as we think it is, we are disconnected from reality. When we view a process this way, we cannot see the source of the pro... Read >

Six Sigma and the Voice of the Customer

Customers do not have a single voice. They are fractioned into multiple groups, each with their own perspective. Each group may also have different voices in different circumstances. Identifying the customer involves more than collecting information ... Read >