Ceptara

Whenever you're starting something new or find yourself in a new situation, you get that feeling deep down in your gut, "What am I doing?". Honda published this video "Failure: The Secret to Success", that has a number of very inspiring ideas.

The corrective action process is arguably the most important component of a quality assurance program. Without an effective corrective action program problems will continuously repeat themselves, continuous improvement is impossible, and it is unlikely that any of the other quality system elements will work effectively. Like virtually every other management program, success of the corrective action process is directly related to management commitment.

Join me on February 10, 2009 @ 1:15p for a light version of our Personal Excellence workshop - [Register]

2009 PNAA Aerospace Conference
Personal Excellence Workshop
Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 1:15p to 5:00p
Course Fee: $25
Lynnwood Convention Center
3711 196th St SW
Lynnwood, WA 98036
[Register]

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Whether this statement is properly attributed to Mark Twain, the English Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, or to someone else, one thing we know for sure is that statistics are often used to sway public opinion. Such is, unfortunately the case for statistics associated with compact fluorescent lights (CFL).

In a nutshell -

If your Apple TV does not show up as a device in your iTunes application on a PC, make sure that the computer link menu screen with the 5 digit code is visible on the Apple TV while you're looking at the Device list on your iTunes application. This little tidbit is not referred to on any Apple documentation that I've found.

For those of you that have had the chance to see what’s new in SharePoint 2007, you will notice the addition of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). This is a wonderful addition and will add the ability for business users to drive metrics at a new level. But what about all of those SP2003 installs? Sans the upgrade, is there anything one can do to add scorecards?

The answer is yes, if you’re comfortable working in FrontPage and SharePoint…

Summary

A recently published [survey] by the Josephson Institute raises some pretty shocking indicators of our future leaders. The institute surveyed 29,670 randomly selected high school students in the United States. Almost all of those surveyed thought it was important to be an honest and trustworthy person (98%). However, when we look at demonstrated character, 64% said they cheated on a test, 30% said they stole something from a store, and 23% said they had stolen something from a parent or relative. Even 1 out of 4 respondents (26%) said they didn't complete the anonymous survey honestly. We are going to have a real crisis of character in our businesses that can lead to significant business failure if we don't focus on this issue, so what can we do?

Summary

• Quality Systems of the past are not keeping up with today's information paradigms
• Wikis have solved some issues with flexibility but can still suffer from aging information
• Internet knowledge is vast and accessible, but the quality of the information can be questionable
• Most of our information is static
• Our systems need to evolve and include considerations for personalization, predictability, federation, and controlability.

SUMMARY

• Businesses are required to be as efficient as they can be.
• People are an integral part of any needed improvements.
• Process improvement is a systematic and deliberate process focused on doing the work in the most effective and efficient way.
• Business value is achieved by focusing on the production system and the results

In support of the need to develop high performing folks - we've released our Personal Excellence workshop.

Our test classes have been very well received. Some comments:

"I really enjoyed how you condensed the two books down into a workable system." "I was impressed by the diagrams you used to connect goals, projects, and tasks and their relationships"

"The methods discussed can double my productivity, I'm not one to pass that up."