Quality Engineering with Robust Design by Genichi Taguchi 258.0
The Taguchi method underwhelmingly called Quality Engineering (QE) have changed the face of industrial management all over the world. To me, that places Genichi Taguchi in the select list of SYNTHESiST change leaders. Taguchi’s QE, both on-line and off-line robust design, are not well known outside industry and are somewhat controversial to the community of [...]
Beyond Productivity – Competitiveness or Innovation? 245.0
In a telephone conversation, a dear friend gave a reaction to the series of posts that SYNTHESiST had on productivity – on Frederick Taylor, Six Sigma, Paul Krugman on competitiveness and McKinsey and design thinking. She mentions that they have moved beyond productivity to competitiveness as the higher goal. This post integrates my views on [...]
IDEO Design Thinking Breaks the Productivity Frontier 242.0
Consultants’ advice on productivity improvement, as branded management products, evolve from new insights found in social science research and in empirical practice. IDEO’s Design Thinking is one such clear and late stage innovation in the business’s search for continuous productivity improvement. Design Thinking’s success and arrival in the Philippines is evidenced by entry into local [...]
Nano by India Tata is an Indigenous Innovation from an Emerging Market 203.0
The Nano is not just a disruptive innovation but a truly indigenous one. The most fascinating person I met at 7th Asialics in Taipei is Professor Chaisung Lim of the Miller School of Management of Techology, Konkuk University, Korea. We had a long discussion over breakfast on innovation from emerging markets (or as the jargon [...]
IDEO and Design Thinking 58.0
Doing market research and rapid protyping at the same time develops great products fast IDEO is the key proponent of Design Thinking. Tim Brown, its CEO, wrote in a June 2008 Harvard Business Review article (IDEO.pdf) that Design Thinking is “a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos.” [...]
