In this episode, I sit down once again with Bill Bellows to explore the interconnected nature of quality thinking. Our conversation ventures beyond traditional boundaries, drawing on Bill's unique insights into systemic thinking and its implications for organizational excellence.

We delve into the philosophy of interconnectedness, illustrating how quality extends far beyond the superficial, embedding itself into every facet of production and service. Bill shares enlightening perspectives on the importance of viewing organizations as whole systems, where every element is interrelated and changes in one part can ripple through others.

In this episode, I sit down once again with Bill Bellows to explore the interconnected nature of quality thinking. Our conversation ventures beyond traditional boundaries, drawing on Bill's unique insights into systemic thinking and its implications for organizational excellence.

We delve into the philosophy of interconnectedness, illustrating how quality extends far beyond the superficial, embedding itself into every facet of production and service. Bill shares enlightening perspectives on the importance of viewing organizations as whole systems, where every element is interrelated and changes in one part can ripple through others.

I have an enlightening conversation with Adam Hawkins in this episode. We dive deep into W. Edwards Deming's seminal perspectives on quality.

Our dialogue explores how this expansive framing of quality requires connecting producers and consumers in a broader system. We relate these concepts to service level objectives (SLOs) and their role in quantifying acceptable loss balanced against keeping systems valuable. This leads us to the profound realization that quality is contextual, varying across different systems and business needs.

In this second part of a two-part series, I speak with Bill Bellows about W. Edwards Deming's influence on Japanese manufacturing, specifically Toyota. We discuss Deming's relationship with Genichi Taguchi and how their quality philosophies intersect and complement each other. We explore Deming and Taguchi's differing notions of quality - meeting specifications versus minimizing loss to society.

In this first part of a two-part series, I chat with Bill Bellows in this episode. Bill gave us a little history of his introduction to Genichi Taguchi's methods and quality concepts while working as an engineer in the jet engine industry. We explore key ideas around variability reduction, precision vs accuracy, process capability, and Taguchi's loss function. Our conversation looks at the difference between traditional quality approaches focused on specifications and Taguchi's view of quality based on quantifying loss and variation. We riff on analogies using a dartboard and Deming's red bead experiment to clarify Taguchi's perspectives on "loss" and variation even within specification limits.

In this episode, Donna and I discuss what's wrong with the words Root Cause and Root Cause Analysis. Our original thoughts and the differences between the old and new meanings are discussed. Undoubtedly, Dr. Deming's words matter, and we try to figure out what he would have said. 

I'm John Willis (Botchagalupe). For almost ten years, I have been researching and writing a book about Dr. Deming. About two years ago, I got serious about the work, and then the pandemic struck. I should write this book if I ever intend to do so. Two years ago, I started working with a wonderful consultant, Derek Lewis. He has a phenomenal voice that you get to hear. I have worked with him for two years. After about a year of writing, I naively thought I was done. A year later, with five drafts, I could continue for another five years. However, I have finally begun working with a publisher. There will be some excellent news on that front. Hopefully, the audio, final, and Kindle versions will be available this summer. The paperback might not be available until the end of the year due to printing and supply chain issues.

Rob and I go old school in this episode. We had first met back in my early days before DevOps when I used to run a Tivoli consulting business. Rob describes how he used Dr. Deming's principles in his consulting work. Rob works alongside Dr. Cherry Vu and describes himself as a Teal Unicorn. LinkedIn and Twitter are the best places to find Rob and Cherry's ideas and work.