Welcome
Welcome to my blog, which I hope you'll find to be an interesting mixture of real-world experience, ideas, comments and observations.
Tom Gaskell
I've worked in industry as a consultant, manager and quality trouble-shooter for most of my career.
After spending 14 years in a multi-national consulting organisation and 10 years working in telecomms design and manufacturing start-ups, I set up the Cambridge (UK)-based quality, manufacturing and business consultancy Primilis (http://www.primilis.com) in 2006.
Author Archives: Tom G
Eddie Mair rattles my speakers
Intermittent problems are a real pain. They never show themselves when you are in a position to do anything about it. I have been disappointed by the Bose sound system in my Mazda; it under-uses its sub-woofer, fails to automatically … Continue reading
How to get 5.1 audio on Sky HD – updated
UPDATED – SEE BELOW! I have just installed a Sky HD system for a colleague and hit a really annoying problem. The Sky HD box puts out stereo digital audio onto its HDMI connector, and provides 5.1 (surround sound) digital … Continue reading
Posted in Main Page, Miscellaneous, Other, Technology
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The winds of change…
In a recent blog I wrote about Deviations and Concessions, temporary changes that allow you – when necessary and under control – to not do things the way you normally do them. But what happens when the change is permanent; … Continue reading
Being devious about Deviations
If quality is doing “exactly what it says on the tin” (courtesy of Ronseal), what happens if you really don’t want to? What happens if you knowingly choose to do something else? Presumably that isn’t allowed? Well, yes it is. … Continue reading
Wireless technology recruitment in Cambridge
It’s great to see a real home-grown high-tech success story in the UK. Cambridge Broadband Networks, a company I know well, is just such a success. They’ve recently celebrated their tenth anniversary and are growing very quickly at the moment, … Continue reading
Posted in Main Page, Miscellaneous, Technology
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Control your cosmetics – “because you’re worth it”!
No, I’m not talking about lipstick and blusher despite the tongue-in-cheek introduction. Cosmetic Inspection refers to the quality of the surfaces of products or equipment, especially those surfaces that are visible to the customer. Nothing is perfect; no material is … Continue reading
The real meaning of MTBF
Ignore some of the more disparaging descriptions of what ‘M.T.B.F.’ means; it actually stands for Mean Time Between Failures (or, for products that can’t be repaired, the term Mean Time To Failure is often used instead). It’s the inverse of … Continue reading
Posted in Main Page, Manufacturing, Product quality & reliability
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Assess yourself
No, it isn’t a Madonna song or anything written by New Order for the England football team! In order to go somewhere that you want to be you need to know where you are now, otherwise how do you know … Continue reading
How to manage risk
Another preventive technique I recently promised to blog about was risk review and analysis. This is an approach used to reduce or manage risk; we aren’t necessarily trying to achieve zero risk (if there’s no risk at all you often … Continue reading
The secrets of Poka Yoke
Poka Yoke (“poh-ka yoh-kay”), translated as mistake-proofing, was developed by Toyota manufacturing engineer Shigeo Shingo in the 1960s. (Its original name, ‘fool-proofing’ was changed because some people were offended by its implications.) It’s another preventive technique that I recently promised … Continue reading
