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.
Category Archives: Management
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
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
Quality is a strategic issue
I’d like to take an overview of what quality is… and why it’s strategically important to your business. What is Quality? Quality means meeting requirements. It isn’t about providing more features, or complexity, or performance that increases cost, takes longer … Continue reading
Prevention is better than cure
Many moons ago I was blogging about Corrective Actions and said that, whilst they were invaluable, taking Preventive Actions was even better, as it should stop the problems occurring in the first place, but is considerably more difficult! I thought … Continue reading
5S is more than just spring cleaning
5S stands for Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. And, by the way, despite being called 5S many people say there’s a 6th – Safety. Well, I’m glad to have cleared that up! Perhaps I had better explain… You have … Continue reading
Crosby’s Quality Management Maturity Grid
Of all the quality ‘gurus’ I find the late Philip Crosby one of the most readable. In his book ‘Quality is Free’ (Mentor 1980, ISBN 978-0451625854), which I can thoroughly recommend, he advocates the use of a simple tool to … Continue reading
Posted in Business quality & processes, Main Page, Management
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The secrets of Lean
‘Lean’ means fat-free or thin or containing little waste, doesn’t it? (Appropriate for just after Christmas…) The answer is yes, and it’s one of the most recent trends in quality and management that started on the factory floor with Lean … Continue reading
How does ‘8D’ problem-solving work?
A few people have asked me recently about ‘8D’, and I mentioned it in a previous blog without really explaining what I was on about, so I thought it was time to elaborate. 8D looks a bit like one of … Continue reading
