Voting Booth Machine Defective!! TAGS: 2012 | barack | blitz | broken | consulting | defect | election | error | lean | machine | mitt | obama | operations | poll | president | process | romney | six sigma | sports | touch screen | vote | voting | waste Yesterday a video was posted online of someone trying to use the electronic voting booth machine with some potential unintended consequences.   That could be a big problem. Of course, …Continue reading →

Politics and (the Lack of) Root Cause Analysis TAGS: 2012 | ad hominem | agenda | analyze | answer | answers | barack | belief | birth certificate | campaign | candidate | change | conservative | continuous | control | credibility | deficit | define | definition | democrat | dmaic | election | fallacy | fiscal | five whys | foundation | government | identify | implementation | improve | improvement | lean blitz consulting | liberal | measure | mitt | nominee | obama | operations | optimization | pdsa | plan do study adjust | platform | policy | politics | president | problem | process | public | republican | romney | root cause analysis | service | six sigma | slogan | social | sports | tax return As a continuous improvement practitioner, I have a significant disdain for politics. By politics, in this case I’m referring to the democratic elections and campaigning by individuals running for public …Continue reading →

Melky Cabrera and Why Continuous Improvement Principles Matter TAGS: 2012 | 50 games | 5S | audit | banned substance | baseball | blitz | buster olney | concessions | consulting | continuous improvement | equipment | espn | games | lean | level playing field | london | melky cabrera | mlb | notre dame football | olympics | operations | outfielder | ped | process | ryan braun | safety | san francisco giants | sports | stadium | steroids | testing | ticket sales | toyota way When I first started to write about lean and continuous improvement applications in sports, I was more focused on the business operations – ticket sales, concessions, stadium upkeep, equipment manufacturers, …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Graphics Gaffe TAGS: #chyronfail | 2012 | blitz | broadcast | canada | consulting | defect | error | flags | germany | great britain | lean | london | nbc | olympics | operations | process | russia | sports | summer | tape delay | united states | wrong This is a shot of an NBC broadcast during the Olympics. I located this image as I was perusing the internet this weekend for Olympics coverage. For NBC to get …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Women’s Gymnastics Vault Problems in Sydney Olympics TAGS: 2000 | 2012 | all-around | allana slater | annika reeder | audit | australia | bad | blitz | consulting | david haviland | defect | elise ray | error | error-proofing | five whys | fulltwist.net | gymbits | gymnastics | height | horse | ignored | judges | khorkina | lean | london | mckayla maroney | medal | officials | olympics | operations | poka-yoke | process | root cause analysis | russian | setting | specifications | sports | svetlana | sydney | table | unsafe | vault | women's gymnastics Many of you watched women’s gymnastics at the Olympics this year, so you got the chance to see the gymnasts perform the vault event using a vaulting table. However, twelve …Continue reading →

Stuff I’m Reading – August 8, 2012 TAGS: 2012 | advertisers | anibal sanchez | attendance | attention | ballpark | belly putter | blitz | blog | consulting | david samson | golf | golf digest | hanley ramirez | heath bell | improve | jeff gordon | jeffrey loria | jose reyes | lean | lean wastes | leanblog | lightning strike | london | love | mark buehrle | mark graban | marketing | miami marlins | nascar | nbc | olympics | omar infante | operations | optimization | organization | pocono | policy | process | product | revenue | safety | sailboat | sailfish | seth godin | small business | sponsors | sports | sprint cup | thad greiner | toyota way | weather There are ample opportunities for performance improvement in sports business and small business operations that I simply can’t get to it all as issues occur day after day. In addition, …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Men’s 100M Final on Broadcast Tape Delay & #NBCFail TAGS: 100m | 2008 | 2012 | advertising | america | bbc | beijing | blake | blitz | bolt | broadcast | buffering | cable | canada | consulting | data | espn | facebook | goodwill | lean | london | nbc | nbcolympics.com | olympics | online | operations | permission | process | provider | satellite | social media | sports | subscriptions | summer | tape delay | telegraph | transfer | twitter | uk | united states | usain | viewership | yohan Much has already been made about NBC’s decision to tape-delay the domestic broadcast of popular events at the 2012 London Olympics and how a gulf exists between those American fans …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: 100M Heckler and Doing the Right Thing TAGS: 100m | 2012 | behavior | blake | blitz | bolt | bosch | bottle | bronze medal | consulting | culture | dutch | edith | final | games | gatlin | gold | heckler | jamaica | judoka | justin | lean | london | olympics | operations | poetic justice | principle | process | sebastian coe | security | silver | sports | stop to fix problems | tackle | toyota way | uk telegraph | united states | usain | yohan Yesterday at the Olympics a heckler in the crowd at the track and field stadium threw a plastic bottle at the runners just before the Men’s 100M final. It didn’t …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Fencing Technology Glitch TAGS: 2012 | appeal | attack | blitz | britta | cameron smith | consulting | epee | expedited | fail | federation | fencing | german | germany | gold medal | heiderman | individual | lam | lean | london | mechanism | nbc | official | olympics | operations | organization | piste | playing surface | process | protocol | semifinal | shin | shin a lam | silver medal | six sigma | south korea | sporting | sports | systems | technology | timing | touch | yahoo sports Remember what I wrote about processes needing to supercede systems and technology? Failing to do so meant that a chance to win a gold medal was taken away earlier this …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Wembley Stadium Stops Taking Visa Cards TAGS: 2012 | athletics | best | blitz | cache | card | cash | cashless | consulting | control | crash | credit | eric ries | failure | faulty | fiasco | football | games | goodwill | great britain | kingdom | lean | limit | london | marketing | minimum viable product | mobile phones | olympics | operations | options | payment | popular | process | processes | redundant | registers | shepherd's bush | Soccer | sponsors | sports | stadium | system | telegraph | transactions | united | united arab emirates | visa | wembley Wembley Stadium management elected to stop accepting Visa cards as payment for tickets and concessions after some faults in the system developed at the cash registers during a soccer game …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: The SPOILER ALERT Olympiad TAGS: 2008 | 2012 | advertising | alert | aly | americans | beijing | blitz | broadcast | cbs | cnbc | communication | computer | consulting | de janeiro | douglas | espn | evening | facebook | franklin | gabby | gabrielle | gold medal | immediate | jordyn | lean | live | lochte | london | michael phelps | missy | nbc | nbc sports network | nbcolympics.com | new york | olympics | operations | process | race | raisman | results | rio | ryan | secrecy | six sigma | spoil | spoiler | sports | suspense | swimming | tape delay | today show | twitter | update | versus | viewership | wieber Yesterday after I posted about Jordyn Wieber being left out of the Olympics women’s gymnastics all-around competition and indicating that Gabby Douglas had won the gold medal, I got a …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Jordyn Wieber and “Dumb, Stupid Rules” TAGS: 2012 | ali | aly | athletes | blitz | business | champion | china | company | competition | consulting | defending | douglas | dumb | fast | fastcompany | final | gabby | gabrielle | gymnastics | insider | jordyn | lean | london | nations | nbc | olympics | operations | powerhouse | pride | process | raisman | rule | russia | six sigma | sports | states | stupid | summer | tape delay | the customer is always right | u.s. | united | violates | wieber | women's | world Congratulations are in order for Gabby Douglas, the U.S. gymnast who won the Olympics women’s gymnastics all-around gold medal today, marking the third straight all-around gold medal for the United …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Lost Keys at Wembley Stadium TAGS: 2012 | blitz | consulting | england | football | keys | laser | lean | london | lost | olympiad | olympics | oops | operations | police | process | scotland | security | six sigma | sports | stadium | valuable | video | wembley | yahoo | yard The first story in the video is the one to key in on. (Yes, that pun was intended.) So a set of very valuable keys to a famous soccer (sorry …Continue reading →

Toyota Way Principle #9 and Notre Dame Football TAGS: 2012 | alford | bcs | bearcats | blitz | bob | brian | central | championship | charlie | chippewas | chuck | churn | cincinnati | coach | consulting | cooks | coordinator | dame | davie | defensive | denbrock | diaco | expectations | exposure | fan | football | george | grand | jack | kelly | kerry | lean | management | martin | michigan | mike | nation | notre | o'leary | offensive | operations | optimization | personnel | philosophy | process | program | retain | six sigma | sports | state | success | swarbrick | tony | toyota | tradition | turnover | tyrone | university | valley | way | weis | willingham | winning The 2012 college football season will be the third for Brian Kelly as the head coach of the University of Notre Dame football team. Prior to his hire at Notre …Continue reading →

NFL Draft – Player Names on Jerseys TAGS: 2012 | aerys | arizona | backstage | blitz | cardinals | championship | dame | darren | defect | draft | first | floyd | football | goodell | heyboer | hot | inventory | jersey | league | lean | melissa | michael | national | new york | nfl | notre | operations | personalized | player | press | process | production | rack | roger | round | rovell | scrap | six sigma | sports | thursday | university | waste | wsbt Thursday night featured the first round of the NFL Draft in New York. One of the most notable things about the prime time coverage of the draft was the players …Continue reading →