Your Last Big Idea?

As quality manager at our factory, in accordance with our ISO 9001:2000 quality management program, innovative improvements are supposed to be logged, evaluated and implemented with a mechanism called "Preventive Action Reporting". As I understand it, all improvement are categorized as potential methods for helping the organization acheive it's goals. Customer satisfaction is the primary goal, and all organizational processes are geared to achieving this. Improvements are ideas that will either help directly influence customer satisfaction, reduce cost, or increase efficiency.

Being a small oilfield company with a niche, we are specialists at what we do, and based on customer requests and requirements, we are continuously improving our designs. The ideas come from the trained and experienced people we have. The ISO system is the official method of capturing and assessing major ideas, yet there are hundreds of small improvements in design, and process, and relationships, that accrue to the benfit of our organization and our customers, yet are too small to be traced by the ISO system at this time. Our engineering department implements drawings and documents that reflect the changes at this level, and there is a lag between the decisions to implement, and the documentation that shows it.

So even with a system, there is a gradual growth of savoir-faire that can't adequately be documented and evaluated. It is the commitment of management to customer satisfaction that engenders an attitude amongst employees to continually improve both product and process. Continuous Improvement, as a basic principle of quality management, acknowledges that perfection is impossible, and only through dedication to this principle can an organization ever hope to achieve its goals for increasing customer satisfaction.

So I would conclude that most improvement is gradual and too small to measure. The big improvements requiring significant resources happen with or without a quality management program. What a good QA program will provide is the statistical data to make more informed decisions with, and to help focus, track, and document the goals, provided sufficient resources are made available for adequate analysis of the organizations processes and non-conformances.

Always has been. Always will be.

We like to reward performance, and 'pay it forward'.

Been operating for almost 50 years.

I worked with Indo German company mfg. Material Handling eqpmts. We had a Kaizan system in which every one will report small or big improvement. Best improvement was rewarded with a prize every month.

We also had Customer Complaints "Quality Circle" meeting every 3 months where in all the customer complaints were catgorised and common complaints were discussed with Design Engineers to either change the design or modify the process. This was under ISO:9001 standards. Thus we eliminated many of the complaints which were common in nature.

Oh! Well, If ideas are the theme I will bring up 2or3 of them and seriuosly and respectfully propose without offense to anyone, please don't get me wrong ,if acceptable this will be one of them as follow: As I was thinking for a while how this will be possible introduce and further developing further into the industry and marketing then. Will sounds little funny duh but check this out and let me know...

What about a thermic self adjusted thermo BRA for women that has to be exposed to the outdoors. And or a chest warmer vest that do the same for men's exposed to the outdoors ?

Think about it "Self Temperature Controlled" Bra and Vest that adjust itself on temperature demands, specially when outside under an strong winter conditions.

I know thay do have that for handgloves but I don't think is self or automatically controlled yet. You tell me, I do believe it will be great idea,doesn't?

This will be like a microship programed to sense temperature demands in real time. And may probably will be bacckup operated by solar power as well, Who Know's?

Technology are already available which are the building blocks now we have to keep up using imagination further. Alrigth don't go away more to come yet. You guys at CR-4 are --BRILLIANTS--.

Great supply of knowledge here in this CR-4 community forums. Back on Business!

Cool / Solar Tech,

MC

The company I used to work for (just prior to retirement) fit the "that's not how we do it." syndrome.

Pick any area of research and management wouldnt support it. Any "good" ideas had to come from outside the company. If a cub scout wrote to the CEO and asked why we didnt do something in a certain different way that he (the cub scout) proposed, the CEO would have a research program initiated. But, if a senior researcher suggested a new more cost effective approach to solve a problem, it would be pooh-poohed. BTW, the senior management of that illustrious corporation was subsequently ranked as the worst management of a Fortune 400 Company.

Not surprisingly, the corporation is no longer in business, but their Operations are, now that they have been taken over after bankruptcy by a forward thinking company.

Unfortunately, and it sort of goes without saying, senior management walked away with millions in severence, while research, engineering and other staff functions were dumped on to the street.

Lesson: NEVER work for any company without a contract that protects you from the management and their conniving.

Retired here but have one hell of an invention I have been working on only in my head.

Using existing material I could generate enough power for electric cars to be self propelled at speeds they could compete with gas powered models and only need small batterys to kick off the proccess of power generation.

Maybe I will get around to building it after the V.A. does this 2nd knee operation. If I survive the operation. That might be a hurtle.

After what I have read of other inventors spending their whole life defending a patent and going broke to keep I have to wornder if it is it worth it at all?