Insights & Articles

Field notes on quality leadership, crisis management and operational excellence — from the shop floor to the boardroom.

Ford's quality turnaround is real — and the recalls prove it isn't done
Quality Leadership

Ford's quality turnaround is real — and the recalls prove it isn't done

Ford's quality award is real. So are the recalls. Two decades on shop floors tell me why the gap exists—and what it costs to close it.

July 2, 2026·4 min readRead article →
Scaling eVTOL is a quality systems problem, not an engineering one
Manufacturing Insights

Scaling eVTOL is a quality systems problem, not an engineering one

Joby and Toyota's JV is not an engineering milestone — it is a quality systems declaration. The prototype-to-production cliff is where eVTOL companies will live or die.

July 2, 2026·5 min readRead article →
What every new EV plant gets wrong in its first 90 days
Manufacturing Insights

What every new EV plant gets wrong in its first 90 days

Three EV plant announcements this week, none mentioning quality infrastructure. The first 90 days of quality sequencing decide whether you survive your first audit or surface in a recall.

July 2, 2026·4 min readRead article →
The tier nobody audits: why your supplier quality is a controlled assumption, not a managed fact
Operational Excellence

The tier nobody audits: why your supplier quality is a controlled assumption, not a managed fact

Your IATF or AS9100 badge says your system is robust. It says nothing about what is happening two tiers down, in the shop you have never visited.

July 2, 2026·5 min readRead article →
Why Ford rehired what AI couldn't replace
Manufacturing Insights

Why Ford rehired what AI couldn't replace

Ford replaced veteran inspectors with algorithms and the bill came in the billions. The gap between 99% accurate and right is where recalls start.

July 2, 2026·4 min readRead article →
Audit-Ready Every Day: How We Cut EASA Audit Findings by 50% in One Cycle
Quality Systems

Audit-Ready Every Day: How We Cut EASA Audit Findings by 50% in One Cycle

Most plants prepare for audits. The best plants stop preparing — because their daily operating system already produces the evidence auditors ask for. Here is the approach that halved our EASA findings.

June 24, 2026·6 min readRead article →
The 98% Playbook: Cutting the Cost of Poor Quality with QRQC, A3 and Q-Wall
Operational Excellence

The 98% Playbook: Cutting the Cost of Poor Quality with QRQC, A3 and Q-Wall

Failure costs are not a quality metric — they are a leadership metric. The exact three-tool system we used to take 98% of failure costs out of an automotive operation, and why most COPQ programs stall at 30%.

June 2, 2026·7 min readRead article →
Zero Escalations: Crisis Management as a Quality Discipline
Crisis Management

Zero Escalations: Crisis Management as a Quality Discipline

Escalations don't happen when problems are big. They happen when trust is small. How we resolved every critical customer escalation to zero within one quarter — and kept it there.

May 12, 2026·6 min readRead article →