William Levinson
William Levinson
William (Bill) A. Levinson, P.E., is the principal of Levinson Productivity Systems, P.C. He is an ASQ Fellow, Certified Quality Engineer, Quality Auditor, Quality Manager, Reliability Engineer, and Six Sigma Black Belt. He holds degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering from Pennsylvania State and Cornell Universities, and night school degrees in business administration and applied statistics from Union College, and he has given presentations at the ASQ World Conference, TOC World 2004, and other national conferences on productivity and quality.
Mr. Levinson is also the author of several books on quality, productivity, and management. Henry Ford’s Lean Vision is a comprehensive overview of the lean manufacturing and organizational management methods that Ford employed to achieve unprecedented bottom line results, and Beyond the Theory of Constraints describes how Ford’s elimination of variation from material transfer and processing times allowed him to come close to running a balanced factory at full capacity. Statistical Process Control for Real-World Applications shows what to do when the process doesn’t conform to the traditional bell curve assumption.
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Process Failure Mode Effects Analysis and Control Plan
Process failure mode effects analysis (PFMEA) is part of advanced quality planning (AQP) or advanced product quality planning (APQP), whose purpose is to plan quality into the product realization process. It seeks to anticipate trouble in advance, in the... -
2-Hour Comprehensive Seminar on Measurement Systems Analysis
Attendees will also receive an Excel spreadsheet with the d*2 factors that are required for the average and range method, and another with data for the worked examples. These appear in some references that are named in the handout,... -
3-Hour Virtual Seminar on Statistical Process Control (SPC), Process Capability, and Non-Normal Distributions
This 3-session seminar will cover: Process capability and process performance, which reflect the ability of a process to meet specifications. A Six Sigma process will, when centered on the nominal, have only two nonconformances or defects per billion opportunities.... -
COVID-19 Update: Get Ready for the HEROES Act’s OSHA Requirements
The HEROES Act (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act) requires, “Not later than 24 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall, pursuant to section 6 of the Occupational Safety and... -
COVID 19: Business and Health Implications, Countermeasures and Opportunities for Organizations
The Chinese characters for “crisis” mean danger and opportunity, and the Coronavirus outbreak is certainly a menace to human health and also the economy. The countermeasures that are being taken to contain it should however reduce it to a... -
Making ISO 9001:2015 the Servant, Not the Master
Organizations often feel that they do not get value, in terms of bottom line financial and other performance metrics, from registration to ISO 9001:2015. This is because they treat the standard as their master, i.e. something they “have to... -
Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) – Our Most Important Process in Effective Problem Solving
Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) plays a central role in quality management systems. Its customer and supplier processes include far more than just control of non-conformances; they also include customer feedback, audit findings, the management review, and even more.... -
Statistical Process Control – Keys to Prevent Process Variation and Ensure Quality
Statistical process control (SPC) is a form of feedback process control that does for discrete manufacturing operations what automatic process control does for chemical process operations. The control chart reveals the presence of special or assignable causes that require... -
4-Hour Virtual Seminar on Statistical Process Control
Statistical process control (SPC) is a form of feedback process control that does for discrete products what automatic process control does for the chemical process industry. Its purpose is to distinguish special or assignable causes from random or common... -
Avoid the Most Common Sources of ISO 9001:2015 Nonconformances with the Process Approach
Penny Ouellette’s “ISO 9001:2015 Implementation: The Good, the Bad and the Trending” (Quality, November 8 2018) provides a valuable list of the most frequent clauses that are cited in ISO 9001:2015 findings. These are: Clause 4.4.1, Quality management system... -
Root Cause Analysis and CAPA
ISO 9001:2015 assigns preventive action to clause 6.1 (Actions to address risks and opportunities) and corrective action to clause 8.7 (Control of nonconforming outputs), but the same process can be used for both activities; the only difference is that... -
Process Capability Analysis
Process capability reflects the ability of a manufacturing process to meet specifications, and customers often request capability studies for this reason. This presentation will show how to perform a capability study, including not only the calculation procedure but also... -
Measurement Systems Analysis
Calibration (accuracy) has been traditionally required by ISO 9001, but measurement systems analysis (precision) has not – although it has been an element of the automotive standard IATF 16949 ever since the latter was QS 9000. Accuracy and precision... -
Introduction to Design of Experiments
Design of Experiments (DOE) is an important technique for root cause analysis (RCA) and process improvement. As an example, when potential trouble sources are identified from a cause and effect diagram, DOE can be used to determine which of... -
5S Workplaces – When Lean and Safety Meet
5S, which refers to the five Japanese words for clearing up, arrangement, neatness, discipline, and ongoing improvement, is a workplace organization system that also supports safety; the sixth S. It achieved proven results at the Ford Motor Company during... -
Zero Acceptance Sampling to Reduce Inspection Costs
Inspection is a necessary but non-value-adding activity whose purpose is to protect the customer from poor quality. We should therefore do as little as possible, upon condition that our inspection plan meet the customer’s requirement. Inspection plans with acceptance... -
Process Capability Analysis
Process capability reflects the ability of a manufacturing process to meet specifications, and customers often request capability studies for this reason. This presentation will show how to perform a capability study, including not only the calculation procedure but also... -
Measurement Systems Analysis
Calibration (accuracy) has been traditionally required by ISO 9001, but measurement systems analysis (precision) has not – although it has been an element of the automotive standard IATF 16949 ever since the latter was QS 9000. Accuracy and precision...
