Jan 13, 2020

January with Fast Lane Biker Magazine

https://www.fastlanebikerdelmarva.com/geezer-with-grudge/

3 comments:

Cas said...

Well said Thomas.

On any bike of that ilk, it would be difficult to ride safely, enjoyably, or indeed at anything over a walking pace!

I'm sure that either consciously or unconsciously as an engineer you followed Shigeo Shingo's poka yoke (mistake proofing) philosophies? He worked for Toyota. The idea is not just to make a process efficient, but to make it so good that it cannot be done incorrectly.

In the few programs that I have coded, I have tried to put these checks in place, and although the pop up messages are an annoyance to some users, they do prevent errors. I have found that even the most troublesome users learn eventually. These bikes are the antithesis of poka yoke, they induce mistakes, (even after the original one of buying one of these things).

Interestingly, Shingo originally used the term baka yoke, but since this means idiot proofing, this term was deemed too demeaning to users. Sounds like a good term for custom builders?

Cas

T.W. Day said...

Cas,

Interesting programming analysis. One of my favorite "business books" is Alan Cooper's "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity." Cruisers are like overly cumbersome, user-hostile software, in that their design is so miserable that it distracts from the already complicated task of maneuvering in traffic. I am totally unfamiliar with Shingo, but that won't last. Thanks for the reference.

T.W. Day said...

My local library just obtained "The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo" and "Zero Quality Control" and I'm really enjoying remembering that brief period when American management allowed engineers and workers the opportunity to do quality work. Good times, but so far in the country's current rear view mirror it's hard to imagine it ever happening again.