New Job Status (written in 1990)
by Allen Rathey There was a time when life was less confusing. People knew their place and stayed in it. For instance, saying good morning to the janitor used to be a time-honored way for someone in the higher strata [...]
New Year’s Resolutions and Habits (written in 1989)
by Allen Rathey Have you made any resolutions lately? Just asking the question makes me very uncomfortable and probably has the same effect upon you. The pain stems from the fact that this form of "commitment" is known to have [...]
Ergonomics Considerations for the Design of Cordless Stick Vacuum Handles
by Dr. Gary Allread When choosing the appropriate vacuum across a wide array of available products, it is essential to consider operational features, such as amount of particle removal, ease of filter replacement, and battery life. However, usability and effort [...]
Semper Fi and Custodial
A Hispanic man of 44 with a slightly prominent belly walked slowly into the training room for the dozen or so custodians of the community college; he being last to enter. Javier sat down tiredly at a long rectangular table [...]
What is Engineered Water?
The Engineered Water Consortium (EWC) defined Engineered Water (EW) as: “Water engineered to meet the performance requirements of professional cleaning, sanitizing and/or disinfecting, with long-term value and green factors as key uptake and ethical drivers, and On Site Generation (OSG) [...]
Citizen Science Anyone?
Citizen science (CS) encourages members of the public to voluntarily participate in the scientific process. Whether by asking questions, making observations, conducting experiments, collecting data, or developing low-cost technologies and open-source code, members of the public can advance scientific knowledge [...]
When Components Compete, Systems Collapse
In a well-organized system all the components work together to support each other. In a system that is well led and managed, everybody wins. This is what I taught Japanese top management and engineers beginning in 1950. If by [...]
Kaizen and Service
Service is ... an essential aspect of the business applications of kaizen. Each employee in a kaizen culture is asked to look each day for ways to improve the process or product
Ergonomics Study—Hotel Housekeeping
Dr. Gary Allread, one of our council members, shared a study he led, published in the November, 2022 peer-reviewed International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: “Comparisons of Trunk Motions and Low Back Injury Risk between Alternative Hotel Room [...]
Quality or Quantity?
When cleaning, is it quality or quantity that counts? Dr. Bill Bellows, a member of our council, writing in the Lean Management Journal said: “The word ‘quality’ has Latin roots,…