From my family to yours… we wish you a very Merry and blessed Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.  I hope you are able to take some time off and relax with your friends and family.  I will speak (or write) to you in the new year.

Let me just say this past weekend rocked!  As regular readers of the blog know I attended the Ohio State versus Michigan football game this past Saturday. 

Well my Buckeyes handled Michigan with ease and won the Big Ten championship.  We will most likely play in the Rose Bowl.  We still have an outside shot of reaching the National Championship game but I am not counting on it. 

My experience in the Big House was excellent.  The Michigan fans were excellent starting with my good friend Scott who scored me the ticket!  When we first arrived on the scene in Ann Arbor (about 4 hours before kickoff) I got to experience tail gating Michigan style.  Scott’s friends (all Michigan fans) were great.  Of course they got some good natured jabs in on me… all of which I took with a grin.  I mean I was getting free beer so what could I say!

We then made our way to the stadium and saw the ESPN Gameday crew taping the show.  Well we didn’t actually “see” them since the line was massive to actually get into where the cameras were.  But we saw it nonetheless.

After that we went into the stadium to watch the teams warm up without pads.  The stadium was basically empty and what a massive site it was.  It’s weird… when you first walk up to the stadium it looks smallish.  Then when you actually enter into it you are like… holy Buckeye!  It is truly massive inside. 

I got some great pics of the Buckeyes warming up.  Vernon Gholston is shown in this picture.  He pummeled Chad Henne and just about Michigan’s entire offensive line all day long. 

Once the game started I was not able to take as many pictures for a few reasons.  First a steady rain started before kickoff and never stopped so I didn’t want to ruin my father in laws camera! 

Second, being the overly nice person that I am… I gave my spare batteries to this guy (a Michigan fan no less!) before the game as his had run out.  Well you guessed it… my batteries went dead late in the 3rd quarter!  Oh well.  This picture was taken after Beanie Wells took it to the house for a score in the 3rd quarter.  Man I love that kid!

In the end OSU beat Michigan for the 6th time in 7 years and all is well.  I had a blast and hope to do it all again one day.  Special kudos to the folks at the University of Michigan.  Most of them were extremely kind and hospitable… even in defeat. 

Me and the fam are off to Ohio (from Texas) for Thanksgiving to visit my Mom.  I hope all my American friends and anyone else celebrating turkey day have a great and relaxing week.  Try to spend time with your families and forget all about lean and six sigma for a few days.  That is my plan for sure.

As I previously explained my family and I took a roadtrip the last few weeks.  We drove from Keller, Texas to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  We traveled through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota on our way to the maple leaf country. 

Now to many this may sound like one boring trip but I beg to differ.  Sure there was no ocean to gaze at or snow peaked mountain tops to enjoy.  And while those things are very nice to look at I personally believe there is immense beauty in the simple rolling hills of places like South Dakota. 

In fact, in my opinion, South Dakota has to be one of the most beautiful states in this great land of ours.  Kansas and the other states we drove through were also quite nice but there was just something about South Dakota that captured my heart.  The hills just rolled and rolled and the near perfect fields of various things (e.g. corn) stretched as far as the eye could see. 

Now I grew up on a farm in Ohio so quite enjoy the simple things in life.  So if you are a big city type person you may find yourself wanting to stab yourself in the neck with a fork after the second hour of field gazing.  But not me.  I loved it and can’t wait to see those fields again someday soon.

I often come up with some great invention ideas only to find out someone already thought of it. Well, this morning when I was filling my car up with gas I thought of one I am almost sure no one has thought of.

Introducing Vacuum while you Fill Up

When filling up with gas many people like to clean all the trash out of their car, right? Some even wash their windows with the little squeegee.

Well, how about offering the customer access to a free vacuum while they pump their gas? The idea would be that as long as the gas is pumping the vacuum would run. This is important or some would likely stay at the pump even after their car was full of gas.

I have a Toyota Corolla and it only takes a few minutes to fill up. Still, I know I could quickly vacuum most of my car if I hustled.

Also, for safety reasons, the vacuum hose would need to be retractable so people couldn’t run over them with their cars.

Why gas stations will likely pass

The biggest challenge I see with this idea is most gas stations make their money by having people come in to buy some food or a drink, or so I have heard. So if people are busy with a vacuum in their hand they may not come into the store as much which could hurt profits.

Still, this idea would delight me and I would be willing to even pay a few extra cents per gallon for this feature. I suppose you could even charge 25~50 cents (paid via debit card) to vacuum… but I like free better.

Jeesh, my lawyer is probably going to be mad at me for blogging about this! I mean if this is really a good idea I should probably be applying for the patent instead of spilling the beans on my blog!

So, let this post serve as my official declaration to the “vacuum while you pump your gas” invention idea!

Signed,
Ron Pereira
Friday, July 13, 2007

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I’ve had a crap week and need to vent.  Earlier this week in Keller, TX we received about 7 inches of rain in about an hour.  Normally this would create a small lake in my back yard that would soon run off into the street. 

Unfortunately, there is a road being extended behind my house and the idiot construction crew demolished the drain that used to somewhat protect our lot.  So the expected small lake was more like the freaking Atlantic. 

In short my house flooded like the earth did when the Lord God almighty called down the rain many years ago.

So we have had these huge fans and dehumidifiers running all week which means it sounds like a 777 taking off and never leveling off!  I will admit after awhile it is a little soothing but my poor wife is about to crack as she is home all the time while I get to escape to the office.

Since we had to drill small holes in the base of our cabinets to dry things out, pull up carpet and replace the pad, and pay for all these damn fans I am out around $1200! 

And to top things off… the construction crew is taking no responsibility for their crap project management skills.  Don’t despair… when my wife is pi$$ed she is not nice.  They will pay before this over. 

Perhaps these boys need to ring up Hal from Reforming Project Management so they can get a clue about risk management, or any kind of management for that matter.

Anyhow, that was my week.  Hope yours was better.

From the very cool This is Broken blog we read about Honda’s crap customer service.  For the record, my Toyota dealership has screwed me before but never this bad.

I learned tonight that I, yes little old me, am a winner. I don’t mean a winner like the way your mom always says, “Oh son, you are always a winner to me.” No, I mean a winner in the truest sense of the word. Check out this video to see what I mean. I’ll also have you know I believe the judging was nicely done!

I am stealing, I mean benchmarking, from my friend Mark Graban over at the Lean Blog. He has an interesting post on the side of his blog where his readers can leave comments sharing information such as who they are, where they work, etc.

In the same spirit I would like to do something similar. So, if you feel so obliged please click on the “comments” link below and tell us as much or as little as you would like.

Here is a guide you can follow if you wish (freelancing is OK as well):

1. Location (city/state/country)
2. Company name / type of company (industry, size, etc.)
3. Is your company more focused on Lean or Six Sigma, or a combination of both?
4. How long you have been learning about Lean and Six Sigma?
5. What is your biggest implementation challenge?
6. Can you please offer at least one suggestion for how I can improve this blog?

I, along with my family, wish you a safe and happy Easter. I hope you are able to enjoy some time off with friends and loved ones.

I am not an active trader of stocks or options although I do enjoy reading and studying the methods people use to “time” the markets so to speak. I will confess I have tried to time the markets myself but have gotten whacked more than I care to admit! My issue is I am the best “paper trader” there is but the minute real money is involved I choke. Well, I am being honest at least.

Nonetheless, there are many cool tricks market timers do use which work very well when applied properly. Here is one tool that uses statistics as its backbone – Bollinger Bands.

StockCharts.com explains it as follows:

Developed by John Bollinger, Bollinger Bands are an indicator that allows users to compare volatility and relative price levels over a period time. The indicator consists of three bands designed to encompass the majority of a security’s price action. 1. A simple moving average in the middle
2. An upper band (SMA plus 2 standard deviations)
3. A lower band (SMA minus 2 standard deviations)Standard deviation is a statistical unit of measure that provides a good assessment of a price plot’s volatility. Using the standard deviation ensures that the bands will react quickly to price movements and reflect periods of high and low volatility. Sharp price increases (or decreases), and hence volatility, will lead to a widening of the bands. The basic idea is that the stock price will venture towards the upper or lower band and then bounce off it. Sometimes the stock will crawl along the band and then when the bands constrict an explosion will occur. And if you are watching and wait for the breakout (up or down) you can go long or short depending on the situation. See the SBUX picture above and look at how the bands constricted in January and then when the stock hit “support” it took off. Bet you wish you picked that bottom, eh?

Of course this is much easier said then done… but if you fancy a try you can try these bands for free on most stock charts – Google it and you will see. But do me a favor… before you put real money on the line try the old “paper trade” out first.

Until next time, I wish you all the best on your journey towards continuous improvement.