Life Beyond the Short Term

Posted on September 4, 2005  Comments (1)

Life Beyond the Short Term by Simon Caulkin, The Observer.

Last week’s column – ‘Adrift in a parallel universe‘ – about the perversion of management provoked an eloquent, sometimes passionate, response.
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In the spirit of a positive alternative, a prime text is W Edwards Deming’s 14-point programme for transforming management, drawn up in the 1980s.

Once again Simon Caulkin has penned an excellent article. In this article he gives an overview of Deming’s 14 points. I am glad to have found another positive source for improving management – see our directory of management improvement blogs for some additional sources I find valuable.
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Statistics for Experimenters Data

Posted on September 4, 2005  Comments (1)

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Buy Statistics for Experimenters
Data files for Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery , 2nd Edition by George Box, Stu Hunter and Bill Hunter, are available online.

We maintain on online resource for those using Statistics for Experimenters. Visit the page to find resources, or to let us know about resources (data sets, exercises, etc.) for those using the book.

Fixing Healthcare from the Inside

Posted on September 3, 2005  Comments (1)

Fixing Healthcare From the Inside, Today by Steven J. Spear, Harvard Business Review (PHBs broke the link so I removed it).

To understand how the improvements were achieved, it is necessary to appreciate why such a gap exists between the U.S. health care system’s performance and the skills and intentions of the people who work in it.

Best efforts are not the answer, as Deming said.

The changes I’ve described at West Penn were individually small, but taken together they led to marked improvement in the presurgical unit’s performance. That’s also characteristic of change at Toyota: People don’t typically go in for big, dramatic cure-alls. Instead, they break big problems into smaller, tractable pieces and generate a steady rush of iterative changes that collectively deliver spectacular results.

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Visually Lean

Posted on September 2, 2005  Comments (1)

Lean From The Get-Go by Derek Korn.

This short article does a nice job of illustrating several interesting lean concepts in practice.

Work areas that are compact, but not cramped, not only promote efficient motion, but also improve scheduling accuracy by allowing a more precisely predictable determination of a job’s total cycle time. This total cycle time is not just the time a machine is producing chips; it takes into account all factors involved in part production, such as setups, inspection, secondary operations and so on.

One important lean production concept is to reduce the physical distance traveled. Most distance traveled must be non-value added and therefore should be reduced. Lean operations also have shown eliminating clutter creates significant gains.

2. 5S Organization This idea of a more predictable motion is also a function of 5S organizational principles, which are direct extensions of the visual factory theme and staples of any lean push. Just what the 5S’s stand for can differ from shop to shop (they typically represent sort, shine, simplify, standardize and sustain).
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3. Setup Photos – Each time a new job is set up, R&D takes photos of the fixtures, tools – anything that will be helpful in setting up the job again so there is no wheel-reinvention the next time that job comes through the shop. These photos, along with standardized work sheets, are included in each manila job folder.

One great thing about some lean concepts is they are not complicated to understand. It doesn’t take weeks of training to understand what to do. The hardest part is deciding to take the time to apply lean concepts. As the article starts:
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Appeal for Marketers to Apply Deming’s Ideas

Posted on September 1, 2005  Comments (0)

Ego Systems by Doug Hall, CMO (Chief Marketing Officers magazine) [who have now broken the link, so I removed it. Really smart marketing, guys]:

Deming’s methods can transform innovation success for CMOs just as they did for Toyota. For some reason, though, sales and marketing don’t get it. Instead of fixing the innovation system, they change the people. And then they expect a miracle.

Some resources for marketing management improvement.

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