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The Inmates Are Running The Asylums by Bill Waddell.
I flew JetBlue Airways last week. The help at the counter was polite and friendly. While this is only one data point (and hardly a “high bar” to meet) it contrasts with most of my flying experience (in my experience Southwest has a good likelihood of meeting this goal). It would be nice if more airlines could be like Southwest (which manages to be profitable in a very challenging industry - LUV stock info).
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Most Meetings are Muda (Waste) from Got Boondoggle:
The post provides good tips on what to avoid. Given how many people know that many meetings are a waste of time, taking steps to improve meeting effectiveness is a good way to gain some credibility for management improvement activities. Doing so is very visible. Unfortunately, even with the simple and good ideas on how to do better - many meetings that are full of waste.
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Quality Conversation with Gary Convis by Norman Bodek:
Why are you afraid of process? by Seth Godin
It’s about the opposite.
Seth Godin does a great job helping people think creatively. I am glad he sees that process management is not in conflict with that. Many others fall into the trap of thinking it is, see our previous post: Not the End of Process.
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Related:
Using Design of Experiments as a Process Road Map by Davis Balestracci:
DOE is a tool that is very useful. And while the situations in which DOE is the best tool to use is limited the limited use of DOE is used less than it could be. See more articles on the use of design of Experiments (DOE).
Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation by David Sirota, Louis A. Mischkind, and Michael Irwin Meltzer from the Harvard Management Update:
Clear, simple and right. Douglas McGregor explored this topic well in 1960. He explained theory X management (managers believe the workers will do only what they are forced, coerced into doing) and theory Y management (managers believe the workers want to do a good job and the managers job is to help them do so) in his excellent book: The Human Side Of Enterprise.
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Blogs ‘essential’ to a good career
For those with blogs this is a nice article to read - good positive reinforcement. It is probably a good marketing move to write an article that bloggers will like. Many will then post their thoughts on your article on their blog.
The article is a bit overly enthusiastic still it includes some good points. And these points are especially valuable for those interested a creating a career in management consulting: particularly as an individual or part of a small firm where the individual marketing can make a difference. Marketing is often one of the most difficult parts of making a successful career as a consultant. As the article says:
Lean Accounting: What’s It All About? by Brian H. Maskell and Bruce L. Baggaley:
This article reviews the thoughts presented at the 2005 lean accounting summit. The 2006 summit takes place in September. Jim Womack, Norman Bodek and Richard Schonberger are presenting at the conference.
Some figures on Toyota’s economic impact in the USA. Toyota North American vehicle manufacturing totals:
From Toyota’s web site: Toyota Manufacturing in the USA: by 2008, Toyota will have the annual capacity to build 1.81 million cars and trucks, 1.44 million engines, and 600,000 automatic transmissions in North America.
The company’s direct employment in North America is more than 38,000 and direct investment is nearly $16.8 billion with annual purchasing of parts, materials, goods and services from North American suppliers totaling an additional $26 billion.
finding the balance between quality and cost by Thomas Nolan Maureen Bisognano
Set aims for cost reduction while also mandating that quality must be maintained or improved by the effort.
In the article they discuss the view provided by Kano’s model of customer satisfaction - read more about it.
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Brad Setser posts on manufacturing comparisons: Have China’s manufacturing powers been exaggerated?
But I would submit that the real story here is the growth in China’s conventional wisdom to improve our understanding of the real situation. I agree with him that the growth in China’s manufacturing sector is the most important story.
But, to me, that story is so over-reported that many get the wrong impression. (more…)
The World’s Most Innovative Companies:
Reddit is a site for what’s new and popular on the web (votes by the user community rate web links). That user community is highly skewed toward software engineers who are a bit irreverent (as some of the language in this post shows).
Today Reddit linked to: Introducing the Dell De-Crapifier… which is essentially a tool to help you get rid of all the extra software you get with the Dell computer. Dell gets paid by software companies to pre-install software on the computer (Google may pay $1 billion over 3 years).
The Lean Education Academic Network (LEAN) is having their Spring meeting at the University of Kentucky in Lexington May 10th - May 12th. This is targeted at educators and students (a fairly small slice of our audience): still it looks interesting so here are some details.
The agenda includes:
Tour Summit Polymer, considered by the Toyota Supplier Support Center to be the leanest manufacturing facility in the US. And a tour of the Lean Boot Camp in groups, meet with students, see learning factories.
The LEAN site includes some presentations from the winter meeting.
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Why You Need a Roth IRA by Erin Burt:
And the second figure would be less, if the tax rate were higher than 15%. The Roth IRA is a great way to save money. With a Roth IRA you pay taxes on the money you put in (unlike a traditional IRA), but you pay no taxes on the money you take out (once you reach retirement age). The tax benefit of avoiding taxes on the accumulated funds is much greater than the tax deduction up front (if you have a long period of time to invest and your return is good: you also have to consider the difference in tax rates today versus at retirement).
Which IRA Is Best? - short article from Smart Money.
Along with matching contributions from an employer on a 401k plan (where you can get an immediate 100% return and accumulate gain tax deferred) the Roth IRA is where you should invest if at all possible (see more on articles on investing for retirement).
Don’t Ignore your Water Spider a great post by Mike Wroblewski:
Leading Lean: Missed Opportunity by Jamie Flinchbaugh:
Great points. One of the counter intuitive things with lean is to make problems visible. So often people try to hide problems (which inventory can do - making it difficult to see emerging problems and to diagnois problems once they are finaly discoverd). (more…)
The Art of Customer Service by Guy Kawasaki:
Clare Crawford-Mason and Llyod Dobyns have teamed up on a new documentary. Previously they created If Japan Can-Why Can’t We? and the Deming Library Tapes.
Good News - How Hospitals Heal Themselves
A One-Hour Documentary Airing on Public Television Spring/Summer 2006
Reported by Former NBC Anchor Lloyd Dobyns
This rare good news documentary reports on a surprising solution to escalating costs, unnecessary deaths and waste in America’s hospitals. Doctors and nurses tell how they did their best, working overtime, while hospital conditions worsened. They were delighted to learn a new way to improve patient care dramatically and reduce unnecessary deaths, suffering, errors, infections and costs without additional resources or government regulations.
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