Usability Failures

Posted on July 15, 2006  Comments (6)

‘Smart’ phones, stupid punters?

A survey* of 15,000 “faulty” devices by mobile data provider WDSGlobal found 63 per cent of the one in seven new phones which are returned have nothing wrong with them.

I believe one in seven is the model of phone. I guess if you operational define “nothing wrong” as a failure to work as the manufacturer intended that would be true. But is that what really matters? What is the number of defects that should be counted? What number of six sigma defects would be counted?

The design of the phone is broken if 63% of the returns work as intended and customers still think they are broken. Read more

The Future for Investors

Posted on July 15, 2006  Comments (0)

I completed The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and the True Triumph Over the Bold and the New by Jeremy Siegel today. It provides a great deal of analysis of what historical stock market returns for various strategies have been. The subtitle captures the basic theme of the book. The boring old stocks that people are not excited about is what have performed best.

His basic advise is still to buy the broadest market index fund (such as the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund). He also concludes with the advise that those returns have been beaten historically by focusing on stocks with high dividend yields and low price earnings ratios.
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New Rules for Management? No!

Posted on July 14, 2006  Comments (6)

Fortune recently published an article talking about the “new rules” for management using Jack Welch (GE six sigma) as the focus of the old rules. It seems to me there is nothing new here (once again).

“New” rule: “Agile is best, being big can bite you”
Yeah. Does anyone think this is new. Do they really believe Jack Welch thought agile was not a good thing? Yes, Jack Welch wanted to be number 1 or number 2 in the field or get out of that business line. I still don’t think that he thought being a big un-agile organization couldn’t hurt you.

“New” rule: “Find a niche, create something new.”
Yeah, good idea. I seriously doubt GE was against creating new things. Finding niches in fact is basically what being number 1 or 2 is about. Find those niches you excel in and focus there. I think saying you have to be number 1 or 2 is a silly arbitrary target. But that was just as true 10 years ago as today. Lets look at who the article for these new ideas quotes (with big photos on the main page): Starbucks – number 1 coffee shops, Xerox (I don’t know), Cisco – number 1 switches/routers, Coke number 1 sugar water sellers. Boy this old idea of number 1 or 2 is sure old thinking. Why are those highlighted as experts all perfectly suited to the old rule?
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Customer Focus at the Ritz

Posted on July 13, 2006  Comments (1)

How to Turn Customer Satisfaction into Profits and Growth by Vincent Grimaldi:

Against all odds, the company has broken the old vicious circle of low salary and high turnover by wrapping all its processes – including recruiting and training (250 hours for first-year front-line associates) – around its customers, by offering opportunities for professional development, and by encouraging personnel to advance within the organization.

Curious Cat Management Improvement Career Center – job opening: Manager – Quality at Ritz Charlton Cancun

The Exciting Life of Industrial Statisticians

Posted on July 13, 2006  Comments (1)

Never a Dull Day: The Life of an Industrial Statistician by Gerry Hahn.

Gerry Hahn was one of the great applied statisticians of the last 50 years, working at GE for over 45 years. Six sigma has many variants, he is one of those that understood how to apply six sigma well.

All of this provides great new opportunities for industrial statisticians to serve as statistical leaders-a term popularized by the late and great Ed Deming (see Hahn and Hoerl (1998). Statistical leaders engage principally in leveraging statistical concepts and thinking (see Hoerl, Hooper, Jacobs and Lucas (1993), and focus their activities on mentoring and supporting the most business-vital and technically challenging problems dealing with getting the right data, and converting such data into actionable information.

In 1991 Dr. Hahn received the Hunter Award from the ASQ Statistics Division (the award is named for my father – John).

The Long Tail

Posted on July 12, 2006  Comments (0)

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson is now available. This books explores the huge market for goods outside of the mass market. The few popular items that dominate the media coverage in any market are not the majority of the market. In total the huge number of “unknown” items exceed the volume of the most popular items.

The internet provides great opportunities to reach the long tail. In The Long Tail blog Anderson discusses the impact of the long tail. Thinking of the long tail can help focus an organization on the huge market outside the blockbusters.

Read the article, the blog, listen to this Long Tail podcast via IT conversations and then buy the book.

Reducing Waste

Posted on July 12, 2006  Comments (1)

Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd – achieving zero waste to landfill

t developed its Environmental Management System to stay on top of its environmental objectives and ensure that all processes are dealt with in an environmentally friendly way and are implemented across all the plants. There are full key performance indicator reporting systems, visual controls and displays throughout the plant.

A great improvement strategy. Determine what you are trying to do. Understand the system. Set up process measures that measure that system. Improve the system and track the results. Repeat. Maintain focus over the long term. Result: success.

Three keys highlighted in the article:

1. Suggestion of continuous improvement ideas by all employees – Kaizen
2. Attendance of the managing director to “see for himself” – Genchi Genbutsu
3. Adoption of the best ideas in our standard processes – Yokoten

The reduction of waste met Toyota’s environmental goals – what it sees as its obligation to society – and the elimination of waste financially benefits Toyota.

Supplier Development Article

Posted on July 10, 2006  Comments (2)

Supplier development in a lean age by Rich Weissman

“We need to keep in mind why we are doing supplier development and relationship management, and profit needs to be the focus of our efforts. Profitable suppliers will tend to be happier suppliers, and happier suppliers will ultimately perform better.”

I get the impression from this and many other articles that people are scared to talk about any other aims than profit. Deming didn’t have such a problem. Toyota doesn’t have such a problem. Google doesn’t have such a problem.

Others need to learn that there are multiple aims for organizations not just profits but providing good jobs, serving customers, aiding community… Learn from the leaders – talking as though the only purpose of the organization is to make profit is counterproductive.

Supplier development is one of those areas that really seems to cause problems for those that try to adopt some lead ideas without understanding the system within which those ideas function. Without an deep understanding of long term thinking it is very difficult to truly partner with suppliers.

Origins of the Toyota Production System

Posted on July 10, 2006  Comments (0)

Brief Investigation into the Origins of the Toyota Production System by Art Smalley. Another excellent article by Art Smalley. Loaded with great historical information. I find these articles interesting on at least two levels. First there is great management information. Learning more about how the ideas we use now developed adds to my understanding. Second it is interesting historical information – I am not sure if it actually makes any difference in how I would manage but I just find it interesting.
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How Google Works

Posted on July 9, 2006  Comments (4)

How Google Works by David F. Carr

An interesting look at the technology system behind Google.

“But this is the start of the story,” he adds, part of an approach that says “don’t necessarily do it the way everyone else did. Just find some way of doing it cheap and effectively—so we can learn.”

Google was driven from the beginning by engineers that sought to do what was best. Since those engineers were the founders of the company and still run the company Google has been able to keep the focus not on what is accepted as conventional wisdom but what actually works best. Google understands when you experiment things might not work out. Google’s solution is to experiement quickly and fail early (turn the pdsa cycle quickly). That is something every organization can apply.
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More on Non-Auto Toyota

Posted on July 7, 2006  Comments (2)

Toyota: Way, Way Off-Road by Ian Rowley. Business Week has an article exploring the non-automotive Toyota, as we have mentioned previously: Toyota Robots – Toyota as Homebuilder – Toyota Engineers a New Plant: the Living Kind.

Toyota controls dozens of businesses that have virtually nothing to do with automaking, ranging in size from resort developer Nagasaki Sunset Marina (77% owned by Toyota), with just five employees, to Toyota Financial Services Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary with 8,000 workers and $1.7 billion in operating profits in fiscal 2005. All told, revenues for Toyota’s nonauto businesses jumped 15.5%, to $10.3 billion, in the year through March, and are up 50% since 2003. While last year’s total still represented less than 6% of Toyota’s overall sales of $180 billion, if broken out the company’s sideline businesses would rank No. 192 among companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index.

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North American Manufacturing

Posted on July 6, 2006  Comments (1)

Can North American manufacturers thrive again? by David Hogg

I once again feel compelled to point out that the USA is still manufacturing more than ever and its share of Global manufacturing is either not declining or declining very slightly.

The sad part is that employees seem to understand what managers do not. Why do you think that nearly 63,000 people applied for only 2,000 production line jobs at a new Toyota plant in Texas in just two weeks? Workers realize that Toyota offers the right environment for them to grow. They have grown tired of the lack of respect offered by most North American companies.

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Lean Manufacturing Dream

Posted on July 6, 2006  Comments (1)

This article is from 2001 and worth reading. It is important to keep up with what is currently happening but there is a great deal of useful information from 5, 10,20, 50… years ago.

Achieving the lean dream by Nelson J. Teed:

Growth and lean are great partners for another reason. Positive employee reaction to lean is crucial to success, and not automatic. Lean improves productivity and can reduce the number of people needed. Layoffs and employee involvement don’t mix — it’s the surest way to kill a lean conversion. The freed personnel should be absorbed by growth and natural attrition.

In some instances job cuts are required, but cuts are something to be upset with not brag about. If a lean effort brags about job cuts I think that is a very bad sign. See posts on respect for people a very important component of Deming and lean management systems.

Quality and Innovation

Posted on July 4, 2006  Comments (5)

I think the The Quality Movement Vs. The Innovation Movement by Bruce Nussbaum makes a mistake in calling the innovation movement separate from the quality movement.

Wow. It makes sense. The father of quality, of course, was Dr. W. Edwards Demming, and he preached for a very long time before he was really heard. In fact, as I recall, Japanese companies first accepted Demmings teachings long before U.S. and European corporations.

Lets quote Deming on innovation from New Economics, page 10:

No defects, no jobs. Absence of defects does not necessarily build business… Something more is required.

What is required? Innovation.
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Toyota Homes

Posted on July 4, 2006  Comments (1)

Live in your next Toyota:

Housing makes up less than 1% of Toyota’s $183 billion annual sales. But company officials say technology acquired from years of making cars is central to homebuilding Toyota style.

A “smart key” similar to the car key you don’t need to take out of your pocket to unlock your Toyota opens and closes the front door. A mechanism for reducing engine noise and tremors is installed under the floor to quiet upstairs shakes. Car paint-job skills deliver even scratch-resistant coating on walls.

Toyota homes are mass produced like Toyota cars. About 85% of the work on the metal-frame cubicles is finished at the plant. The prefabricated cubicles, made to order for the customer, are stacked like toy blocks with a huge crane and topped with a roof in just six hours.

Interesting. I still am surprised Toyota isn’t doing more with mass transit but they obviously know more than me. Toyota partner robots are a good strategic vision in my opinion.
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Fun Camping Drum-Buffer-Rope Example

Posted on July 3, 2006  Comments (0)

Shmula Goes Camping: Drum-Buffer-Rope

Managing the Constraint is mostly about managing the non-bottleneck systems and making them “aware” how fast they should work — when they should slow down, when they should stop, or when they should increase pace and by how much. The Drum-Buffer-Rope system allows for a systems-wide awareness.

The Drum

The Bottleneck or Constraint, acts as a Drum — it sets the rhythm that the whole system should follow. In Lean Manufacturing, this is also called “Takt Time.”

Another Article on Lean UK Hospitals

Posted on July 3, 2006  Comments (0)

Country to follow the hospital’s ‘lean’ lead by Jane Lavender:

Since the introduction of lean thinking, the length of time it takes a patient to get from the accident and emergency to the operating theatre has been reduced by 38 per cent. Paper work has been cut by 42 per cent and the total time patients spend in hospital has been slashed by 32 per cent.

The article also says “Nine months ago the hospital became one of only six in the world” which I don’t think is accurate. I think far more have been applying lean thinking for quite some time. Still this article is another example of the “buzz” around lean thinking.

Posts on lean thinking and lean manufacturing
Posts on improving the heath care system

Seminars by Toyota UK

Posted on July 3, 2006  Comments (1)

‘Increasing quality, efficiency and profitability via A Lean Approach’ is a series of six one day tour, seminar and workshop events at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire that focuses on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Quality Management.

Guests can choose from three workshops, HRM, Visual Control or Practical Problem Solving, and take part in a Q&A session with the speakers: Hein Van Gerwen, Managing Director; Carl Klemm, Deputy Managing Director; Clive Bridge, Corporate Affairs Director and Richard Humbert, Quality Assurance General Manager, all from Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK).

The event is free. Donations of £1,000 to the NSPCC are recommended.

Looks like a great opportunity.

via: Evolving Excellence

Six Sigma Theory?

Posted on July 2, 2006  Comments (0)

Can we develop theory around Six Sigma? Should we care? by Suzanne de Treville, Norman M. Edelson, Anilkumar N. Kharkar and Benjamin Avanzi.

An interesting paper exploring what six sigma means and what it mean that what it means depends on who you ask. The ideas explored provide good information for most management improvement programs as most share common tools and concepts but vary significantly between implementations. Why examine the question of six sigma theory?

We suggest that Six Sigma—in (a) recommending behavior and goals and (b) claiming that such behavior and goals will improve performance outcomes—goes beyond describing, classifying, and pure prediction. Six Sigma is playing the role of a theory, and it should be evaluated as such.

TQM for the Water Business

Posted on July 1, 2006  Comments (0)

How dealers can put TQM to work by Brian Cusimano

Deming did not like the term TQM. It was not defined, so each person using it meant something different. And the faddish nature of the term drew a large number of “hacks” (consultants who spoke with authority but without knowledge). Seeing the term TQM used now however, I find refreshing. To use the term TQM you must go against the temptation to talk only about the current fad (TQM, learning organizations, reengineering, balanced scorecard, six sigma, lean…). This author defines what he means by TQM:

Total quality management (TQM) is simply a customer-focused dedication to continually improving everything you do every day. TQM is disciplined thinking about organizational goals, processes, and people, to ensure that the correct activities are completed correctly the first time.

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