Yearly Archives: 2006

Seth Godin Video

Posted on March 5, 2006 by John Hunter

Seth Godin has a great blog on marketing. To me, his views put marketing within the context of the system (of the whole organization) rather than a disconnected “stovepipe” as it is often treated. This fits with my bias in … Continue reading →

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Saving for Retirement

Posted on March 5, 2006 by John Hunter

Our Financial Failings by Neil Irwin, Washington Post: Meet the typical American family. It has about $3,800 in the bank. No one has a retirement account, and the neighbors who do only have about $35,000 in theirs. Mutual funds? Stocks? … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing | 2 Comments

Cease Mass Inspection for Quality

Posted on March 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Comment in response to, Re-Discovering W. Edwards Deming, a partial quote from that post: Not all of the Deming approach is part of core TPS thinking. In particular, Deming advocated a statistical sampling approach to quality inspection, while Toyota focuses … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The Power of Purpose

Posted on March 3, 2006 by John Hunter

The Power of Purpose by Rebecca A. Morgan: Constancy of purpose means that quality decisions are not situational. End of month quality is the same as beginning of month. It means that the long term benefit of the organization is … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Skinny on Lean

Posted on March 2, 2006 by John Hunter

The Skinny on Lean [the broken link was removed] by Peter Bradley The pursuit of perfection and obsessive attention to detail that characterize Toyota’s lean model are reflected in Menlo Worldwide’s 278,000-square-foot Brownstown facility, known as the Great Lakes Lean … Continue reading →

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What is Lean Six Sigma?

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

What is Lean Six Sigma? – slides from a presentation [the broken link was removed] at MAQIN [the broken link was removed] (Madison Area Quality Improvement Network). FYI, I manage MAQIN’s web site [make that, I used to manage – … Continue reading →

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Not Lean Retailing

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

Renovating Home Depot [the broken link was removed], Business Week It is always dangerous to make too much of a magazine article, but Home Depot seems to be moving away from lean thinking in the following examples, to me anyway. … Continue reading →

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Executives Participating in Kaizen Events

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

The Masco Mapmakers [the broken link was removed] by Bill Waddell Guys from Brasscraft or Morgantown Plastics might go to a Delta faucet plant for the event – and note that these are executives, not factory level folks – that … Continue reading →

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Made in the USA

Posted on February 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Is ‘Made in U.S.A.’ back in vogue? [the broken link was removed] As the need for speed in fashion retailing becomes ever more crucial to merchants, industry observers say “Made in U.S.A” is once again looking more attractive to some … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking | Tagged | 2 Comments

Theory in Practice

Posted on February 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Theory Meets Reality In The Heartland [the broken link was removed] by Bill Waddell: An old boss of mine was fond of saying, “There are few things in life more tragic than to see your beautiful theories murdered by a … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management Articles | 2 Comments