Yearly Archives: 2006

Books: Blink, Freakonomics and more

Posted on January 16, 2006 by John Hunter

I finished reading two very popular books this weekend: Freakonomics and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. While both books were enjoyable and interesting, they really seemed to offer a few good or interesting ideas stretched … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Economics, Fun | Tagged | 1 Comment

What Should GM Do?

Posted on January 16, 2006 by John Hunter

GM must take back concepts that Toyota has capitalized on [the broken link was removed] by W. Harrison Goodenow: It still doesn’t have to be this way. The solution lies in better manufacturing engineering and not in Machiavellian marketing. Concurrent … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles | Tagged | Comments Off on What Should GM Do?

Lean Accounting

Posted on January 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean Accounting (Lean Beans) [broken link was removed] by Sue Sondergelt We must get rid of Standard Cost and Absorption Accounting for managing the business. This is 1930’s thinking, when business was all labor, little material, and very little overhead. … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles | Tagged | Comments Off on Lean Accounting

Improved Web Search

Posted on January 14, 2006 by John Hunter

In my recent post on improving Google one suggestion I made was: Let me remove web sites from my default searches. Today while using Yahoo they provided this option (named “block” by Yahoo). Good. Using Yahoo Search I can now … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Google | Comments Off on Improved Web Search

Public Management II

Posted on January 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Public Management-The Bush Administration II by Paul Soglin: Since that time, John Hunter posted a comment in reference to W. Edwards Deming: Newt Gingrich is also a supporter of Deming’s ideas: “I’m a disciple of Edwards Deming. I really believe … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Public Sector, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Lean Consumption

Posted on January 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean Consumption [the broken link was removed] by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, Harvard Business Review. An excellent article on the topic of their book: Lean Consumption. The Principles of Lean Consumption The concepts underlying lean consumption boil … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged | Comments Off on Lean Consumption

Lean at NUMMI

Posted on January 11, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean at NUMMI (site broke the link so I removed it) by Patrick Waurzyniak , Manufacturing Engineering. An article well worth reading. NUMMI’s production system is patterned closely after TPS, which is constantly changing and being updated, notes Gonzalez-Beltran. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , | Comments Off on Lean at NUMMI

Leading Lean: Right Tool, Right Problem, Right Thinking

Posted on January 11, 2006 by John Hunter

Leading Lean: Right Tool, Right Problem, Right Thinking [the broken link was removed] One look at the kanban card in light of lean thinking helps those using it understand how and why it works, because they see it and understand … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Quality tools | Tagged | Comments Off on Leading Lean: Right Tool, Right Problem, Right Thinking

Customer Service is Important

Posted on January 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Double Trouble, Don Oldenburg, Washington Post: Digging into the details, Stevenson, a mechanical engineer, did a double take at what looked to him like a double charge. Verizon was billing his sweetie for the local plan, for the new regional … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

How Not to Convert Equity

Posted on January 10, 2006 by John Hunter

CNNMoney is not exactly intellectual discussion of economic and investing issues but normally it offers fairly good material for the large number of people. Especially those who really don’t want to read Warren Buffett or Brad Setser [the broken link … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, quote | Tagged , | 1 Comment