Author Archives: John Hunter

Not Exactly Lean Packaging

Posted on July 23, 2008 by John Hunter

HP shatters excessive packaging world record (17 boxes to protect 32 A4 sheets of paper) Stephen said: “Imagine our excitement as we opened it, hoping against hope that it might contain a copy of some c-class virtual connect firmware that … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Some Good IT Business Ideas

Posted on July 22, 2008 by John Hunter

Paul Graham has some excellent ideas. I have written about some of them previously: Innovation Strategy, What Business Can Learn from Open Source and Google and Paul Graham’s Latest Essay. Y Combinator, which he founded, provides seed funding. Here are … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, IT, Software Development | Tagged , | 1 Comment

“Pay for Performance” is a Bad Idea

Posted on July 21, 2008 by John Hunter

Pay for performance is a bad investment [the broken link was removed] by Pete Waters “Teacher pay set by the results” was the headline of a (Baltimore) Sun article I read the other day which suggested that “performance-based bonuses (were) … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Rhode Island Manufacturing

Posted on July 19, 2008 by John Hunter

Manufacturing has new look in R.I. [the broken link was removed] She used the auto industry as an example, pointing out that in the early years of the last century Henry Ford manufactured Model-T’s that were all the same. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Economics, Lean thinking, Manufacturing | Comments Off on Rhode Island Manufacturing

California Uses More Gas than China

Posted on July 17, 2008 by John Hunter

Amazing Stat: California Uses More Gas than China [the broken link was removed]: California alone uses more gasoline than any country in the world (except the US as a whole, of course). That means California’s 20 billion gallon gasoline and … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Data, Economics | Tagged , | Comments Off on California Uses More Gas than China

Management Improvement Carnival #39

Posted on July 15, 2008 by John Hunter

“Certifications” – Buying Credibility? by Mark Rosenthal – “if you are looking for your own professional development, and look at a program for what it is: An academic education, and possibly an opportunity to establish professional network, then go for … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Management Improvement Carnival #39

Outcome and In-Process Measures

Posted on July 14, 2008 by John Hunter

An outcome measure is used to measure the success of a system. For example, the outcome measure could be the percentage of people who do not get polio (the result). An output measure, for example, would be the number of … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Management Blog Posts from July 2005

Posted on July 10, 2008 by John Hunter

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt – “I don’t see any reason why managers in the past shouldn’t have had the qualities he seems to be saying are needed now. And I don’t see any reason why the qualities needed now … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Comments Off on Management Blog Posts from July 2005

Drucker’s Ideas at Toyota

Posted on July 8, 2008 by John Hunter

The Drucker difference and Toyota’s success [the broken link was removed] by Ira A. Jackson, dean of the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, the business school of the Claremont Colleges. Because of this core belief in the power … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Drucker’s Ideas at Toyota

Better Meetings

Posted on July 7, 2008 by John Hunter

Meetings are perennial problems. People sit through meetings and then complain about how big a waste of time it was. Here are a couple very simple tips to try and actually improve (instead of just agreeing that meetings are wasteful, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments