Category Archives: Data

Distort the System

Posted on August 19, 2006 by John Hunter

From our post: Targets Distorting the System, Dr. Brian Joiner: spoke of 3 ways to improve the figures: distort the data, distort the system and improve the system. Improving the system is the most difficult. Another example of this in … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Manufacturing Value Added Economic Data

Posted on August 16, 2006 by John Hunter

In our post on Manufacturing and the Economy we examined global manufacturing value added economic data. The World Bank has provided updated data, for 2002, which we provide below. In, Global Manufacturing Data by Country, we explored data from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Manufacturing, quote | 3 Comments

Dangers of Extrinsic Motivation

Posted on August 10, 2006 by John Hunter

The Econ 101 Management Method by Joel Spolsky. Once again Joel presents interesting ideas very well – past posts referencing Joel. But when you offer people money to do things that they wanted to do, anyway, they suffer from something … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Another Quota Failure Example

Posted on July 24, 2006 by John Hunter

Innocent People Placed On ‘Watch List’ To Meet Quota You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they’re reporting your actions to meet a … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Exciting Life of Industrial Statisticians

Posted on July 13, 2006 by John Hunter

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Data, Management, Statistics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Reducing Waste

Posted on July 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd – achieving zero waste to landfill [the broken link was removed] Toyota developed its Environmental Management System to stay on top of its environmental objectives and ensure that all processes are dealt with in an … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Edward Tufte’s new book: Beautiful Evidence

Posted on June 21, 2006 by John Hunter

Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte is now available. Beautiful is the right word. Tufte’s books are an example of what can be created when someone truly loves what they do and takes pride in every detail of their work. His books are excellent. Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Data, Management | 3 Comments

Lean, Mean, Six Sigma Machines

Posted on June 3, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean, mean, Six Sigma machines [the broken link was removed] by Tam Harbert: Without exception, each company is healthier now than it was five years ago. Three of them have turned profitable, and the fourth – Celestica – is close … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged , | Comments Off on Lean, Mean, Six Sigma Machines

Forget Targets

Posted on May 22, 2006 by John Hunter

Forget about targets – and decide what really matters by Simon Caulkin: The attraction of targets is their simplicity. But it’s a fatal one. As part of the misguided managerial obsession with quantification, they misapply partial, linear measures to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Management Articles | Comments Off on Forget Targets

Understanding Data

Posted on May 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Statistics Abuse and Me [the broken link was removed] by Jay Mathews: the Simpson’s Paradox numbers. The national average for the SAT went up only 4 points between 1981 and 2005, but the average for whites went up 10 points, … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Education, Management, Statistics | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments