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Mainly primary, secondary and higher education related but also posts on management improvement learning opportunities. Plus some posts on quality learning and learning organizations topics.
Recommended posts: Improving Engineering Education - Learning, Systems and Improvement - Applying Lean Tools to University Courses - Lean Education Academic Network
Related: articles on education improvement - k-12 quality improvement resources - higher education resources - Education post on our Science and Engineering blog
The Deming Institute is sponsoring, How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business, 12-14 May, 2008 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kelly Allan and I will be presenting the seminar. Please let me know if you sign up.
Learn how governance practice leads to the heaviest losses, how inconsistencies between policy and strategy create sub-optimal outcomes, how mismanagement of people leads to unethical and ineffective behavior, and how to overcome these problems. Study the theory and practice of management. Not quality management, not good management, not excellent management, not knowledge management, not risk management, not process management, not performance management, not supply or asset management, not technology management, not time management, not emergency management, just plain management.
Related: Deming on Management - Curious Cat Management Improvement Calendar - Deming Seminar and Conference - Deming Companies
The In Thinking network offers many great ways to learn. This week they have 4 hour long conference call discussions with Russ Ackoff. Thought Pieces (suggested links to review in preparation for the conference call)
Lecture on “Systems Practice” at Open University (audio file)
Transforming the Systems Movement
A Major Mistake that Managers Make
From Mechanistic to Social Systems Thinking
These four resources are great, even if you are not going to participate in the conference calls.
Related: articles by Russel Ackoff - Curious Cat Management Improvement Calendar - Write it Down - Transformation and Redesign - Ackoff’s F-laws: Common Sins of Management
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The W. Edwards Deming Institute is sponsoring a 4 day seminar using videos of Dr. Deming’s seminars and facilitated by Ed Baker, Dave Nave, and Joyce Orsini: Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position. Ed Baker was the person at Ford responsible for helping Ford apply Dr. Deming’s ideas.
Hear and watch Dr. W. Edwards Deming identify faulty management practices. He will describe how, as better practices are introduced, quality of products and services increases, costs decline, and you create a globally competitive advantage for your organization.
Built on archive videos of Dr. Deming, this seminar blends footage of Dr. Deming presenting his theories with live facilitation by Ed Baker, Dave Nave, and Joyce Orsini to create an interactive learning environment. Facilitated discussion following each film segment will provide opportunity to deepen your understanding of the concepts, and interpret what these ideas might mean for your organization.
This seminar explores simple and powerful principles for anyone who manages people, or holds an executive responsibility in an organization. For more details see: Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position.
Related: Scoring a Whole in One by Dr. Ed Baker - Deming on Management - Curious Cat Management Calendar - Deming Institute Conference (2006) - Deming Seminar Update - Investors Business Daily on Deming - Where to Start Improvement
Another essay by Paul Graham packed with great thoughts - this one on hiring, colleges, measuring performance of people, etc..
Related: Hiring the Right Workers - Malcolm Gladwell, Synchronicity, College Admissions… - Google and Paul Graham’s Latest Essay - Interviewing and Hiring Programmers - What Business Can Learn from Open Source - Google’s Answer to Filling Jobs Is an Algorithm - Hiring: Silicon Valley Style - Curious Cat Management Improvement Career Connections
Tools are just tools by Lee Fried
Great post. Great goal; and quite a challenge. My personal belief is while you are trying to make this change (which takes years) to become an organization that acts as a system you must balance education (an investment - one of the best forms of investment often) and improvements gains today (both are needed). And just applying tools effectively can often provide nice gains today (with the right guidance and proper restraint).
Often the two go hand in hand - there is little more educational than actually participating in using quality/lean/improvement tools and concepts to solve your own problems. That is the best way for managers to learn about lean thinking. But I think when you see this dual role of current improvement efforts it changes your measure of success - not just measuring improvement for today (or improvements in the value stream that will pay dividends for years) but also valuing the new knowledge gained by the participants. I have never been able to quantify the benefit of the education but that doesn’t bother me.
Related: Systemic Improvement - Encourage Improvement Action by Everyone - Keeping Track of Improvement Opportunities - Search management improvement sites selected by Curious Cat
A draft version of Learning Lean: A Survey of Industry Lean Needs by Gene Fliedner and Kieran Mathieson is now available. This voice of the customer report is product of some of those involved in the Lean Education Academic Network. Conclusions:
I think it is an interesting read.
Related: Applying Lean Tools to University Courses - Lean Education Academic Network Spring Meeting - Applied Quality Engineering Education - voice of the customer
Educational Reform Failing K-12 Students, Educator Says by Victor M. Inzunza:
Applying Deming’s ideas to education is a challenge (it is not as simple as applying the ideas in another business - some additional thought is needed to see how ideas apply to education systems) but very worthwhile. David Langford has done some great work in applying Deming’s ideas to education.
Related: education related posts - Quality in Our Schools - K-12 (kindergarten though high school) quality improvement links - Applying Total Quality Management Principles To Secondary Education, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Sitka, Alaska by Kathleen Cotton - Feel Bad Education by Alfie Kohn
Western Trailers improves efficiency – with some help:
There’s a need for greater efficiency, especially as companies get bigger, he said. Western Trailers built a new manufacturing plant in 1998 and expanded it last year. The company has added about 75 manufacturing employees in the past two years, Panter said. “With the rapid growth we had, it was easier to lose focus on the principles because we were trying to get product out,” he said. “This brought us back into focus. And it’s helpful to teach the people on the floor.”
I am much more interested in lean stories where waste is reduced and employment increases than where employment is decreased. The idea is to reduce waste, increase value to customers and grow.
Related: Idaho’s TechHelp - Wisconsin Manufacturing - Applied Quality Engineering Education - Terex Handlers: Lean Manufacturing - La-Z-Boy Lean
The Deming Institute is sponsoring, How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business, 23-25 April, 2007 in Lansing, Michigan. I will be co-presenting the seminar. Let me know if you sign up.
Learn how governance practice leads to the heaviest losses, how inconsistencies between policy and strategy create sub-optimal outcomes, how mismanagement of people leads to unethical and ineffective behavior, and how to overcome these problems. Study the theory and practice of management. Not quality management, not good management, not excellent management, not knowledge management, not risk management, not process management, not performance management, not supply or asset management, not technology management, not time management, not emergency management, just plain management.
Related: Curious Cat Management Improvement Calendar - Deming Seminar and Conference - Deming Institute Conference
The Scott County Way by Jillian Ogawa:
Center for Quality People and Organizations:
Great. The Education area does require special care but management improvement concepts can work very well in education. David Langford has done some great work in this area as has Alfie Kohn. They are not focused on the Toyota Way but their principles and lean thinking go together well and there expertise in the education area is very important.
via: Scott County Schools Trying Out the Toyota Way
Related: K-12 (kindergarten though high school) improvement resources - articles on quality education - posts on Toyota management methods - quality learning books
Performance Measures and Statistics Course - free course materials from a 2 day training course by Steven Prevette. Topics include: Dr. Deming’s red bead experiment, operational definitions, selecting performance targets, SPC, theory of variation, case studies, control charts, pdsa, pareto charts, histograms…
Related: Quality, SPC and Your Career - articles by Steven Prevette
Classroom projects translate into immediate workplace gains for working professionals in engineering
The project is the capstone experience in the College of Engineering’s award-winning distance-education program, the Master of Engineering in Professional Practice (MEPP). Designed for mid-career engineers who live and work all over the country, MEPP’s Internet-based curriculum strives to provide knowledge students can apply immediately at their companies.
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“Our project was a very good example of the Kaizen approach,” says Aloisi. “It wasn’t one specific thing, a home run type of thing, that we changed to make our improvements.” Instead, his team met its targets through many small steps, including adjustments to equipment settings and better training for machine operators.
Good news. Related: Wisconsin Manufacturing - Improving Engineering Education - Teaching Quality Improvement by Quality Improvement in Teaching - The Lean MBA
Superintendent’s method used by Boeing, Motorola by Helen Gao
Good question. I think the Baldrige criteria can help, but it is not the most effective strategy (it is too often just a surface attempt to apply some “tools” without real change). I believe improvement methods, strategies and tools can work for education but the education area has special factors to consider. I suggest the following resources: David Langford, Alfie Kohn - books and articles by Kohn, Applying Lean Tools to University Courses, Ivan Webb’s School Improvement website, books on education improvement, k-12 education improvement links, Jenks Public Schools - 2005 Baldrige Award - UW- Madison Office of Quality Improvement, Improving Engineering Education
Take a look at an interesting series of posts on Applying Lean Tools to University Courses by Luke Van Dongen:
Good stuff. There should be much more simulation in education in my opinion. It is effective, and as mentioned, can be used to tie concepts back to a shared experience. Some worthwhile articles on quality improvement in education: Using Systems Thinking To Improve Education by Maury Cotter, The Trouble With “Back-to-Basics” and “Tougher Standards” by Alfie Kohn, Teaching Quality Improvement by Quality Improvement in Teaching by Ian Hau, Applying Total Quality Management Principles To Secondary Education by Kathleen Cotton, Using QFD to Design a TQM Course by Glenn Mazur.
Related: Suggested books for quality improvement in education - Ackoff on learning, education and teaching (podcast) - higher education improvement links - primary education improvement directory
Kevin Meyer recaps the ideas of Improving Management Education by M.L. Emiliani in his post - The Lean MBA. I suggest reading his post and the original article.
In the Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog, The Future is Engineering points to 2 great essays on the secret of Silicon Valley. Guy Kawasaki puts it well, though in my opinion far to kind to our current MBA system (the inordinate focus on accounting does actual harm above and beyond the harm of ignoring what managers should learn):
Some previous posts here that talk about similar ideas: The Purpose of Organizations - Management Training Program - Performance Appraisal Problems - Find the Root Cause Instead of the Person to Blame - Respect for People - Management Advice Failures - What is Wrong with MBA’s - Common Data Analysis Problem - Manage what you can’t measure
Presentation slides from the joint The Lean Aerospace Initiative and LEAN joint meeting (October 16-18, 2006) are available. From Jim Womack’s slide:
Related: Lean Education Academic Network Spring Meeting - Lean Education Academic Network - Curious Cat Management Improvement Calendar
Two interesting posts from Compound Thinking: What is Management?:
Well said. As Deming would say management’s responsibility is to work on improving the system (to allow everyone in the system to do great work). This encompasses a wide variety of things. Creating sensible hiring processes. Designing systems that allow people to do great work and take pride in what they do. Providing a system of education and training.
Instead, they want to achieve greatness on their own — which can be a worthy goal. It’s just a terrible goal for a manager. Good managers are relentlessly focused on helping the people they work for perform at their best.
There certainly is something about MBA graduates that they often focus on measuring how important they are and how much they should be paid. I think his statement that managers should be dedicated to helping others achieve greatness. This can run counter to performance appraisals schemes where people have to claim responsibility for successes in order to get more cash. It is hard enough to move toward great systems when you have to have credit for each success fought over so it is known who gets the spoils it is much harder.
Related: Joel’s MBA - Deming’s 14 obligations of management - posts about respect for people - Seven Deadly Diseases
The Curious Cat Management Improvement Calendar includes several interesting conferences and seminars taking place the rest of this year including:
I have very few details on this opportunity. All I know is what this Deming Electronic Network message says.
24-hour Lean Master Class with Jeffrey Liker
Start: October 10, 2006 5 PM
End: October 11, 2006 5 PM
London, United Kingdom
Rubicon Associates and The Deming Forum are delighted to present a Master Class with Jeffrey Liker. Prof. Liker is a world expert on the culture and methods behind the phenomenal success of Toyota and is offering an in depth view through this unique window.
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My design for better manufacturing in UK by James Dyson:
He at least partially gets the idea. I think he could benefit from studying and exploring the Toyota Production System - perhaps he could attend the seminars by Toyota UK. Still he is encouraging some of the right stuff, and the innovative engineering school he is half funding seems like a very good idea.
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