Category Archives: Management

Continual Improvement

Posted on June 10, 2008 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming used the term continual improvement (rather than continuous improvement) later in his life because that would include continuous and dis-continuous improvement (innovation, etc.). I use continual improvement for that reason also. I think the improvement process must be … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

Internships Increasing

Posted on June 8, 2008 by John Hunter

Hard to find a job, but not an internship The bullish market for interns is good news for those in college, who find that internships are increasingly required for landing that first job. The summer posts allow students to bolster … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Department of Defense Lean Six Sigma

Posted on June 5, 2008 by John Hunter

Gordon England, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, signed a directive establishing policy and assigning responsibilities to institutionalize the effort throughout DoD. See a webcast of his speech [the broken link was removed] on lean six sigma to a DoD conference … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Public Sector, Six sigma | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Department of Defense Lean Six Sigma

Engineering Innovation

Posted on June 3, 2008 by John Hunter

(video link no longer works so it has been removed) In the webcast Dean Kamen discusses his latest innovation: robotic arms for people (amazing stuff). Once again he is doing great stuff. It is great what engineers can do (many … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management | Tagged , | Comments Off on Engineering Innovation

Management Improvement Carnival #36

Posted on June 1, 2008 by John Hunter

Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. Adopting Agile Processes by Eric Engelmann – “So scrum is about fixing the system. If you don’t write code, it might not be apparent what’s different … Continue reading →

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Paying New Employees to Quit

Posted on May 25, 2008 by John Hunter

[the video is no longer available] Training new employees and then paying them to quit, sounds pretty bizarre; Zappos is not afraid of doing things differently. Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit – And You Should Too [Harvard broke … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, Management, Respect, webcast | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Why is Customer Service So Bad?

Posted on May 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Why is it? I really don’t know. It drives me crazy though – having to put up with horrible service again and again. Is it possible that only a few people actually care about service? I know I care about … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management | Tagged | 7 Comments

Some Posts from May 2005

Posted on May 22, 2008 by John Hunter

Here are just a few posts from 3 years ago this month on the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog: A Traffic Congestion Non-Solution – Brain Joiner on Dr. Deming – Open Source Management Terms – Google: Good Service not Arbitrage … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Comments Off on Some Posts from May 2005

Deming Auto Repair

Posted on May 20, 2008 by John Hunter

Here is an interesting example of an auto repair shop applying Deming’s ideas, AGCO Automotive in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: In this section we hope to present our business philosophy, through a series of articles written by president Louis Altazan. Our … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Well Managed Companies

Posted on May 18, 2008 by John Hunter

If a company is dependent on one (or more) people to perform then it is in danger. Processes should be in place that don’t risk the success of the company on the performance of a specific person. If your organization … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology | Tagged , | 3 Comments