Category Archives: Management

Management Improvement Carnival #29

Mark Graban is hosting Management Improvement Carnival #29 on the Lean blog, some of the highlights include: Standard Work for Managers = Go to Gemba (Joe Ely, Learning About Lean) “Get to the workplace. Look. Listen.” Designing What’s Right for … Continue reading

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Don’t Use Performance Appraisals

I like to continue to push for some things that might not seem achievable to many. It is too easy to accept that things have to stay the way they are. Several of Dr. Deming’s list of Seven Deadly Management … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | 5 Comments

New – Different – Better

Comment on New or Different? by Matthew May: So don’t worry about new and different. Ask yourself: Is this clearly better than what’s out there now? And if you think about it, that’s a question you should never stop asking. … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Using Books to Ignite Improvement

Recommended Reading From an Employee-Owned Company [the broken link has been removed] Soon after, another Web Industries employee picked up “Kanban Made Simple,” a guide for adopting Kanban, Toyota Motor Corp.’s just-in-time manufacturing process by John M. Gross and Kenneth … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Improvement Through Designed Experiments

The Rationale of Scientific Experimentation by John Dowd explains the value of designed experiments. Another difficulty in industrial experimentation is the existence of interactions. As has been stated, manufacturing processes are complex with many factors involved. In many processes these … Continue reading

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Management Improvement Carnival #28

Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. Freedom = Success (And not the other way around) by Polly LaBarre – “we’re literally laboring under a myth (namely, time put in + physical presence … Continue reading

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Enrich Society

Jim Press and Toyota, Setting Sights on No. 1 former president of Toyota Motor North America The Toyota family, very strongly, still has their name on the building and [have] a big influence in the company. The original founding [principal] … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast | 1 Comment

Giving Away Your Service for Free on Weekends

Copilot is a cool application that lets you control someone else’s computer. So you can receive technical support remotely. You let someone access your computer and copilot takes care of the sometimes very complex task of linking the two computers … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Nice Design Example, the eco-cook

dining in 2015 Basically I just think this is cool. I could try and explain how it shows creativity and reducing waste… but really I just like it. From the designer: My eco-cook is an object that helps to save … Continue reading

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Learn from Russel Ackoff

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Career, Education, Management, Systems thinking | Comments Off on Learn from Russel Ackoff