Category Archives: Process improvement

Seven Leadership Leverage Points

Seven Leadership Leverage Points [the broken link was removed]: for Organization-Level Improvement in Health Care by James L. Reinertsen, MD; Michael D. Pugh and Maureen Bisognano. If leaders are to bring about system-level performance improvement, they must channel attention to … Continue reading

Posted in Health care, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers

Topic: Management Improvement How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers, Sarah Jane Johnston interview of Steven Spear. It is our conclusion that Toyota has developed a set of principles, Rules-in-Use we’ve called them, that allow organizations to engage in this … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

LA Jail Saves Time Processing Crime

After efficiency study, L.A. jail saves time processing crime by Dan Laidman Los Angels Daily News (pointy hired boss broke the link so I removed it) Last week, Chief William Bratton told the Board of Police Commissioners that Toyota methods … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Public Sector, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on LA Jail Saves Time Processing Crime

Indian Firms Learning From Toyota

Taking A Page From Toyota’s Playbook [the broken link has been removed], Business Week: The goal for Wipro is to become the Toyota of business services. Toyota preaches continuous improvement, respect for employees, learning, and embracing change. “It’s the soft … Continue reading

Posted in India, IT, Management, Process improvement, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 2 Comments

New Toyota CEO’s Views

The Man Driving Toyota from Business Week: Toyota has grown in the past few years, but [there’s a risk] that a belief that the current status is satisfactory creeps into the minds of employees. That’s what I’m worried about. We … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Management is Prediction

re: post on prediction [link broken, so removed] on the Deming Electronic Network, Petter Ogland wrote: …that intelligence more or less boils down to updating a predictive model of the world. As far as I can see, this is the … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt, CEO, GE. What makes a growth leader today, and how does that differ from the sort of leader who was effective at GE in the past? GE has always been a believer in leadership development. … Continue reading

Posted in Innovation, Management, Process improvement, quote, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Competing on the Basis of Time

Competing on the Basis of Time: The way to get rid of the big delay at verification is to move testing closer to coding – much closer. In fact, testing should happen immediately upon coding; if possible the test should … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Software Development | Comments Off on Competing on the Basis of Time

Operational Excellence

In, the post Is Operational Excellence Dead? the argument is made that operational excellence is dead as a differentiator of companies. “All of the emphasis on outsourcing to low labor cost countries seems to imply that organizations no longer consider … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement History

I do believe we need to improve our practice of Quality (and to do that we need to understand what happened in the past and why it was not more successful). The idea that Design of Experiments (DoE) was at the core of some Quality Movement to me is not at all accurate. In my experience only a few Quality professionals today understand what it means and how it should be applied. The idea that it was common place in the 40’s I seriously doubt (though I don’t have first hand knowledge of this). I find it difficult to believe we would have decided to stop using DoE if it was commonly done previously. The understanding I have from those that should know (like George Box and previously my father – Bill Hunter) is that it was not at all common practice and still is not outside of a few industries and even there it is isolated in the domain of a few experts. Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Design of Experiments, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Quality tools, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments