Monthly Archives: July 2005

Curious Cat Travels: Olympic and Mt. St. Helens

Posted on July 31, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Travel I have posted pictures from my recent trip to the Pacific Northwest: Olympic National Park photos and Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument photos. Previous travelogues include: Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Paris and Egypt.

Posted in Management

Bezos on Lean Thinking

Posted on July 29, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement and Investing 10 Questions for Jeff Bezos, time.com via Lean Manufacturing Blog Time: Here’s a question you probably hear all the time: read any good books lately? Bezos: [Laughs.] I read a book recently about Toyota’s lean production methodology, which is very interesting Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon.com. He really understand many quality management ideas: customer focus, long term thinking, process improvement, innovation. He also understands finance much better than most. I believe … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation

Posted on July 28, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation: ““The purpose of the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation is to find the innovators, whether small or large, to recognize and celebrate their example, and to inspire others.”” Peter F. Drucker In the years ahead, America’s nonprofits will become even more important. As government retrenches, Americans will look increasingly to the nonprofits to tackle the problems of a fast-changing society. These challenges will demand innovation — in services, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Estate Tax Repeal

Posted on July 28, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Economics – Estate Tax The estate tax is the most capitalist tax that exists. Capitalism, which some seem to think is based on people inheriting assets from their relatives, is not. Capitalism is based on the concept that each person gets to receive rewards for their work. Long before Adam Smith, noble rich passed on their wealth to their heirs. It was not Capitalist then and it is not Capitalist now. Unfortunately many seem to have skipped economics in … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Stretching Agile to fit CMMI Level 3

Posted on July 27, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement Stretching Agile to fit CMMI Level 3 by David J. Anderson. I highly recommend reading this article. My work happens to straddle both the management improvement and software development areas that this article covers. But, if you are interested in either area, this article offers some great material. And if you are interested in both, you are in for a treat. At Microsoft, we’ve adopted the teachings of W. Edwards Deming and stretched our MSF for Agile … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Quality tools, Software Development | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Online Lean Manufacturing Tutorials

Posted on July 27, 2005 by John Hunter

Tutorials on Lean Production / Lean Manufacturing [the broken link was removed] from the Defense Acquisition University. The site includes five short online videos by James Womack [the broken link was removed]. The site provides a nice introduction to lean ideas. Mr. John Shook… “Lean Manufacturing is a manufacturing philosophy which shortens the time between the customer order and the product build/shipment by eliminating sources of waste.” … Key lean principles are: … – Waste minimization by removing all non-value … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking

Design of Experiments Articles

Posted on July 25, 2005 by John Hunter

We have added several Design of Experiments articles to the Curious Cat Management Improvement Library recently, including: Teaching Engineers Experimental Design With a Paper Helicopter by George Box Rethinking the Paper Helicopter [the broken link was removed] by David H. Annis DOE It Yourself by Mark J. Anderson, A list of Design of Experiments exercises that can be done in a classroom setting or as home by students with short explanations and links to documents online wtih more details. A … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Management, Statistics | Tagged

Vice President Presents Baldrige Awards

Posted on July 23, 2005 by John Hunter

Vice President Presents Baldrige Awards (sadly NIST broke the link so it was removed), press release from NIST (July 20, 2005). The 2004 Baldrige Award for Quality recipients (links to case studies, NIST also broke all these links, so removed – when are they going to hire people that understand the web?): The Bama Companies, Tulsa, Oklahoma (manufacturing category) In its endless quest for improvement, Bama uses a battery of advanced strategies and tools, including the Bama Quality Management System, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged | 1 Comment

New Toyota CEO’s Views

Posted on July 22, 2005 by John Hunter

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 should never be satisfied with the current status. In each division, function, or region, we still have numerous problems to cope with. We need to identify each one of those tasks or problems and fully recognize them and pursue the … Continue reading →

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

Agile Management

Posted on July 19, 2005 by John Hunter

David Anderson publishes the Agile Management Blog, wrote the Agile Management for Software Engineering: Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results, and works for Microsoft. Robert Scoble, technical evangelist [the broken link was removed], also with Microsoft, has posted an online video interview with David Anderson [the broken link was removed] on Microsoft’s Chanel 9 online. Quote by David Anderson, from the video: “My work focuses on applying the teachings of two management science gurus, one is Eli Goldratt … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, IT, Management, Software Development, webcast | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Managing for Creativity

Posted on July 17, 2005 by John Hunter

Managing for Creativity [broken link removed] by Richard Florida and Jim Goodnight, July-August 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review. Over many years, the leaders of SAS Institute have distilled a set of principles for getting peak performance from creative people. Among them: Value the work over the tools, reward excellence with challenges, and minimize hassles. … Based in Cary, North Carolina, SAS has been in the top 20 of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Scobleizer on David Anderson

Posted on July 17, 2005 by John Hunter

Scobleizer, one of the most popular blogs (say in the top 50 most read), posted recently about David Anderson [the broken link was removed]. Robert Scoble is a Microsoft employee with the title, technical evangelist. David Anderson is also a Microsoft employee working on Agile Management for software development. David incorporates a good deal of Deming’s ideas, lean thinking, theory of constraints, etc. in posts to his Agile Management Blog [the broken link was removed]: I interviewed David Anderson this … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Saving Lives: US Health Care Improvement

Posted on July 16, 2005 by John Hunter

8 part special report by US News and Word Report on improving the US Health Care system. Join IHI in an ambitious initiative called the 100K Lives Campaign. Its goal is to save 100,000 hospital patients’ lives by 9 a.m. on June 14, 2006, exactly 18 months from Berwick’s call to arms, by introducing six changes in hospital procedures. Each change addresses a problem, such as deaths from infections following surgery, and presents an arsenal of weapons to fight it, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management Articles, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged | 10 Comments

Deming and Six Sigma

Posted on July 15, 2005 by John Hunter

The first Curious Cat Management Improvement blog post was on the Six Sigma and Deming Philosophies Recently the Deming Electronic Network has returned to this topic (broken link removed). The Quality Advisor web site has an article on this topic: Deming and Six Sigma (broken link so removed): The Six Sigma process can be seen to offer a parallel to Deming’s Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle, although Six Sigma brings experimental design and regression analysis to the forefront in the “plan” phase. Six … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Six sigma | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Fashion-Incubator on Deming’s Ideas

Posted on July 15, 2005 by John Hunter

Be corrigible [the broken link was removed]: For example, I was sold on Deming years ago but people still aren’t talking about his ideas. If there were a Nobel prize for manufacturing, Deming should have won it It is true Deming’s ideas do not get the attention they deserve, in my opinion. However, it is interesting to note the recent BBC radio program on Deming (available online) and Business Week including him in their list of the Top 25: Influential … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged

The Quality of Lean

Posted on July 15, 2005 by John Hunter

The Quality of Lean [the broken link was removed] post on Evolving Excellence. Lean has become so popular that companies (especially General Motors) have been snatching up lean experts, especially those with true TPS experience. Toyota itself is having difficulty finding and training appropriate people for their new plants, and in many cases are having to rely on the Lean experts at their component suppliers. This has even led to Toyota outsourcing Lean management for some plants

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles