Monthly Archives: July 2006

Evolution of the PDSA Cycle

Posted on July 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Evolution of the PDSA Cycle by Ron Moen and Cliff Norman. Another historical article that explores the growth of management improvement concepts – this time the PDSA improvement cycle. via: Deming Electronic Network [the broken link was removed] See also: Improvement Handbook by Gerald J. Langley, Kevin M. Nolan, Clifford L. Norman, Lloyd P. Provost and Thomas W. Nolan. Deming on Management Variation Through the Ages by Lloyd Provost and Clifford Norman

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged , , , ,

Kaizen the Toyota Way

Posted on July 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Excellent post: Kaizen Secrets of the Toyota Mind [the broken link was removed] by Jon Miller: The Toyota mind asks “What does my customer want from this process?” rather than “What do I want from this process?” The Toyota mind builds brilliant processes that enable average people to be high performers, rather than flawed processes that enable even brilliant people to be only average performers. Jon Miller has also been posting several items on the Words of Taiichi Ohno Sensei … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Process improvement, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Better Manufacturing in UK

Posted on July 16, 2006 by John Hunter

My design for better manufacturing in UK [the broken link was removed] by James Dyson: The way forward is to make things that are better designed, better engineered and with better technology than our competitors’ products. This is the blueprint for 21st-century success embraced by Japan. It is why Japan makes six times as many patent applications as Britain and spends three times as much on research and development. The Japanese government is about to spend £128 billion on research … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Manufacturing, Science, UK | Tagged ,

IT Outsourcing Slowing

Posted on July 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Outsourcing bubble getting Busted: What should India do? – commenting on the 2006 Global IT Outsourcing Study Essentially the study says the outsourcing IT will continue to grow though more slowly than it has. It also states the benefits of outsourcing have not reached the level that was predicted for a number of reasons. The study predicts vastly increased competition from China for IT outsourcing work (which reinforces the general consensus). Perhaps most interesting, however, is the phenomenal growth in … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics, India, IT, Management | 2 Comments

Usability Failures

Posted on July 15, 2006 by John Hunter

‘Smart’ phones, stupid punters? A survey* of 15,000 “faulty” devices by mobile data provider WDSGlobal found 63 per cent of the one in seven new phones which are returned have nothing wrong with them. I believe one in seven is the model of phone. I guess if you operationally define “nothing wrong” as a failure to work as the manufacturer intended that would be true. But is that what really matters? What is the number of defects that should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Future for Investors

Posted on July 15, 2006 by John Hunter

I completed The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and the True Triumph Over the Bold and the New by Jeremy Siegel today. It provides a great deal of analysis of what historical stock market returns for various strategies have been. The subtitle captures the basic theme of the book. Investing in the boring old stocks that people are not excited about is what have performed best. His basic advise is still to buy the broadest market index fund (such … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing | Tagged ,

New Rules for Management? No!

Posted on July 14, 2006 by John Hunter

Fortune recently published an article talking about the “new rules” for management using Jack Welch (GE six sigma) as the focus of the old rules. It seems to me there is nothing new here (once again). “New” rule: “Agile is best, being big can bite you” Yeah. Does anyone think this is new. Do they really believe Jack Welch thought agile was not a good thing? Yes, Jack Welch wanted to be number 1 or number 2 in the field … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Popular, Six sigma | 8 Comments

Customer Focus at the Ritz

Posted on July 13, 2006 by John Hunter

How to Turn Customer Satisfaction into Profits and Growth [the broken link was removed] by Vincent Grimaldi: Against all odds, the company has broken the old vicious circle of low salary and high turnover by wrapping all its processes – including recruiting and training (250 hours for first-year front-line associates) – around its customers, by offering opportunities for professional development, and by encouraging personnel to advance within the organization. Curious Cat Management Improvement Career Center – job opening: Manager – … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Management Articles | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Exciting Life of Industrial Statisticians

Posted on July 13, 2006 by John Hunter

Never a Dull Day: The Life of an Industrial Statistician by Gerry Hahn. Gerry Hahn was one of the great applied statisticians of the last 50 years, working at GE for over 45 years. Six sigma has many variants, he is one of those that understood how to apply six sigma well. All of this provides great new opportunities for industrial statisticians to serve as statistical leaders-a term popularized by the late and great Ed Deming (see Hahn and Hoerl, … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Data, Management, Statistics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Long Tail

Posted on July 12, 2006 by John Hunter

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson is now available. This books explores the huge market for goods outside of the mass market. The few popular items that dominate the media coverage in any market are not the majority of the market. In total the huge number of “unknown” items exceed the volume of the most popular items. The internet provides great opportunities to reach the long tail. In The Long … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Management

Reducing Waste

Posted on July 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd – achieving zero waste to landfill [the broken link was removed] Toyota developed its Environmental Management System to stay on top of its environmental objectives and ensure that all processes are dealt with in an environmentally friendly way and are implemented across all the plants. There are full key performance indicator reporting systems, visual controls and displays throughout the plant. A great improvement strategy. Determine what you are trying to do. Understand the system. Set … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Supplier Development Article

Posted on July 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Supplier development in a lean age [the broken link was removed] by Rich Weissman “We need to keep in mind why we are doing supplier development and relationship management, and profit needs to be the focus of our efforts. Profitable suppliers will tend to be happier suppliers, and happier suppliers will ultimately perform better.” I get the impression from this and many other articles that people are scared to talk about any other aims than profit. Deming didn’t have such … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Origins of the Toyota Production System

Posted on July 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Brief Investigation into the Origins of the Toyota Production System [the broken link was removed] by Art Smalley. Another excellent article by Art Smalley. Loaded with great historical information. I find these articles interesting on at least two levels. First there is great management information. Learning more about how the ideas we use now developed adds to my understanding. Second it is interesting historical information – I am not sure if it actually makes any difference in how I would … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , ,

How Google Works

Posted on July 9, 2006 by John Hunter

How Google Works [the broken link was removed] by David F. Carr An interesting look at the technology system behind Google. “But this is the start of the story,” he adds, part of an approach that says “don’t necessarily do it the way everyone else did. Just find some way of doing it cheap and effectively—so we can learn.” Google was driven from the beginning by engineers that sought to do what was best. Since those engineers were the founders … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Innovation, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged | 4 Comments

More on Non-Auto Toyota

Posted on July 7, 2006 by John Hunter

Toyota: Way, Way Off-Road [the broken link was removed] by Ian Rowley. Business Week has an article exploring the non-automotive Toyota, as we have mentioned previously: Toyota Robots – Toyota as Homebuilder – Toyota Engineers a New Plant: the Living Kind. Toyota controls dozens of businesses that have virtually nothing to do with automaking, ranging in size from resort developer Nagasaki Sunset Marina (77% owned by Toyota), with just five employees, to Toyota Financial Services Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged | 2 Comments

North American Manufacturing

Posted on July 6, 2006 by John Hunter

Can North American manufacturers thrive again? [the broken link was removed] by David Hogg I once again feel compelled to point out that the USA is still manufacturing more than ever and its share of Global manufacturing is either not declining or declining very slightly. The sad part is that employees seem to understand what managers do not. Why do you think that nearly 63,000 people applied for only 2,000 production line jobs at a new Toyota plant in Texas … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Manufacturing | Tagged | 1 Comment