Monthly Archives: August 2006

Appalachian Trail Photos

Posted on August 20, 2006 by John Hunter

I just posted some photos from a couple short hikes on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania during September 2003. More Curious Cat Travels hiking photos: Grand Canyon National Park – Olympic National Park – Bull Run, Virginia – Yellowstone National Park – many more Directory of travel photos by geographic locations

Posted in curiouscat.com, Travel photos | Tagged

Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs

Posted on August 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Excerpt from Idealized Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow’s Crisis…Today by Russell L. Ackoff, Jason Magidson and Herbert J. Addison: How Bell Labs Imagined — and Created — the Telephone System of the Future in the 1950s. Great stuff and another example showing the obsession with “new” ideas is wasteful. Idealized design is a way of thinking about change that is deceptively simple to state: In solving problems of virtually any kind, the way to get the best outcome is to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Distort the System

Posted on August 19, 2006 by John Hunter

From our post: Targets Distorting the System, Dr. Brian Joiner: spoke of 3 ways to improve the figures: distort the data, distort the system and improve the system. Improving the system is the most difficult. Another example of this in practice: Recount helps one university rise in the rankings [the broken link was removed]: Behnke, who says he’s no fan of rankings, said he recently spoke to a provost at another institution who was capping class sizes at 19 to … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Improving the 401(k) System

Posted on August 18, 2006 by John Hunter

401(k)s are a great retirement investment vehicle (for those in the USA). Since the introduction of 401(k)s they have proved very advantageous to those saving for their retirement. See our previous post on: Saving for Retirement. However, the experience thusfar shows a weaknesses in the system. Many people don’t even take advantage of a 401(k) to save for their retirement. From a public policy perspective it creates a huge long term problem. The economy will end up with millions of … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Investing, Management | 1 Comment

Root Cause Analysis

Posted on August 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Nice post on Root Cause Analysis: This, more rigorous and long-lasting, approach to solving problems is called Root Cause Analysis. There are several tools that can aid in the process of Root Cause Analysis. One common tool developed by Toyota is called “5-why’s”. Basically, it is a simple approach of asking “why” several times until you arrive at an atomic but actionable item. To visually view the process of the “5-why’s”, a tool called an (Ishikawa Diagram) or a (Cause-and-Effect … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Quality tools | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Google Videocasts on Customer Focus

Posted on August 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Google provides video webcasts of speakers that present at Google [the broken link was removed]. These videos offer a great way to take part in one aspect of work at Googleplexs [the broken link was removed]. Customer Centric Web Decision Making [the broken link was removed] (videocast) by Avinash Kaushik (Occam’s Razor – his blog) How can we better understand customers? [the broken link was removed] by Ely Dahan (related papers by him: The Predictive Power of Internet-Based Product Concept … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Google | Tagged | 1 Comment

Toyota Management Develops the New Camry

Posted on August 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Toyota’s Globalization Takes Shape through the Camry, speech by Gary Convis: So, even though I accept Mr. Friedman’s point that our world is quickly changing, I also believe many of our age-old principles will continue to apply. Principles like quality… value… trust in products… and running your business with innovation… teamwork… and continuous improvement. So true, see: New Rules for Management? No!. The desire to act as if we have new watersheds every year is misguided and is an ineffective … Continue reading →

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

Patent Review Innovation

Posted on August 16, 2006 by John Hunter

Michael Crichton wrote an essay critical of the current patent law: This Essay Breaks the Law. I believe the US is making significant mistakes in how we are proceeding with the patent system, see: The Patent System Needs to be Significantly Improved. A recent article from Money offers an interesting idea (to try anyway) for one part of the problem. Patent review goes Wiki That’s the basic concept behind a pilot program sponsored by IBM (Charts) and other companies, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Economics, Innovation, IT, Management, Process improvement | 2 Comments

Manufacturing Value Added Economic Data

Posted on August 16, 2006 by John Hunter

In our post on Manufacturing and the Economy we examined global manufacturing value added economic data. The World Bank has provided updated data, for 2002, which we provide below. In, Global Manufacturing Data by Country, we explored data from the United Nations through 2004 (on a related, but different, measure of manufacturing). Country 1990 2001 2002 1990-2002% increase* United States 1,040,600 1,422,999 1,463,300 41 Japan 810,231 865,809 811,829 0 China 116,572 407,513 No Data 250 Germany 456,405 385,923 410,644 -10 … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Manufacturing, quote | 3 Comments

Google Management

Posted on August 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Management a la Google [the broken link, wsj.com, was removed] by Gary Hamel This short article makes some interesting points, definitely worth a read. Google has invested heavily in building a highly transparent organization that makes it easy to share ideas, poll peers, recruit volunteers, and build natural constituencies for change. Every project team, and there are hundreds, maintains a Web site that is continuously monitored for peer feedback. In this way, unorthodox ideas have the chance to accumulate peer … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Innovation, Management, Management Articles | 1 Comment

Call for Papers on Deming Management

Posted on August 14, 2006 by John Hunter

The Deming Research Seminar [the broken link was removed] is accepting paper through October 2nd for presentation at the 13th annual seminar in New York City Feb 12th and 13th, 2007. To be considered, papers must be original work. Proposals of 200 words or less are due by 2 October 2006. For more information about submitting a paper see the Deming Institute website [the broken link was removed]. Papers that link Dr. Deming’s work to the academic literature or to … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming

Eliminate Slogans

Posted on August 13, 2006 by John Hunter

This poster may do a better job, than my posts, of showing why posters and slogan are not an effective management strategy. Text from the poster: “If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.” Despair (link to the motivation poster shown here), offers many such de-motivational posters and note cards – well done satire, in my opinion, but they … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect | Tagged , | 3 Comments

10 Kaizen Tips

Posted on August 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Kaizen Hot-Wash Lesson 6. Pick the right lean tool for the job and use it well. There are plenty of lean tools to choose for kaizen activities so your MUST determine the right tool and use it well. In our case, the spaghetti diagram was the best tool. It was simple to use although extremely time consuming for the large amount of travel in our process. The spaghetti diagram quickly showed the team the best areas for opportunity and was … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools

Teach, Write and Live Quality

Posted on August 11, 2006 by John Hunter

Teach, Write and Live Quality by Michelle Bangert Quality Magazine’s inaugural Quality Professional of the Year, Roderick A. Munro, Ph.D.: He also had the privilege of joining the Deming Study Group of Greater Detroit. “It was such an honor for me,” Munro says. The Deming Study group of Greater Detroit met every other month for almost three years. Eight people approached Deming about starting the group, and they could invite up to two others. One of the members invited Munro, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | 1 Comment

Competition

Posted on August 11, 2006 by John Hunter

Why I hate programming competitions [the broken link was removed] by Mike Vanier Most aspects of Deming’s thinking seemed natural to me from the start. Some ideas have taken longer (it took me awhile to be won over to the harm caused by performance appraisals, for example). Competition is another area that I still struggle with. I have been moved greatly by my experience and the thoughts of people like Alfie Kohn (No Contest: The Case Against Competition). But I … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Psychology, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , ,

Lean Health Care Works

Posted on August 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean Health Care? It Works! [the broken link was removed] by Patricia Panchak In 1971, the U.S. spent 7.5% of its gross national product on health care — about $75 billion. We now spend 14.5%, which is about $1.3 trillion. The article was written in 2003, by 2005 health care spending reached 15.3% of the USA economy. A group of Iowa manufacturing executives has already taken Jimmerson’s recommendation a few steps further: They’re teaming up with their health-care providers, showing … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles | Tagged