Monthly Archives: January 2007

Transforming With Lean

Posted on January 31, 2007 by John Hunter

Dave Gleditsch, Chief Technology Officer, Pelion Systems, makes many excellent points in: Transforming Your Business To Lean: Lessons Learned [the broken link was removed]: First and foremost, we should always keep the customer at the forefront of the planning and implementation process. A key to success is in being able to find the customer in every single metric you choose to measure your Lean transformation progress by. Often measures become the focus and the reason for improvement is obscured. Improvement … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, quote | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Encourage Improvement Action by Everyone

Posted on January 31, 2007 by John Hunter

Centralizing decision making is not an effective way to manage organizations. Organizations need to encourage improvement by everybody in the organization. We need to create a system where that is encouraged and supported. However, there can be problems with just making improvements individually. We tend to overreact to variation. Therefore we tend to tamper with systems which actually increases variation and reduces performance. Also there can be effects on other parts of the system due to a change that are … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , ,

5 Million Lives Campaign

Posted on January 30, 2007 by John Hunter

IHI has created the 5 Million Lives Campaign [the broken link was removed] in the wake of the successful saving 100,000 lives campaign. Despite the extraordinary hard work and best intentions of caregivers, thousands of patients are harmed in US hospitals every day. Hospital-acquired infections, adverse drug events, surgical errors, pressure sores, and other complications are commonplace. Based on data collected over several years from multiple partner institutions, IHI estimates that nearly 15 million instances of medical harm occur in … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management | Tagged

Toyota’s Nick Dieltiens Discussing Lean Ideas

Posted on January 29, 2007 by John Hunter

Another YouTube video on Toyota Management (produced by a software vendor selling to Toyota Europe): Toyota’s Nick Dieltiens Discussing Lean Techniques. He is responsible for strategic planing for Lexus Europe and was previously for the lean operations office for Toyota and Lexus Europe. He discusses adopting lean thinking in sales and marketing. the consultant’s web site includes another webcast [the broken link was removed] with Nick Dieltiens. In a previous post we comment on a good article reviewing Toyota IT … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Lean thinking, webcast

Toyota Business Webcast

Posted on January 29, 2007 by John Hunter

[The video was removed from YouTube] Interesting, 4 minute, segment on Toyota management practices from a business TV show. via: Lean Six Sigma Academy Blog [the broken link was removed] Related: New Toyota CEO’s Views – What drives Toyota? – Toyota – Repect for People – Dell Falls Short – posts on management webcasts

Posted in Toyota Production System (TPS)

Top 10 Manufacturing Countries

Posted on January 28, 2007 by John Hunter

The newest data from the UN* confirms most of the recent trends in manufacturing output – most notably that China continues to grow dramatically. The data also shows a stagnation in USA manufacturing output over the last several years, though the USA remains by far the largest manufacturer. The most significant news from this latest data, I believe, is that that manufacturing output growth in the USA has been slower than global manufacturing output growth from 2002-2005. This was not … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Data, Economics, India, Manufacturing | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Game Theory Management

Posted on January 26, 2007 by John Hunter

Interesting article on applying game theory to business decisions. Game theory is a tool that is not often used. Though most organizations are probably better off improving how they use the rest of their management tools, it is fun to read about and does have merit in the right situations. 16,777,236 [the broken link was removed] – That’s the number of outcomes that are possible when eight competitors each consider three strategic options. California Institute of Technology professor R. Preston … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , ,

Innovative Marketing Podcast

Posted on January 25, 2007 by John Hunter

This podcast on Lego Mindstorms NXT, Lead Users, and Viral Marketing [the broken link was removed] is interesting. The discussion does a good job of explaining how factors like web 2.0 and “open source” can allow business to operate in a new way and take advantage of new opportunities. Understanding these ideas is much more innovative than most of what I read in the “business press.” And the message is explained clearly, so one does not need to understand these … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Fun, Innovation, Science | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Toyota’s Real Secret?

Posted on January 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Well actually it isn’t a secret – it is in fact the Toyota Production/Management System. Maybe, if people assume the TPS is about improvement in the factory alone, then they could miss the true importance as the management system that it is. So I quibble a little bit with the title but this is actually a good article by John Teresko, Toyota’s Real Secret: Hint, It’s Not TPS [the broken link was removed]: Toyota’s time-to-market metrics are one measure of … Continue reading →

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

It’s Easy Being Lean

Posted on January 23, 2007 by John Hunter

Nice article, nice title too, a bit overoptimistic maybe but still nice 🙂 – It’s Easy Being Lean [the broken link was removed]: The program advocates lean manufacturing, whose main tenet is that the processes used to produce things can be made more efficient and therefore more profitable. The steps can be as simple as bringing the machines used to create goods closer together on the plant floor. Since lean manufacturing is a permanent way of doing business, not just … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Manufacturing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Focus on Quality and…

Posted on January 23, 2007 by John Hunter

Recipe For Success [the broken link was removed]: “Recipe for Success: Focus on Quality, Reduce Work-in-Progress, Balance Capacity against Demand, Prioritize” These four statements really boil down all my management teaching in to four actionable directives that will deliver significant improvement. I have discussed some of his ideas before in, for example, Agile Management (which includes a link to a interesting interview on David Anderson’s work at Microsoft incorporating Deming’s ideas and Theory of Constraints. Others might have their own … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged ,

Newt on Management History

Posted on January 23, 2007 by John Hunter

The new Newt thing [the broken link was removed] “I don’t mean to be argumentative,” he says, as he scribbles a chart on the history of management reform, tucking dates alongside names like Motorola and Deming and Ohno, all the while peppering the group with questions. “But I’m dubious about externalized systems. It becomes a cult.” No one is insulted. On the contrary, everyone is enthralled by Gingrich and his well-informed romp through management history. (“There’s this whole romantic side … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Public Sector | Tagged | 1 Comment

Systems Improvement Example

Posted on January 22, 2007 by John Hunter

Interesting paper – The Dynamics of Crowd Disasters: An Empirical Study [the broken link was removed] (see other interesting material on the website). Systems thinking allowed the engineers to design a solution that wasn’t about enforcing the existing rules more but changing the system so that the causes of the most serious problems are eliminated. analysis of unique recordings of the Muslim pilgrimage in Mina/Makkah, Saudi Arabia. It suggests that high-density flows can turn “turbulent” and cause people to fall. … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Systems thinking | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Knowledge Management – Management is Prediction

Posted on January 21, 2007 by John Hunter

This presentation web video discusses the idea of managing corporate information: Seamless Information Capture and Discovery for Corporate Memory [the broken link was removed]. The video focuses on discussing technical solutions. The most important factor to me, is the value to improving management. The technology discussed here eventually could help lead to the adoption of Dr. Ackoff’s ideas on capturing corporate decision making. Then that will allow evaluating decisions for systemic weakness and strengths to improve decision making. Ackoff’s ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, IT, Quality tools, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Reacting to Product Problems

Posted on January 20, 2007 by John Hunter

Previously we posted on recalls at Toyota and Sony. Recently Toyota announced another large recall. Investor’s Business Daily writes on the topic in: The Ups And Downs Of Doing Product Recalls – Japan-Style [the broken link was removed]: Kitayama also said Akio Toyoda, grandson of Kiichiro Toyoda, Toyota’s founder, played a key role by opening a direct line to suppliers that had supplied defective car parts. He stressed that quality comes before meeting delivery deadlines. Interesting. The article also discusses … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , ,

Performance Measures and Statistics Course

Posted on January 20, 2007 by John Hunter

Performance Measures and Statistics Course [the broken link was removed] – free course materials from a 2 day training course by Steven Prevette. Topics include: Dr. Deming’s red bead experiment, operational definitions, selecting performance targets, SPC, theory of variation, case studies, control charts, pdsa, pareto charts, histograms… Related: Quality, SPC and Your Career – articles by Steven Prevette

Posted in Education, Statistics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment