Monthly Archives: January 2007

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 … Continue reading →

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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 … 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 … 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 … 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Reacting to Product Problems

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 … Continue reading →

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

Think Long Term Act Daily

Posted on January 17, 2007 by John Hunter

Great stuff from the DailyKaizen [the broken link was removed]: Over the last three months we have been working to incorporate PDCA discipline into our Model Line planning process. We are quite literally building a new management system in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #3

Posted on January 16, 2007 by John Hunter

More links to interesting management improvement blog posts. Lean IT – what comes first, technology or waste reduction? by Kent Blumberg – “rather than pushing technology on people and processes (the traditional top-down approach), Toyota looks to the people and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Carnival, IT, Management | 2 Comments

UK National Health System Management

Posted on January 15, 2007 by John Hunter

Another article on the UK national health system using lean thinking: In the drive to save the NHS, I’m choosing a Toyota by Simon Caulkin: So the lessons of Toyota come out rather differently from what you might expect. Large … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management | 1 Comment

Performance Appraisals – Is Good Execution the Solution?

Posted on January 15, 2007 by John Hunter

Performance review proponents say the way it is done matters most[the broken link was removed] (based on reaction to: Performance appraisals get low marks[the broken link was removed]): Deming, it seems, has many fans. His view of performance reviews? He … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments