Monthly Archives: August 2007

Data Can’t Lie

Many people state that data can lie. Obviously data can’t lie. There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies and statistics – Mark Twain Many people don’t understand the difference between being manipulated because they can’t understand what the … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Lean Dentist Podcast

This podcast by Mark Graban with Dr. Sami Bahri, “The World’s First Lean Dentist” is well worth listening to. It offers a wonderful example of how to apply lean ideas (I really appreciate how obvious the focus on learning and … Continue reading

Posted in Health care, Lean thinking, Management, webcast | Comments Off on Lean Dentist Podcast

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno is an excellent management book. Taiichi Ohno is known as the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS), also called lean manufacturing. He dictated the text to the Japan Management Association (in a series of … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Hiring: Silicon Valley Style

Interviews on how to hire in Silicon Valley. I especially like Guy Kawasaki’s comment – “the key to getting great people to work for you is to have a great product. That is why Google does so well. That is … Continue reading

Posted in Career, Google, IT, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Help Wanted: Lean Manufacturing Experts

Is There A Lean Employee Deficit?: Two recent articles in respected manufacturing publications highlighted a topic of interest for us at Ultriva: The difficulty of finding and retaining manufacturing talent. The first was an article from the American Society for … Continue reading

Posted in Career, Lean thinking, Management | 2 Comments

Toyota Reports Best Quarter Ever

Toyota Reports Best Quarter Ever Despite concerns in the industry about sluggish auto sales in the U.S. and Japan, Toyota Motor Corp. got help from a weak yen and cost cuts in its earnings announced Friday for its first fiscal … Continue reading

Posted in Toyota Production System (TPS) | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #16

Management Improvement Carnival #16 is hosted by Mark Graban at the Lean Blog. Some highlights include: How Toyota Handles Disaster, by Matthew May at “Elegant Solutions”: “Sometimes the Wall Street Journal has at best one use: wrapping fish. To wit, … Continue reading

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