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Monthly Archives: September 2007
CEO’s Given Lottery Sized Payouts
Comment on: Fun With Statistics, CEO Life Edition In the US, CEO’s tend to be fairly interchangeable these days and it is rare for their tenure to exceed five years. There are some notable exceptions such as chain-saw Al and Neutron Jack, but in general a change of CEO doesn’t seem to do much over the long term. This is one of the criticisms of American CEO’s they seem to be more interested in feathering their nest and getting out … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking
2 Comments
Seven Fatal Flaws of Performance Measurement
The Seven Fatal Flaws of Performance Measurement by Joseph F. Castellano, Saul Young, and Harper A. Roehm Performance measurement systems are used to establish specific goals, align employee behavior, and increase accountability. Organizations often use these systems to set targets for component units (e.g., individuals, profit centers, divisions, plants). Each unit is expected to develop its own goals consistent with overall targets. This process, sometimes called a “roll-up,” reflects the premise that if all units achieve their targets then the … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Statistics, Systems thinking
Danaher Expands Lean Thinking One Acquisition at a Time
Sybron Focuses on Operations Nearly 18 months into becoming part of Danaher Corp., life is different at Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. “Sybron was really a sales and marketing focused organization … and operations (were) part of supporting that,” said Don Tuttle, president of specialty products for Sybron, which is moving from Orange to Anaheim next year. “What Danaher brought to us, and has been successful with, is bringing us an operations focus.” Sybron has adopted principles known as Danaher Business … Continue reading
Posted in Investing, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing
This Too is a Kanban
This Too is a Kanban by Jon Miller: The orthodox description of a kanban is a rectangular card in a plastic sleeve used to reorder materials from a supplier or an upstream process, or a triangular metal plate used to signal production for a process that requires changeovers for lot production. … The tile of section 3 of chapter 4 from the first textbook on the Toyota Production System is titled “This Too (is a kanban)”. The author (possibly dictated … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Search Share Data – Checking the ACSI
Last month, in a long post criticizing the ACSI I took issue with, among other things, the implications being drawn from an ACSI rating. The ACSI rating of Yahoo was higher than that of Google (though statistically insignificantly so). Anyway, here is some new data on search volumes of the leading providers: Top 5 Search Providers for August 2007, Ranked by Searches (U.S.) Provider Searches (000) Year over Year Growth Share of Searches 1. Google Search 4,199,495 39.8% 53.6% 2. … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Google, Statistics
4 Comments
Kaizen – Yahoo Mail Style
Yahoo Mail Innovates, Gmail Stagnates Yahoo Mail has begun rolling out of beta after releasing an onslaught of innovative feature improvements along the way. On the other hand, a whopping three years into their beta release, Gmail remains one of the most popular but stagnant web-based beta email apps around. To me Yahoo is really continually improving the service, not innovating. Still an interesting exploration of visible improvement. Related: Kaizen Online – Kaizen definition –Innovation Examples – Google Innovation webcast … Continue reading
Posted in Google, Innovation, IT, Management, Software Development
1 Comment
Employees That Telecommute are the Most Loyal
In Loyal Employees Stay Home, quotes from the Wall Street Journal (behind a iron curtain still in this day and age – oh well): “When companies allow employees to work remotely or from home, they are explicitly communicating to them that ‘I trust you to be dedicated to the accomplishment of the work, even if I’m not able to observe you doing it,’ ” says Jack Wiley, executive director of the institute, which is in Minneapolis. “It boils down to … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, IT, Management, Respect, Systems thinking
3 Comments
Keeping Older Workers
We’re Not Finnished With You Yet Abloy and many other Finnish companies are suddenly treating older employees like a precious resource. Instead of nudging them into early retirement, they’re coaxing gray-hairs to work longer with better health benefits, extra weeks of paid vacation, and more. But these companies aren’t just feeling charitable. Finland’s workforce is aging faster than any other country’s–40% of Finns will reach retirement age during the next 15 years. Nearly a quarter of Abloy’s 820 workers, for … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
2 Comments
Management Improvement Carnival #19
Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. Why Does Bad Management Thrive So Much? by David Maister – “My question is: why hasn’t this egregiously bad management been driven out competitively? How do firms like this stay in business?” Kanban Systems for Software Development (four posts) by Corey Ladas – “Work-in-process is limited, and cycle time can be managed. Most importantly, it is a highly transparent and repeatable process with all of the … Continue reading
Posted in Carnival, Management
Deming on being Destroyed by Best Efforts
Best efforts are essential. Unfortunately, best efforts, people charging this way and that way without guidance of principles, can do a lot of damage. Think of the chaos that would come if everyone did his best, not knowing what to do. Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming, page 19 I am reminded of a quote I heard from Dr. Deming (though it may well precede him): “Don’t just do something, stand there.” First think, then act. His quote … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking
5 Comments
USA Paying More for Health Care
The USA health care system is well known as by the most costly in the world. Most also agree the system provides far from the best results – perhaps great results could justify such high prices but that is not the case (though some still argue this point). Decades ago W. Edwards Deming targeted high health care costs as a deadly disease of the US economy decades ago and the problem has just gotten worse almost every single year since. … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Economics, Health care
7 Comments
Deming Electronic Network Email List
The Deming Electronic Network email list 2.0 [deleted link as this is no longer online] is now live. The aim of the Deming Electronic Network is to: “Learn, apply, and extend the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and to help others do the same.” The DEN came out of a conversation between Myron Tribus, Tom Glenn, Del Kimbler, John Hunter, and Jim Clauson at the first Deming Institute Conference in early 1994. We envisioned using the Internet to share, … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, IT, Management
5 Comments
Jim Press, Toyota N. American President, Moves to Chrysler
Jim Press leaves Toyota to join Chrysler. I am surprised. I would imagine he is getting a huge amount of money. And I would guess it will encourage those that think you have to massively overpay executives or lose them to companies that will overpay them. I don’t think it is wise to pay huge sums to executives. If that means you lose some, fine, continue to manage your system well and things will still work out fine for you. … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Toyota Production System (TPS)
1 Comment
Hiring – Does College Matter?
Another essay by Paul Graham packed with great thoughts – this one on hiring, colleges, measuring performance of people, etc.. Practically everyone thinks that someone who went to MIT or Harvard or Stanford must be smart. Even people who hate you for it believe it. But when you think about what it means to have gone to an elite college, how could this be true? We’re talking about a decision made by admissions officers—basically, HR people—based on a cursory examination … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Education, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology
The Siren Song of Multitasking
The Siren Song of Multitasking Yet multiple technologies often translate into multiple interruptions: On average, workers are interrupted once every ten and a half minutes, according to Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studied the cost of worker multitasking. Once interrupted, it takes a worker 23 minutes on average to get back to the task she was working on. Open screens on desktops, files on the desk, and coworkers all distracted workers so that only … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
5 Comments
Seth Godin on Marketing and the Internet
Once again Seth Godin does a great job of explaining the dynamics of marketing on the web: Seth Godin Video on Web Marketing. In this 6 1/2 minute video he touches on various topics including: the ease with which web users ignore ads on the web the importance of customers marketing for you (see our previous post: Lego – Innovative Marketing Podcast) the need to develop relationships with customers that then allow your to reach them, “permission marketing” (such as … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Innovation, IT, Management
1 Comment