Monthly Archives: October 2007

Fooled by Randomness

Posted on October 30, 2007 by John Hunter

This is a nice article discussing how people are often fooled by thinking there must be special causes for patterns in random data. I still remember my father showing my classes these lessons when I was in grade school. Playing … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Statistics, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

Traveling for Health Care

Posted on October 29, 2007 by John Hunter

From my post on the Curious Cat Investing and Economics blog: My guess is that traveling for health care is going to increase greatly in the future. Health costs in the USA are enormous. Costs in Europe are different – … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care | Comments Off

Bringing Lean Principles to Service Industries

Posted on October 27, 2007 by John Hunter

Bringing ‘Lean’ Principles to Service Industries by Julia Hanna “One of the important lessons we’ve seen on the ground is how Wipro approached the launch of this lean initiative,” Staats says. “They didn’t come out with big banners and say, … Continue reading →

Posted in India, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | Comments Off

IT Operations as a Competitive Advantage

Posted on October 26, 2007 by John Hunter

Operations is a competitive advantage… (Secret Sauce for Startups!) The example above is the tale of two Web 2.0 startups scaling to 20 systems during their first three months. The first team starts writing software and installing systems as they … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged IT, programming, Ruby, Software Development | 1 Comment

Strategic Deployment: How To Think Like Toyota

Posted on October 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Strategic Deployment: How To Think Like Toyota: Hoshin kanri is fundamental to Toyota’s success today, says Dennis, currently an instructor at the Lean Enterprise Institute. He says Toyota’s ability to grasp the situation, identify two or three obstacles, develop meaningful … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Comments Off

The Google Way: Give Engineers Room

Posted on October 23, 2007 by John Hunter

The Google Way: Give Engineers Room Google engineers are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time to work on something company-related that interests them personally. This means that if you have a great idea, you always have time to … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, IT, Management, Software Development | 1 Comment

Manufacturing Takes off in India

Posted on October 22, 2007 by John Hunter

Manufacturing takes off in India by John Elliott: The sleek, clean factory in the Delhi suburb of Noida seems more Taiwan than India. Engineers in white overalls and goggles watch over an automated production line that spits out four billion … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, India, Manufacturing | 3 Comments

How Curiosity Empowers Toyota

Posted on October 20, 2007 by John Hunter

How Curiosity Empowers Toyota [the broken link was removed] by Keith McFarland: As I read Magee’s book one idea kept surfacing in my mind. Throughout its history, Toyota appears to have put an emphasis on an important but oft-overlooked characteristic: … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Comments Off

2007 William G. Hunter Award

Posted on October 19, 2007 by John Hunter

T.N. Goh received ASQ Statistics Division’s 2007 William G. Hunter Award. He sent me this email: You may not realize that I first met Bill 38 year ago, when he was in Singapore helping us set up the first school … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Management, Statistics | 1 Comment

Deming Prize 2007

Posted on October 17, 2007 by John Hunter

India continues to shine with Deming Prizes (and of course there economy and stock market have been doing pretty well too). Companies based in India took home both Deming Prizes this year and the Japan Quality Medal. Countries of organizations … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, India, Management | 4 Comments