Monthly Archives: March 2008

Tesco Pauses USA Expansion

Pausing for reath at fresh & easy (Tesco’s USA stores) We’ve opened 31 stores in 66 days so far this year…now we’re pausing for breath… However, after opening our first 50, we planned to have a 3 month break from … Continue reading

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

Coopers Rock State Forest

See more photos of my visit last year to Coopers Rock State Forest in West Virginia. The day before I visited Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland. Photos by John Hunter. Related: Nature Recreation Declining – Mason Neck State Park, … Continue reading

Posted in curiouscat.com, Travel photos | Tagged | 2 Comments

Deming’s 14 Points (for software development)

Deming’s 14 points (for software development) by Jamie Dinkelacker (Geo/Maps Engineering Program Manager at Google Inc. Focus on lean principles and agile practices for software development): W. Edwards Deming’s work on quality, while widely misinterpreted and misapplied in the USA, … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Google, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Deming’s 14 Points (for software development)

How Downsizing is Handled When Management Respects People

Three Amazing PHP/MySQL/Perl Developers Now Available [broken link removed] – Posting on Craigslist. The url will expire so I included everything but the contact info below (follow the link for contact info). Yesterday I had to do one of the … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Respect, Software Development | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on How Downsizing is Handled When Management Respects People

Losses Covered Up to Protect Bonuses

Does it surprise you to learn traders would cover up losses to protect bonuses? It shouldn’t, it happens over and over. Would it surprise you that almost any bonus (or quota) scheme increases the odds that the data will be … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Investing, Management, Psychology | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Unconscionable Executive Pay

WaMu: Skip customers; save the execs [the broken link was removed] Since last summer, the company’s shares have lost nearly 80% of their value. But the bank is a softy when it comes to bonus pay for top brass. After … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Respect | Tagged | 6 Comments

Drug Price Crisis

In 2005 I posted about some of the problems with drug pricing. It is nice to find at least a couple of people at MIT that want to have MIT focus research on the public good instead of private profit. … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Economics, Health care, Science | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

NCAA Basketball Challenge 2008

Once again I have created a group on the ESPN NCAA Basketball Tournament Challenge for curiouscat college basketball fans. To participate, go to the curiouscat ESPN group and make your picks. This year we also have a second challenge, using … Continue reading

Posted in curiouscat.com, Fun | Tagged | Comments Off on NCAA Basketball Challenge 2008

Management Improvement Carnival #31

Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. Lean *is* About Quality, Folks by Mark Graban – “The two ideas are connected — improving flow (in itself) ends up improving quality and improving quality … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , | Comments Off on Management Improvement Carnival #31

Webcast on 2-Bin Systems

Illustration of how 2-Bin Systems work, by Bill Hanover. Related: Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) video by Bill Hanover – Messiness is Bad – Drum-Buffer-Rope Example – lean manufacturing resources

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools, webcast | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Webcast on 2-Bin Systems