Monthly Archives: July 2008

Parfrey’s Glen, Wisconsin

Posted on July 30, 2008 by John Hunter

See more photos from my visit to Parfrey’s Glen Natural Area in Wisconsin, about an hour outside of Madison. It really was amazingly beautiful – the pictures do not do it justice. The Parfrey’s Glen trail is under a mile but well worth visiting. If you want to hike more try the Ice Age National Scenic Trail or nearby Devil’s Lake State Park. The top photo is of me (John Hunter) at nearby Durwood’s Glen. The yellow flower is from … Continue reading →

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

Full and Fractional Factorial Test Design

Posted on July 29, 2008 by John Hunter

I am a fan of design of experiments as long time readers know (see posts on design of experiments). Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Process improvement, Statistics | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Do What You Say You Will

Posted on July 28, 2008 by John Hunter

In Keeping Good Employees I talked about asking some simple questions. The biggest mistake I see managers make is to fail to deliver on what they say in such meetings. There is the saying “It is better to be thought a fool than speak, and prove it.” Well it is better to be thought a pointy haired boss than to ask for feedback, then ignore it, and prove you are a PHB. This behavior is extremely common with a survey … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Amazon S3 Failure Analysis

Posted on July 26, 2008 by John Hunter

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is a service providing web hosting. The cloud computing solution has been used by many organizations successfully. However the solution has experienced some problems including failing for much of the day on July 20th. Amazon S3 Availability Event [the broken link was removed] We’ve now determined that message corruption was the cause of the server-to-server communication problems. More specifically, we found that there were a handful of messages on Sunday morning that had a single … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Keeping Good Employees

Posted on July 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Understanding Why Good Workers Quit [the broken link was removed] “What do you need to want to stay?” Most managers, she acknowledges, are afraid to ask this question and that is a reason why their companies have to do plenty of exit interviews. When stay interviews are part of the culture—and this is a practice in very few companies—attrition of the people you don’t want to lose plummets. “Ask them directly: What can we do to keep you?,” urges Kaye. … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, IT, Management, quote, Respect | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Not Exactly Lean Packaging

Posted on July 23, 2008 by John Hunter

HP shatters excessive packaging world record (17 boxes to protect 32 A4 sheets of paper) Stephen said: “Imagine our excitement as we opened it, hoping against hope that it might contain a copy of some c-class virtual connect firmware that actually works.” Sadly not. What the überbox did contain was 16 smaller boxes “which in turn [each] contained (wrapped in foam so they wouldn’t get broken) exactly two sheets of A4 paper” It is hard to imagine what management system … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Some Good IT Business Ideas

Posted on July 22, 2008 by John Hunter

Paul Graham has some excellent ideas. I have written about some of them previously: Innovation Strategy, What Business Can Learn from Open Source and Google and Paul Graham’s Latest Essay. Y Combinator, which he founded, provides seed funding. Here are some ideas they would like to fund: Outsourced IT. In most companies the IT department is an expensive bottleneck. Getting them to make you a simple web form could take months. Enter Wufoo. Now if the marketing department wants to … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, IT, Software Development | Tagged , | 1 Comment

“Pay for Performance” is a Bad Idea

Posted on July 21, 2008 by John Hunter

Pay for performance is a bad investment [the broken link was removed] by Pete Waters “Teacher pay set by the results” was the headline of a (Baltimore) Sun article I read the other day which suggested that “performance-based bonuses (were) cropping up across Maryland” in our state education system. Bonuses would be given to teachers and principals that were successful in raising test scores of students. … One of the many shortcomings of the program was that job duties were … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Rhode Island Manufacturing

Posted on July 19, 2008 by John Hunter

Manufacturing has new look in R.I. [the broken link was removed] She used the auto industry as an example, pointing out that in the early years of the last century Henry Ford manufactured Model-T’s that were all the same. The consumer today demands a choice in models, colors and a host of other features when buying a car. “Manufacturers must be able to change processes very easily and very quickly,” she said, to meet constantly changing consumer demands. The closing … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Economics, Lean thinking, Manufacturing

California Uses More Gas than China

Posted on July 17, 2008 by John Hunter

Amazing Stat: California Uses More Gas than China [the broken link was removed]: California alone uses more gasoline than any country in the world (except the US as a whole, of course). That means California’s 20 billion gallon gasoline and diesel habit is greater than China’s! (Or Russia’s. Or India’s. Or Brazil’s. Or Germany’s.) That’s according to the California Energy Commission’s State Alternative Fuels Plan [the broken link was removed], which was posted online last Christmas Eve (pdf). The whole … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Data, Economics | Tagged ,

Management Improvement Carnival #39

Posted on July 15, 2008 by John Hunter

“Certifications” – Buying Credibility? by Mark Rosenthal – “if you are looking for your own professional development, and look at a program for what it is: An academic education, and possibly an opportunity to establish professional network, then go for it. Just don’t go in believing that ‘being certified’ means a whole lot else.” Toyota Invests In Workers Instead of Laying Them Off by Mark Graban – “You can treat people as expendable costs or an asset to train and … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , ,

Outcome and In-Process Measures

Posted on July 14, 2008 by John Hunter

An outcome measure is used to measure the success of a system. For example, the outcome measure could be the percentage of people who do not get polio (the result). An output measure, for example, would be the number of people vaccinated with the polio vaccine (the output). Often we measure inputs (amount of money spent) or outputs (number of people vaccinated). They are usually easy to measure but obviously less valuable proxies for what the objective of the system … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Management Blog Posts from July 2005

Posted on July 10, 2008 by John Hunter

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt – “I don’t see any reason why managers in the past shouldn’t have had the qualities he seems to be saying are needed now. And I don’t see any reason why the qualities needed now were not needed in the past.” Curious Cat Travels: Olympic National Park and Mt. St. Helens – the photo above is me in Olympic National Park. Management is Prediction – “I believe Deming’s thoughts about prediction are most effectively put … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Drucker’s Ideas at Toyota

Posted on July 8, 2008 by John Hunter

The Drucker difference and Toyota’s success [the broken link was removed] by Ira A. Jackson, dean of the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, the business school of the Claremont Colleges. Because of this core belief in the power of people, Toyota invests in people. And at the same time, the company has come to realize that when people grapple with opposing views … Embrace contradictions as a way of life. Sticking to old practices can lead to rigidity. … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , ,

Better Meetings

Posted on July 7, 2008 by John Hunter

Meetings are perennial problems. People sit through meetings and then complain about how big a waste of time it was. Here are a couple very simple tips to try and actually improve (instead of just agreeing that meetings are wasteful, but doing nothing to improve). Have an agenda (with desired outcomes – decision on x, or whatever) and stick to it (I think you can successfully adapt as the meeting goes on, but be truthful, can you do so successfully … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Verizon Provides Lousy Service = Dog Bites Man

Posted on July 3, 2008 by John Hunter

It is obvious a few companies don’t have any ability to provide even just reasonably bad service (for them the goal of decent service is so far away as to not be reasonable). How often do Verizon,

Posted in Customer focus, Management | Tagged , ,