Monthly Archives: October 2008

Global Manufacturing Data 2007

Posted on October 30, 2008 by John Hunter

The updated data from the United Nations on manufacturing output by country clearly shows the USA remains by far the largest manufacturer in the world. UN Data, in billions of current US dollars: Country 1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 USA 1,041 1,289 1,543 1,663 1,700 1,831 China 143 299 484 734 891 1,106 Japan 804 1,209 1.034 954 934 926 Germany 438 517 392 566 595 670 Russian Federation 211 104 73 222 281 362 Italy 240 226 206 … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, India, Manufacturing, quote | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Blog Posts From October 2005

Posted on October 28, 2008 by John Hunter

Box on Quality – Read articles by George Box on quality management principles (SPC, Deming, process improvement, six sigma, etc.). An except from the book provides a table of contents and an introduction. The photos shows George Box and Bill Hunter. Manufacturing and the Economy – I would guess China #1 and USA #2 in manufacturing in the year 2025. It is hardly a failure to be the second largest manufacturing country in the world. And there is plenty that … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Get Rid of the Performance Review

Posted on October 27, 2008 by John Hunter

Get Rid of the Performance Review! by Samuel Culbert To make my case, I offer seven reasons why I find performance reviews ill-advised and bogus. … Inevitably reviews are political and subjective, and create schisms in boss-employee relationships. The link between pay and performance is tenuous at best. And the notion of objectivity is absurd; people who switch jobs often get much different evaluations from their new bosses. … Raises are then determined by the boss, and the boss’s boss, … Continue reading →

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

Appropriate Management

Posted on October 25, 2008 by John Hunter

Thinking about why appropriate technology is so effective, but underutilized (though things are much better now than they were several decades ago) can help anyone improve the solutions they adopt. I would especially encourage people to stop looking for the newest management book and actually read and adopt and re-read adopt… the excellent management books from the last 50 years Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Innovation, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Software Engineering Manager’s Lament

Posted on October 23, 2008 by John Hunter

The engineering manager’s lament by Eric Ries: In teams that follow the “pick two” agenda [quality, time or price], which two has to be resolved via a power play. In companies with a strong engineering culture, the engineers pick quality. It’s their professional pride on the line, after all. So they insist on having the final say on when a feature is “done” enough to show to customers. Business people may want to speed things up by spending more money, … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , ,

CEOs Plundering Corporate Coffers

Posted on October 22, 2008 by John Hunter

Pointy haired bosses broke the code they provided on their site for embedding a Dilbert comic, so I removed the broken code. Dogbert: “I am stepping down as CEO so I can spend more time with the money I stole from this hellhole.” Unfortunately we still have far too few people that see the obscene behavior of CEOs and their brooks brother bureaucrats as unacceptable. The behavior of many of them has been similar to that of dictators looting the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments

Flaws in Understanding Psychology Lead to Flawed Management

Posted on October 21, 2008 by John Hunter

I people are self interested and somewhat rational. However, self interest, is complex. People want to be liked, people want to be part of something good, people want to feel they are appreciated… Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Six Sigma v. Common Sense

Posted on October 20, 2008 by John Hunter

Response to LinkedIn question [the broken link was removed]: “Whether Six Sigma as a quality tool really delivers the benefits ? How does it makes difference from a common sense approach ? (Where the process wastes and the required solution is known / can be easily identified just by applying common sense)” Six sigma (or another management improvement method) can help in several ways. First, lots of things that are sensible are not done. A method to assure that more … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Quality tools, quote, Six sigma | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Posted on October 16, 2008 by John Hunter

Armand V. Feigenbaum received the 2007 National Medal of and Technology and Innovation for his leadership in the development of the economic relationship of quality costs, productivity improvement, and profitability, and for his pioneering application of economics, general systems theory and technology, statistical methods, and management principles that define The Total Quality Management approach for achieving performance excellence and global competitiveness. In 1987, Dr. W. Edwards Deming received the medal for his forceful promotion of statistical methodology, for his contributions … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #45

Posted on October 15, 2008 by John Hunter

Read the previous management carnivals. Also see the management Reddit for popular new blog posts to include in future carnivals. Hire them, fire them, do what you want with them by Jay Padinjaredath – “A quote from Deming: “In Japan when a company has to absorb a sudden economic hardship… First the corporate dividends are cut. Then the salaries and the bonuses of the top management are reduced…. Lastly, the rank and file are asked to accept pay cuts…” The … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , , , ,

Restaurant Eliminates Tipping to Improve System Performance

Posted on October 13, 2008 by John Hunter

Why Tip? by Paul Wachter When he opened the Linkery [the broken link was removed], Porter said, he hoped his employees would become as emotionally invested in the venture as he was, sharing a sense of purpose and joy in their work. … Porter instead proposed a service fee of 18 percent, to be pooled and split roughly 3 to 1 between the restaurant’s front of the house and its kitchen. … Porter, like the anti-tippers of yore, was persuaded … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Economics, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Idle Workers Busy at Toyota

Posted on October 12, 2008 by John Hunter

Idle Workers Busy at Toyota Instead of sending the workers home, as the Detroit makers often do, Toyota is keeping them at the plants, though. The employees spend their days in training sessions designed to sharpen their job skills and find better ways to assemble vehicles. … At its Princeton plant, by contrast, Toyota is using the down time to hone its workers’ quality-control and productivity skills. The company has pledged never to lay off any of its full-time employees, … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Financial Market Meltdown

Posted on October 10, 2008 by John Hunter

The financial market meltdown has grown to the point where it has profound ramifications for everyone. The common wisdom for financial market variation, for most of us, is just to focus on the long term and don’t worry about short term fluctuations. That is good advice. This panic is threatening to override that wisdom however. There are at least 2 areas to consider: personal finance and business prospects (how managers need to take this crisis into account). On personal finance … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

2008 Deming Prize: Tata Steel

Posted on October 8, 2008 by John Hunter

Tata Steel, India, has been awarded the 2008 Deming Prize. They were the only organization to receive the prize this year. Mr. B. Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel, while expressing satisfaction over this accomplishment said, “No other activity made us think so deeply about our business and relationships than the process of applying for the Deming Prize. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a fundamental way of managing business and every organization can gain from institutionalizing the culture necessary to win … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, India, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Motivate or Eliminate De-Motivation

Posted on October 7, 2008 by John Hunter

A huge failure I still see is managers thinking in a theory x way, 50 years after McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise. Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Performance Appraisal Problems

Posted on October 6, 2008 by John Hunter

More and more people are willing to state the frustration with the performance appraisal process. Some have been willing to take the logical step of eliminating that which causes problems but many still don’t think elimination of performance appraisals is acceptable. Performance Reviews: Many Need Improvement According to one study by Watson Wyatt, the human resources consulting firm, only 3 in 10 employees believed that their companies’ performance review system actually improved performance. In another study by the firm, almost … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged , ,