Monthly Archives: November 2009

No More Executive Bonuses!

Posted on November 30, 2009 by John Hunter

Henry Mintzberg, wrote an excellent article for the Wall Street Journal today, No More Executive Bonuses! Don’t pay any bonuses. Nothing. This may sound extreme. But when you look at the way the compensation game is played – and the assumptions that are made by those who want to reform it – you can come to no other conclusion. The system simply can’t be fixed. Executive bonuses – especially in the form of stock and option grants—represent the most prominent … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Management Blog Posts From March 2006

Posted on November 27, 2009 by John Hunter

Photo of sunset in Mount Rainier National Park by John Hunter Cease Mass Inspection for Quality – “Deming point 3 is ‘Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.’ Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.” Lean Management – most organizations will not seriously consider changing the current management thought process without drastic threat (bankruptcy) or numerous successful improvements that give credibility to the new management ideas… Using Design … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Deming | Tagged , ,

Making Better Decisions

Posted on November 24, 2009 by John Hunter

I think the most important thing you can do to make better decisions is to learn from the decisions you make. It sounds easy, but very few people do so effectively. The best strategy to learn from decisions is to: predict the results of your decisions write down those predictions Then analyze the results Then adjust future predictions and decisions based on what you learn Failing to do this leads most people to fail to learn from there decisions. It … Continue reading →

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

Management Improvement Carnival #82

Posted on November 22, 2009 by John Hunter

Mike Wroblewski is hosting the Management Improvement Carnival #82 on the Got Boondoggle? blog, highlights include: A Problems First Culture by Mark Rosenthal “‘Problems first’ is one of the mantras used by Phil Jenkinson, the CEO character in The Lean Manager by Michael and Freddy Ballé. Now that I have had a few weeks to let it sink in and synthesize with my mental models, I am seeing a concept that is so fundamental I would think it would be … Continue reading →

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

Lean Inventories Do Not Excuse Failing to Deliver

Posted on November 20, 2009 by John Hunter

Low inventory levels do not mean failing to have products available for customers. Now, if you manufacturing in huge batches and can’t respond to customer feedback then it might mean failure to predict customer demand does mean failure to deliver. But lean thinking has shown how to avoid this problem. People need to adopt lean manufacturing practices and gain the benefits of low inventory levels without the costs of failing to deliver what customers want. Sorry Santa, We’re Out of … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Highlights from Recent George Box Speech

Posted on November 16, 2009 by John Hunter

The JMP blog has posted some highlights from George Box’s presentation at Discovery 2009 [the broken link was removed] Infusing his entire presentation with humor and fascinating tales of his memories, Box focused on sequential design of experiments. He attributed much of what he knows about DOE [design of experiments] to Ronald A. Fisher. Box explained that Fisher couldn’t find the things he was looking for in his data, “and he was right. Even if he had had the fastest … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Design of Experiments, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Learn Lean by Doing Lean

Posted on November 13, 2009 by John Hunter

In response to: Developing Your Lean Education Plan [the broken link was removed] If you actually let the lean leaders practice lean management you are probably doing more to help them learn than anything else. Reading is great, but 10 times better when reading to find solutions you need to deal with issues you have in place. Same for going to conferences. Consultants can be a huge help, but if you just bring in consultants without allowing the changes needed … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Education, Lean thinking, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #81

Posted on November 10, 2009 by John Hunter

Womack & Jones at the Gemba: “Spread” and Innovation by Mark Graban – “Jim says, basically, that you’re always going to be innovating and if the next area thinks they can just copy, then they’re missing the point.” The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival provides links to recent management improvement blog posts. Kanban Results by David Joyce – “Through various means; working on the system… actively assigning, escalating and removing blockers, recognising and reducing bottlenecks, retrospectives, improving our process by … Continue reading →

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Management Webcast: Introduction to Lean Manufacturing

Posted on November 9, 2009 by John Hunter

Webcast introduction to lean manufacturing by Ron Pereira. This is a great 9 minute introduction to the topic, for those not familiar with lean thinking. It sets the context for lean thinking and provides some history on how lean manufacturing has developed. Get videos on learning about lean from the Gemba Academy. Related: Oranges, Pebbles, and Sand [the broken link has been removed] – Dr. Russell Ackoff Webcast on Systems Thinking – An Introduction to Deming’s Management Ideas by Peter … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast | Tagged , , , ,

Deming: There is No True Value

Posted on November 5, 2009 by John Hunter

There is no true value of anything: data has meaning based on the operational definition used to calculate the data. Walter Shewhart’s Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control, forward by W. Edwards Deming: There is no true value of anything. There is instead a figure that is produced by application of a master or ideal method of counting or measurement… no true value of the number of inhabitants within the boundaries of (e.g.) Detroit. A count of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Statistical Learning as the Ultimate Agile Development Tool by Peter Norvig

Posted on November 5, 2009 by John Hunter

Interesting lecture on Statistical Learning as the Ultimate Agile Development Tool by Peter Norvig. The webcast is likely to be of interest to a fairly small segment of readers of this blog. But for geeks it may be interesting. He looks at the advantages of machine learning versus hand programming every case (for example spelling correction). Google translate does a very good job (for computer based translation) based on machine learning. You can translate any of the pages on this … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Software Development, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #80

Posted on November 3, 2009 by John Hunter

Jamie Flinchbaugh is hosting Management Improvement Carnival #80 on his new blog, highlights include: A New Strategy for the Kaizen Blitz from Lean Homebuilding – on PDCA, kaizen, with lots of good comments To Err is Human…To Error Proof is Divine from Ankit Patel – fundamentals of error proofing from a new lean blogger Difference Between Inspect and Adapt and PDCA from Al Shalloway – yes, PDCA works even in non-deterministic systems Is the Answer Right There in Front of … Continue reading →

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