Here are some of the blog posts from the Curious Cat Management Improvement made in April 2006:
- PBS Documentary: Improving Hospitals – “Systems thinking allows leaders and staff to see the complex, modern workplace with ‘new eyes’ and turn problems into improvements. It has saved up to 50 percent in costs, thousands of lives, and avoided hundreds of thousands of medical errors.”
- Manufacturing Jobs Data: USA and China – “So 10-20% of manufacturing jobs disappeared worldwide from 1995 to 2002. China lost between 17% and 34% of their manufacturing jobs; the US lost 11.4%.”
- People: Team Members or Costs – Both Toyota and GM seek to use technology to improve but Toyota sees the technology as useful to help people to be more efficient, eliminate menial repetitive tasks, eliminate tasks that cause injury… and it seems to me GM sees technology as a way to eliminate people.
- Why are you afraid of process? – “Process management is necessary for management improvement. That is true in manufacturing, service, government, research and any other environment. The way process management will be done must be modified to be effective.”
- Most Meetings are Muda – “Given how many people know that many meetings are a waste of time, taking steps to improve meeting effectiveness is a good way to gain some credibility for management improvement activities. Doing so is very visible.”
- China’s Manufacturing Economy – “The constant mention of the erroding manufacturing sector on the USA I believe leads many to think it is shrinking and small. Yet output continues to increase and the share of worldwide manufacturing output is holding steady.”
Photo by John Hunter in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, which lies in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a few hours from Washington DC. My travel photo blog includes more pictures.
