Monthly Archives: May 2012

Customers Are Often Irrational

Penney Pinching “The first rule is that there are no irrational customers,” Drucker wrote in Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. “Customers almost without exception behave rationally in terms of their own realities and their own situation.” “in terms of their own … Continue reading

Posted in Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Better Management in Government

This month Paul Borawski (CEO of ASQ) has asked the ASQ Influential Voices to share their thoughts on quality management in the public sector. I have been involved in quality improvement in government at the Office of Secretary of Defense … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Public Sector | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #167

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Carnival has been published since 2006. We find great management blog posts and share them with you 3 times a month. We hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to … Continue reading

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Richard Feynman Explains the PDSA Cycle

Ok, really Richard Feynman Explains the scientific method. But his thoughts make the similarity between the PDSA cycle and the scientific method obvious. 1) Plan, hypothesis. You make a guess about a theory (in using the PDSA cycle this step … Continue reading

Posted in Process improvement, Quality tools, Science | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #166

Tim McMahon is hosting the Management Improvement Blog Carnival #166, highlights include: Performance Organizations – Art Smalley answers why is there such a resistance to creating learning organizations and why are leaders letting the future deteriorate without doing anything about … Continue reading

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Long Term Thinking with Respect for People

Toyota nearly went bankrupt near 1950 and had to lay off a third of their employees. A huge focus of the Toyota Production System as envisioned by Taiichi Ohno was to secure the long term success of the company. The … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Production System

In this post I explore my thoughts about what lean (lean manufacturing, lean thinking…) means. The way I think about it is that lean manufacturing sprung from Toyota. It seems to me the lean manufacturing name was meant to capture … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #165

Matt May is hosting the 165th Management Improvement Carnival. He takes a look at the wonderful manifestos posted at ChangeThis. ChangeThis really is wonderful, if you haven’t already been looking at what they offer you are in for a treat … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged | 1 Comment