Monthly Archives: October 2012

Going Beyond Quality Makes No Sense – There is No Border to Move Beyond

Posted on October 24, 2012 by John Hunter

This month, Paul Borawski selected the topic of going beyond the traditional quality function for discussion by ASQ’s Influential Voices. I don’t pay much attention to the tradition role for quality. Dr. Deming’s ideas, for well over half a century, have emphasized the importance of improving the entire management system and the entire enterprise. That systems view is the way I think and act. When a quality office exists that office has a role to play within the system. So, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Process Thinking: Process Email Addresses

Posted on October 18, 2012 by John Hunter

This is just a simple tip. When providing email address think about what the purpose is. If it is to contact a specific person then an individual’s email address makes sense. But if you are really emailing the software testing manager then it may well make sense to provide people the email address software_testing_manager@ Essentially, I think it is often sensible to break out email addresses for specific functions or processes. Then the email address can just be routed to … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Process improvement | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #180

Posted on October 15, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Carnival is published twice each month. The posts selected for the carnival focus on the areas of management improvement I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Improvement Guide since 1996: Deming, lean manufacturing, customer focus, six sigma, systems thinking, respect for employees… Dr. Deming on Innovation by John Hunter – “What you need to do is know your customers (and potential customers) and business so well that you can innovate to meet their unmet … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival | 1 Comment

The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog

Posted on October 11, 2012 by John Hunter

I am authoring the new W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog. Make sure you subscribe to the Deming Institute blog’s RSS feed if you want to keep up with my posts there. Some of the posts so far: Dr. Deming on Innovation 2012 Deming Prize Winners Video of Dr. W. Edwards Deming: Deadly Diseases of Western Management I will continue posting to this blog (the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog): subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog. Related: My New … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming | Tagged , ,

Double Loop Learning Presentation by Benjamin Mitchell

Posted on October 8, 2012 by John Hunter

Benjamin Mitchell – Using the Mutual Learning Model to achieve Double Loop Learning [the original video is not online anymore, I replaced it with another presentation by Benjamin on the same topic at a different conference at close to the same time – JH] Benjamin Mitchell presents ideas using Chris Argyris thinking on double-loop learning. “Double-loop learning occurs when error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and objectives.” Single loop … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , , ,

Special Cause Signal Isn’t Proof A Special Cause Exists

Posted on October 3, 2012 by John Hunter

One of my pet peeves is when people say that a point outside the control limits is a special cause. It is not. It is an indication that it likely a special cause exists, and that special cause thinking is the correct strategy to use to seek improvement. But that doesn’t mean there definitely was a special cause – it could be a false signal. This post relies on an understand of control charts and common and special causes (review … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Six sigma, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #179

Posted on October 1, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Blog Carnival has been published since 2006. The carnival links to great management blog posts; it is published twice a month. I hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. Follow me online: Google+, Twitter and elsewhere. Lean Versus Historical TPS by Art Smalley – “identify what are your impediments to improvement and work on those. In particular as what are barriers to higher equipment uptime, higher process capability, safer … Continue reading →

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