Management Improvement Blog Carnival #182

The Curious Cat Management Blog Carnival has been published since 2006. The carnival, published twice a month, links to great, recent, management blog posts. I hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. Follow me online: Google+, Twitter and elsewhere.

• How to Build it: Lean Prototyping Techniques for Hardware – “Good user feedback is essential, and this feedback should guide making the next round of prototypes. It is an iterative cycle. The key to making good products is making mistakes early and learning from them. This is best done through prototyping and getting user feedback.”
• 3 Reasons Why Layoffs Don’t Benefit Hospitals in the Long Run by Bob Herman – “Dr. Gruner says ThedaCare has had a “no layoff” philosophy and commitment to Lean techniques, similar to Scripps, since 2003. He agrees with Mr. Van Gorder, saying layoffs are only a patchwork strategy with immediate financial gains and long-term financial and cultural losses. However, focusing on the retention of employees without layoffs is actually the simpler strategy — it just requires an undying commitment and focus.”


Hoh River Trail, Hoh River trail, Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Park by John Hunter

• The Greatest Waste by John Hunter – “The sentiment of failing to use the ability of people is not that uncommon. But putting the thought and effort behind changing that failure is. Dr. Deming consistently re-inforced the creation of a management system that sought to take advantage of the ability of people.”
• Coach Says: What Do You Think? by John Shook – “Your challenge will be to find a way to reconcile the apparent contradiction. You need to reconcile them not to satisfy the sensei (absolutely not for that reason) but to deepen your own learning. Presume that there is some truth in what both sensei are telling you. You need to determine just what that truth is and how you can make sense of it in this specific situation.”
• Andon Cords at the Toyota Takaota Plant by Mark Graban – “They pull the cord and a light flashes on an ‘andon board’ It tells the team leader which station has a problem (and music plays). Within seconds, a team leader (having two stripes on his hat) shows up to help. There is one team leader for every eight workers, on average (or 14% of their labor waiting for problems or responding to them).”
• Climate change and SPC by Rob van Stekelenborg – “When we look at the natural process limits since 1901 (that represent the so called “voice-of-the-process”) we can see that in the past 110 years they have been slowly adjusted upward by some 15%.”
• Maximize Software Tester Value by Letting Them Spend More Time Thinking by John Hunter – “The software test planer needs to use their knowledge, experience and creativity to determine what factors and parameters are critical to test. Then Hexawise generates a test plan that provides maximum coverage with the fewest possible tests.”
• A Salesman’s Gemba – “The defect was eliminated, the cost was reduced, our profit on the product increased, and Muri at both ends of pipeline was eradicated – all because a field salesman had been to his Gemba.”
• Eight Ways to Avoid the Kaizen Roach Motel by Mark Hamel – “An effective lean management system helps drive good standardize-do-check-adjust (SDCA) and plan-do-check-adjust (PDCA) thinking. It integrates solid visual controls, andon response, leader standard work, and regular team reflection meetings during which the team engages in, or at least initiates, problem-solving and then follows through.”
• Business 901 Podcast with John Hunter: Deming’s Management Ideas Today by John Hunter – I discussed some of my history with Dr. Deming’s ideas on management and my thoughts on the application of those ideas today.