Author Archives: John Hunter

Using Lean and Six Sigma in Project Management

Posted on September 12, 2005 by John Hunter

Using Lean and Six Sigma in Project Management by Derrell S. James, Quality Digest: Our subject company used tools such as 5S to establish consistent workforce organization and improve productivity per square foot of space. They used standard work to ensure consistency of the most optimal methods and communicated these to its manufacturing divisions throughout North America. By reducing inhibitors to just-in-time manufacturing, they reduced inventories, total cycle time and internal costs. However, the quality of that velocity is forever … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles

Measurement and Data Collection

Posted on September 10, 2005 by John Hunter

This is my response to the Deming Electronic Network message (the site is dead, so I removed the link) on measurement. I find it useful to ask what will be done with the results of data collection efforts (in order to confirm that the effort is a wise use of resources). If you don’t have an answer for how you will use the data, once you get it, then you probably shouldn’t waste resources collecting it (and I find there … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, quote, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Keeping High Tech Jobs

Posted on September 8, 2005 by John Hunter

Keeping High-Tech Valley Jobs [the broken link was removed] by Ed Taylor, East Valley Tribune (Arizona) via Lean Manufacturing Blog: The company was able to make the move in part be cause of new lean manufacturing techniques adopted in Phoenix that increased the capacity of the plant by 25 percent without additional capital spending, Hall said. Engineers achieved that by changing the layout in the fab and reducing losses in the manufacturing process, Hall said. And employees were trained in … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles

North Cascades National Park Photos

Posted on September 7, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Travel Photos I finally have posted photos from my June 2005 trip to North Cascades National Park. See more photos from the same trip: Mount Saint Helens, Olympic National Park, North Cascade National Park. Photos from other trips: Curious Cat Travel Photos.

Posted in Management

Deming and Six Sigma

Posted on September 7, 2005 by John Hunter

My message in response to messages on Six Sigma [broken link has been removed] on the Deming Electronic Network: I think the DEN members criticizing the problems with Six Sigma make valid points. However, I personally think they often go too far. That is my opinion, and each of us have our own views. While some (probably even many) of the Six Sigma exhortations for Six Sigma quality would properly be seen as a slogan or a target without a … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Six sigma | Tagged | 4 Comments

Six Sigma Pitfalls

Posted on September 7, 2005 by John Hunter

Six-Sigma Pitfalls [the broken link was removed] by Marc S. Morrison, Industry Week. Are Differences In Implementation Creating Different Results? In a word, yes. While an amazingly simple idea, people seem to forget this quite often. When people say “Six Sigma is great” or “Six Sigma is a waste” often they are talking about different things. But because in both instances “Six Sigma” is used people believe that the meaning must be the same in both cases. It often isn’t. … Continue reading →

Posted in Six sigma

Car Navigation Systems

Posted on September 7, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement Thinking About in-car Navigation Systems by Robert Scoble: What’s frustrating is there’s no way to report a mistake. So, everyone who has Toyota’s system is doomed to repeat the same errors. While Toyota is doing great things they still have things to learn. As the quote above indicates they don’t think like software companies. Software companies have learned to take every advantage of the internet to collect feedback. And those used to such system will find fault … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, IT, Management

Innovation and Customer Focus

Posted on September 5, 2005 by John Hunter

Katrina – the landline – Telecom’s Response [the broken link was removed] by Stuart Henshall via Scobleizer Is it too much to ask Bell South to: * Let displaced account holders log in and claim their accounts (phone numbers) via the Internet. * Offer every subscriber in the devastated area a free soft phone with voice mail that replicates their old home number? Softphones that would do the job are available. If the numbers were transferable then Skype could probably … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Life Beyond the Short Term

Posted on September 4, 2005 by John Hunter

Life Beyond the Short Term by Simon Caulkin, The Observer. Last week’s column – ‘Adrift in a parallel universe‘ – about the perversion of management provoked an eloquent, sometimes passionate, response. … In the spirit of a positive alternative, a prime text is W Edwards Deming’s 14-point programme for transforming management, drawn up in the 1980s. Once again Simon Caulkin has penned an excellent article. In this article he gives an overview of Deming’s 14 points. I am glad to … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Statistics for Experimenters Data

Posted on September 4, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Statistics, Six Sigma, Management Improvement Data files for Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery , 2nd Edition by George Box, Stu Hunter and Bill Hunter, are available online. We maintain on online resource for those using Statistics for Experimenters. Visit the page to find resources, or to let us know about resources (data sets, exercises, etc.) for those using the book. Google Scholar results for the book.

Posted in Books, Management, Statistics | 1 Comment

Fixing Healthcare from the Inside

Posted on September 3, 2005 by John Hunter

Fixing Healthcare From the Inside, Today by Steven J. Spear, Harvard Business Review (PHBs broke the link so I removed it). To understand how the improvements were achieved, it is necessary to appreciate why such a gap exists between the U.S. health care system’s performance and the skills and intentions of the people who work in it. Best efforts are not the answer, as Deming said. The changes I’ve described at West Penn were individually small, but taken together they … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management | Tagged | 1 Comment

Visually Lean

Posted on September 2, 2005 by John Hunter

Lean From The Get-Go [the broken link has been removed] by Derek Korn. This short article does a nice job of illustrating several interesting lean concepts in practice. Work areas that are compact, but not cramped, not only promote efficient motion, but also improve scheduling accuracy by allowing a more precisely predictable determination of a job’s total cycle time. This total cycle time is not just the time a machine is producing chips; it takes into account all factors involved … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles | Tagged | 1 Comment

Appeal for Marketers to Apply Deming’s Ideas

Posted on September 1, 2005 by John Hunter

Ego Systems by Doug Hall, CMO (Chief Marketing Officers magazine) [who have now broken the link, so I removed it. Really smart marketing, guys]: Deming’s methods can transform innovation success for CMOs just as they did for Toyota. For some reason, though, sales and marketing don’t get it. Instead of fixing the innovation system, they change the people. And then they expect a miracle. Some resources for marketing management improvement. Free, Perfect, and Now (book) by Robert Rodin explores his … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management Articles

What Kind of Management Does This?

Posted on August 31, 2005 by John Hunter

Already Mired in Sales Slump, Gap Closes Two Most Popular Internet Stores Both Gap.com and OldNavy.com have been closed for the past week, driving frustrated shoppers like Kira Storch of San Francisco to other Web sites to buy clothes. … Hoping to minimize the customer inconvenience, Gap waited until after most back-to-school shopping had been finished before launching a “soup-to-nuts” overhaul of its major e-commerce sites, said company spokeswoman Kris Marubio. She said the changes were too complex to enable … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Software Development | 1 Comment

Deming and the New York Times

Posted on August 31, 2005 by John Hunter

Steve Brant, in All The News That’s FIT To Print, mentions that the New York Times applied some of Deming’s ideas in the past. He also links to several articles that mention those attempts. One article is from the The New Yorker by Ken Auletta, 1993: Opening Up The Times: Sulzberger [the Times’ publisher] has prescribed the management theories of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a professor emeritus at New York University and a business philosopher whose theories helped revitalize Japanese … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Statistical Consulting

Posted on August 30, 2005 by John Hunter

In the current issue of AMSTAT News (American Satistical Association) the President’s letter is focused on Statistical Consulting and W. Edwards Deming. He makes a good point, echoing those others have been making for quite some time: More and more, we need to define ourselves, perhaps as an internal consultant, by striking out on our own. That self-defined role is a lot more challenging, risky, and fun, too! ASA bio of Deming – Curious Cat biography of Deming The Curious … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Statistics | 1 Comment