Author Archives: John Hunter

Information Quality In Health Care

Posted on November 11, 2006 by John Hunter

The Life and Death Results of Information Quality by Doug Johnson: I believe poor information and the inability to make medical decisions with correct, complete and timely information kills more people than any single disease in the United States. In the same way we have tagged diabetes with the term “the silent killer,” poor information quality creeps into our decision-making capabilities like a thief in the night. When patients die because their blood glucose levels get too high after surgery, … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Health care, Management

Lean Education Meeting Slides

Posted on November 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Presentation slides from the joint The Lean Aerospace Initiative [the broken link was removed] and LEAN joint meeting (October 16-18, 2006) are available [the broken link was removed – the links that relied on MIT to retain historical information using technology over the long term failed. It is sad MIT doesn’t understand how to manage information using technology more effectively. They really should learn how to do the extremely basic tasks of combining technology and management if they expect to … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Management

Amazon Innovation

Posted on November 9, 2006 by John Hunter

I believe Amazon uses technology very well. They have done many innovative things. They have been less successful at turning their technology into big profits. But I continue to believe they have a good shot at doing so going forward Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management, Popular | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Five Pragmatic Practices

Posted on November 8, 2006 by John Hunter

Becoming a Great Manager: Five Pragmatic Practices by Esther Derby [the broken link was removed] 1) Decide What To Do and What Not To Do Deciding what to do and what not to do helps focus efforts on the important work – work that will contribute to the bottom line of the company. Articulating a mission has another benefit: When everyone in your group knows the mission and how the work they do contributes to it, they will be able … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Investing in Six Sigma

Posted on November 5, 2006 by John Hunter

Bank of America: Investing in Six Sigma [the broken link was removed] by Thomas Hoffman: To help the bank’s IT organization align more strategically with its businesses, Desoer has challenged her IT staff to learn more about the bank’s external customers and their needs. “The voice of the customer is what you start with when you embark on a Six Sigma piece of work,” she says. I think in reality there are several things needed at the starting block but … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Six sigma, Software Development | Tagged ,

China’s Lean Journey

Posted on November 5, 2006 by John Hunter

China’s Lean Journey [the broken link was removed] by Dennis J. Stamm: The lean initiative in China is still in its infancy, and not every company in China is inclined to invest in the latest technology, but the challenge from China to our manufacturing base is not likely to get any easier to meet. Modernization and Lean manufacturing are trends that will gain momentum as China meets increasing challenges from other low cost producers. Related: China’s Manufacturing Economy – Manufacturing … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Respect for Workers

Posted on November 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Respect at “In-N-Out” Burger: They start employees at almost $10, quite a premium over all the other fast food places that are trying to get the cheapest labor possible. … But the thing that really jumped out at me was a brief exchange with a college-age worker who left a job with a law firm to work at In-N-Out. Not only was the pay better, but they treat him with RESPECT at In-N-Out. NPR podcast: Pay Helps Keep Workers at … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | 2 Comments

No Customer Focus

Posted on November 3, 2006 by John Hunter

John Battelle writes the excellent searchblog. A recent post, Rant: The Comcast HD DVR Is Simply, Terribly Awful, provides another example of a company lacking customer focus. See the comments for even more confirmation of the lack of customer focus. The interface is simply abominable. Unintuitive and careless, it copies the major features of Tivo’s approach but fails at every single detail – and in UI design, everything is in the details. No surprisingly, it utterly misses the core purpose … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Fun, IT, Management | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

What is Wrong with MBA’s

Posted on November 2, 2006 by John Hunter

Two interesting posts from Compound Thinking: What is Management? [the broken link was removed – this is one of many examples of a good blog’s domain lapsing and being bought by someone to promote unrelated items.]: Management is helping others become great. Well said. As Deming would say management’s responsibility is to work on improving the system (to allow everyone in the system to do great work). This encompasses a wide variety of things, including: creating sensible hiring processes designing … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Education, Management | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Information Quality

Posted on November 1, 2006 by John Hunter

The 14 Points of Information Quality Transformation [the broken link was removed] by Larry English, looks at Deming’s 14 obligations of management form information quality perspective: Drive out fear of data uncertainty or data errors. Create a nonblame, nonjudgmental environment. Encourage risk to change without punishing missteps. Encourage improvement by eliminating root causes without blame. Fear often can lead to obfuscated, hidden and even faked data. And certainly it is hard to get open and honest sharing of data with … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming | Tagged

Terex Handlers: Lean Manufacturing

Posted on October 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Here is a short article about a company implementing lean: Terex Handlers implementing lean manufacturing [the broken link was removed]. The article doesn’t really shed any new insight but it is another good example of success (which are nice) and I like the truth behind this statement: Increased efficiency hasn’t led to layoffs at the company. In fact, the company has gone from 65 to 118 employees since 2004. Lean thinking is about eliminating waste not employees. Yes, a company … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles

Simple Cell Phone

Posted on October 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Awhile back we posted about the lack of simple phones now Motorola is looking at this market. See: Motorola’s Dumb Phone: Looking for more customers, the company did extensive market research in poor countries. The result: the company’s slimmest phone yet, boasting cutting-edge technology that–rather than adding complexity–extends battery life and makes the phone simpler to use. I don’t think these features are only desired in poor countries, but I am not basing that on any market research just my … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management

Lean Manufacturing Web Video

Posted on October 29, 2006 by John Hunter

Continuous Improvement Video from Genie Industries [the broken link was removed], is an interesting lean manufacturing video (via the great Panta Rei blog): The video also shows examples of their moving line, andon and pull chord, visual production status boards, point of use tools, pokayoke, lineside delivery of parts by suppliers, etc. The short video gives a nice quick overview of some lean ideas with visual examples. Recommended. Related: management webcast posts – lean thinking – more on pokayoke and … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Quality tools, webcast

Deming in Japan

Posted on October 26, 2006 by John Hunter

Great article by John Dowd [the broken link was removed], How the Japanese learned to compete: This is a key lesson because with attention to quality, the company begins a journey on a “virtuous circle” of simultaneously improving quality and lowering costs. As quality improves, there are less rework, scrap and waste of all kinds. As products become more attuned to customers’ needs, there is less effort spent producing items people don’t want. Costs go down. Quality improves. Thus paying … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , ,

Management Improvement Search Engine

Posted on October 25, 2006 by John Hunter

Google has launched a nice new feature that allows users to create customized search results. I have talked about this idea before: Improve Google. Last year I posted about Rollyo, which allowed what Google now does (using Yahoo for the underlying search). I liked Rollyo but the new Google offering is better, so I have switched to using Google. Try our Management Improvement search engine This searches, using Google technology, over 50 management improvement web sites that I have selected. … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, curiouscat.com, Fun, Google, IT, Management | Tagged ,

Lessons from Toyota’s IT Strategy

Posted on October 23, 2006 by John Hunter

Another interesting post from Panta Rei: Lessons from Toyota’s IT Strategy [the broken link was removed]: In order to use IT effectively as a tool, we think that it is important for the top management to not see IT as something that can be applied superficially. First they must see the facts of the business, the facts of the gemba, and on top of this foundation further consider the feelings of people and how to motivate them. Then rules must … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , ,