Author Archives: John Hunter

Deming Prize 2006

Posted on October 22, 2006 by John Hunter

The Union of Japanese Scientists have announced the 2006 Deming Application Prize [the broken link was removed] winners: Nishizawa Electric Meters Manufacturing Co., Limited (Japan) Sanden International PTE Limited (Singapore) Sanden International, Inc. (USA) Also announced: The Deming Prize for Individuals: Dr. Yoshinori Iizuka, Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo (Japan) The Japan Quality Medal: GC Dental Products Corp. (Japan) Recently Thailand and India had been dominating the awards: 3 of 4 in 2005, 6 of 6 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged | 2 Comments

Management Consulting – Web Site Evidence

Posted on October 18, 2006 by John Hunter

In, How Wipro Adapted the Toyota Production System to IT Work [the broken link was removed], Jon Miller highlights several keys to adopting lean thinking: involve everyone, learn and then do, and learn together. In Wipro’s case they should also take advantage of what is available on lean IT thinking such as: Lean Software Development. As I have mentioned before a look at Wipro’s web site does not provide me much confidence in their commitment. Read their overview of IT … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , , ,

Deming Institute Conference: Tom Nolan

Posted on October 16, 2006 by John Hunter

I attended the annual W. Edwards Deming Institute conference this weekend: it was quite good. Tom Nolan [the broken link was removed] lead off the conference with: Developing and Applying Theory to Get Results. He discussed the theory of knowledge: how we know what we know. See my attempt to introduce the idea of the theory of knowledge within Deming’s management system. It is probably the least understood of Deming’s four areas of profound knowledge, the others areas are: knowledge … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Lean Canadian Company

Posted on October 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean and mean might not be enough [the broken link was removed] “I wanted all the machines working all the time,” Afeyan said as he watched a worker moving a stack of veneers into position for “cooking” in one of the pressing machines. That was before a “lean manufacturing” exercise changed Afeyan’s mind about how his factory should be organized. The article discusses that while great strides have been made the threat to success still exist from foreign (China) competition. … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Manufacturing

Designing In Errors

Posted on October 12, 2006 by John Hunter

TiVo’s “self-destruct button” destructs [the broken link was removed] In so doing, they’ve created a bunch of potential failures in which the user is locked out of her own equipment. It’s like those movies where an accident or a bad guy triggers the “self-destruct button” on a spaceship. Often the self-destruct button is locked away behind plexiglas and padlocks for safety, but wouldn’t it be safer not to include a single command that blows up the whole space-ship? You know … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Righter Performance Appraisal

Posted on October 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Speaking of “doing the wrong things righter” Microsoft has eliminated forced rankings in performance appraisal: to do performance appraisals righter. Microsoft exec puts her stamp on human resources: The forced curve was company policy. And it climbed up a list of employee gripes that grew as Microsoft’s stock, which accounts for much of the company’s compensation, languished. In May, after barely a year as Microsoft’s human-resources chief, Lisa Brummel swept away “artifacts of the past,” starting with the widely disliked … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Doing the Wrong Things Righter

Posted on October 8, 2006 by John Hunter

The more we manage, the worse we make things by Simon Caulkin The distinguished systems theorist Russ Ackoff describes the trap as ‘doing the wrong thing righter’. ‘The righter we do the wrong thing,’ he explains, ‘the wronger we become. When we make a mistake doing the wrong thing and correct it, we become wronger. When we make a mistake doing the right thing and correct it, we become righter. Therefore, it is better to do the right thing wrong … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Hiring the Right People

Posted on October 7, 2006 by John Hunter

The job market is an inefficient market. There are many reasons for this including relying on specification (this job requires a BS in Computer Science – no Bill Gates you don’t meet the spec) instead of understanding the system. Insisting on managing by the numbers even when the most important figures are unknown and maybe unknowable. Using HR to find the right person to work in a process they don’t understand (which reinforces the desire to focus on specifications instead … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Customer focus, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Google Shifts Focus

Posted on October 7, 2006 by John Hunter

It appears Google has decided it is time to put more resources into improving their many existing products (Gmail, News, Video, Maps, Picassa, Spreadsheets, Checkout, GoogleTalk, AdSense for Radio, GoogleReader, BlogSearch, GoogleGroups,…). That makes sense to me. When Google had few other products I think it was likely wise to push a bunch of stuff out the door quickly. Now that they have a bunch of decent, but not really great products, adjusting and taking the opportunity to improve those … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, IT, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking

Not Innovation but Still Interesting

Posted on October 5, 2006 by John Hunter

10 years of the most innovative ideas in business in not packed with ideas on innovation: it was obviously titled by someone hoping to catch the interest of those following the innovation fad. Still it has interesting stories originally published in Fast Company, including: How to Give Good Feedback [the broken link was removed] by Seth Godin The Accidental Guru (on Malcolm Gladwell) by Danielle Sacks Built to Flip [the broken link was removed] by Jim Collins A Design for … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

More on Overpaid CEO’s

Posted on October 4, 2006 by John Hunter

CEO pay up big – but not performance: The Corporate Library analyzed the compensation of nearly 1,400 chiefs for its annual report on CEO pay. The group’s median total compensation rose 16 percent between 2004 and 2005. A year earlier, CEOs got a bump of 30 percent in total compensation, which includes salary, bonus, perks, exercised stock options and other long-term incentive pay. This is more bad news. As Drucker, Buffet and many others have said CEO overpayment is bad … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Evidence-based Management

Posted on October 3, 2006 by John Hunter

Bob Sutton’s writing includes the excellent article “Management Advice: Which 90% is Crap?” (which we discussed in: Management Advice Failures) and the Knowing Doing Gap. I just discovered his blog today which is quite good: Work Matters. A recent post includes some good advice on data and process improvement Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The State of Lean Implementation

Posted on October 2, 2006 by John Hunter

Interesting survey by the Lean Enterprise Institute notes the following as the major obstacles to transforming to a lean organization. 1 Lack of implementation know-how: 48% 2 Backsliding to the old ways of working: 48% 3 Middle management resistance: 40% 4 Traditional cost accounting system doesn’t recognize the value of lean: 38% I wonder if asking why several more times would help [broken link replaced with a new link]? It is not as though the difficulty in adopting lean thinking … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , ,

Why Pay Taxes or be Honest

Posted on October 1, 2006 by John Hunter

This kind of stuff makes me mad. I was taught about robber barons in school (or actually I think by my uncle but…). And what I was taught was that business used to be seen as an amoral area. But then society agreed (or rather it no longer was an accepted excuse to claim business was an amoral area) that morality applied to whatever you did, whether you were at work, or not. But we keep getting these continuing examples … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lean is Harmony

Posted on September 30, 2006 by John Hunter

In Mike Wroblewski’s capstone, to his posts on his tour of lean manufacturing in Japan, he states: My lean manufacturing epiphany is quite simple, LEAN IS HARMONY. … The lean principles are helping us develop and promote harmony by removing barriers, rocks, and conflicts that disrupt flow in our business. Yes, lean is about eliminating waste and using great lean tools to improve our business but that is all we seem to focus on in the US. Lean principles are … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Six sigma, Systems thinking

Meeting Like Google

Posted on September 29, 2006 by John Hunter

How to Run a Meeting Like Google [the broken link was removed], offers good advice like agendas distributed ahead of time, having a note taker… Instead, she encourages such comments as “The experimentation on the site shows that his design performed 10% better.” This works for Google, because it builds a culture driven by customer feedback data, not the internal politics that pervade so many of today’s corporations. Also definitely read: Most Meetings are Muda and meeting advice from 37 … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , , | 1 Comment