Author Archives: John Hunter

What is Lean Six Sigma?

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

What is Lean Six Sigma? – slides from a presentation [the broken link was removed] at MAQIN [the broken link was removed] (Madison Area Quality Improvement Network). FYI, I manage MAQIN’s web site [make that, I used to manage – I wouldn’t have allowed broken links to be created if I was still responsible for the site] and author this blog – John Hunter. I rarely link to slide presentations, but when the slides seem interesting enough I do link … Continue reading →

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Not Lean Retailing

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

Renovating Home Depot [the broken link was removed], Business Week It is always dangerous to make too much of a magazine article, but Home Depot seems to be moving away from lean thinking in the following examples, to me anyway. The Home Depot founders: allowed store managers immense autonomy. “Whether it was an aisle, department, or store, you were truly in charge of it,” says former store operations manager… These days every major decision and goal at Home Depot flows … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , ,

Executives Participating in Kaizen Events

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

The Masco Mapmakers [the broken link was removed] by Bill Waddell Guys from Brasscraft or Morgantown Plastics might go to a Delta faucet plant for the event – and note that these are executives, not factory level folks – that spend the week working on the kaizens. Of course, the Grand Kaizens are not the only ones. Individual plants hold their own kaizens by the hundreds. The primary purpose of the Grand Kaizen is to spread the lean message throughout … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing | Tagged , ,

Made in the USA

Posted on February 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Is ‘Made in U.S.A.’ back in vogue? [the broken link was removed] As the need for speed in fashion retailing becomes ever more crucial to merchants, industry observers say “Made in U.S.A” is once again looking more attractive to some U.S. retailers versus importing from China. … The company used to import 70 percent of its merchandise from China and elsewhere and manufactured a smaller 30 percent of it in the U.S. Today it manufactures 60 percent locally and imports … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking | Tagged | 2 Comments

Theory in Practice

Posted on February 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Theory Meets Reality In The Heartland [the broken link was removed] by Bill Waddell: An old boss of mine was fond of saying, “There are few things in life more tragic than to see your beautiful theories murdered by a gang of brutal facts,” usually when I approached him with a hare brained idea about turning one of our manufacturing systems inside out. Those who only think about theories don’t accomplish much. And those that don’t have theories don’t either. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management Articles | 2 Comments

Lean Manufacturing Success

Posted on February 27, 2006 by John Hunter

K&S makes first shipment to China [the broken link was removed] by Buzz Ball The award was given for K&S Wire’s continuous improvement in manufacturing excellence and its implementation of “lean” enterprise principles into its everyday operations. It is because of these principles that Schwartz was able to make the announcement about the shipment to China. “We took the order to construct 111,000 wire frames that will hold flip-flops,” said Schwartz. “Because of our ‘lean’ principles, our price was better … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing | Tagged

Lean Retailing

Posted on February 26, 2006 by John Hunter

Teaching the Big Box New Tricks [the broken link was removed, *sigh* yet another website fails basic long term thinking related to usability, while saying they are aiming to help others adopt better management practices.] Tesco in Britain has been a pioneer in lean provision for more than a decade. In the mid-1990s, as he looked at the opportunities for retailers provided by the emergence of lean logistics, Graham Booth, Tesco’s supply-chain director (now retired) had a very simple insight: … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Process improvement | 1 Comment

Manufacturing’s Influential Thinkers

Posted on February 26, 2006 by John Hunter

Manufacturing’s Influential Thinkers and Doers [the broken link was removed] by John S. McClenahen This article includes many of those I feel have contributed to the improvement of management over the last 35 years including: W. Edwards Deming, Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo, Gary Hamel and Eliyahu M. Goldratt. However, “the best manufacturing thinkers of the last several decades” are Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo, contends Mercer’s Slywotzky. Ohno was a Toyota Motor Co. vice president and Shingo a consultant. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Deming’s 14 Obligations of Management

Posted on February 25, 2006 by John Hunter

Deming and his 14 Points [the broken link was removed] with comments from the Random Thoughts from a CTO blog. Curious Cat’s Deming on Management Deming’s 14 Points on the Curious Cat site 2 minute webcast of Deming (and Robert Reich) on constancy of purpose [the broken link was removed] Constancy of Purpose definition

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

La-Z-Boy Lean

Posted on February 25, 2006 by John Hunter

La-Z-Boy changing production lines to compete with China [the broken link was removed]: But in an attempt to better compete with the overseas market, the Neosho plant, along with six others in its division, is transitioning to the Lean Cellular Manufacturing method. In the new concept, the chair or sofa is manufactured by a team within a cell, thus eliminating separate departments. No jobs will be lost in the transition from batch-and-queue to lean cellular. “Basically, we will have teams … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing | Tagged

Innovation at Toyota

Posted on February 24, 2006 by John Hunter

The Birth of the Prius by Alex Taylor III: By the end of 1993 the development team had determined that higher oil prices and a growing middle class around the world would require the new car to be both roomy and fuel-efficient. Other than that, they were given no guidance. “I was trying to come up with the future direction of the company,” says Watanabe, who headed corporate planning at the time. “I didn’t have a very specific idea about … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

2006 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing

Posted on February 23, 2006 by John Hunter

2006 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing [the broken link was removed, I am continually amazed by organizations that do things like delete press releases, sigh, and a new waste created by poorly managing web resources] American manufacturing continues to experience turbulent times in maintaining and growing manufacturing jobs. The only business approach that has demonstrated superior achievement is Lean Enterprise Management (the Toyota Production System), the foundation of the Shingo Prize. All 14 companies to be recognized in 2006 … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Manufacturing | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Global Manufacturing Data by Country

Posted on February 22, 2006 by John Hunter

I am still looking for a good source for manufacturing data by country and year. Today I found some data from the United Nations Statistics Division. The data for the top five manufacturing economies: China, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. Figures are in current $US billion. The data used is for Mining, Manufacturing and Utilities (because China and Germany do not have manufacturing data separated out). Country 2001 2002 2003 2004 United States 1,781 1,779 1,876 2,012 Japan … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics, Manufacturing, Popular, quote | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Quality Customer Focus

Posted on February 21, 2006 by John Hunter

Delivering Two Kinds of Quality [the broken link was removed] by Keith McFarland, Business Week: What do the Japanese take for granted when it comes to quality? They take for granted that things should work as they are supposed to, and they even see an elegance to things working properly — whether it’s cars, subway schedules, traditional flower arranging, or the famous tea ceremony. Japanese manufacturers were so obsessed with taken-for-granted quality that they created a constant stream of innovations … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Management Articles, Quality tools | Tagged , , , ,

John Simpson

Posted on February 20, 2006 by John Hunter

This is the best I can do to create my Simpson self. Until I have a guest appearance on the show, I guess this will have to do. You can try for yourself using the Simpson Maker [the broken link was removed]: post a comment with a link to your character. Here is a photo of the real John Hunter (Glacier National Park, 2005):

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Six Sigma and the Mobile Workforce

Posted on February 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Six Sigma and the Mobile Workforce [the broken link was removed] by Lynda Finn and Sue Reynard: This type of data collection also helps process owners or managers spot systemic problems that appear across processes. For example, a process owner reviewing all field agent reports may detect problems appearing in more than one location. Now, a fix made in one location can be incorporated into MTA based systems so all agents will benefit immediately. This type of systemic leveraging of … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged