Category Archives: Books

Toyota’s Early History

Posted on January 22, 2006 by John Hunter

via Got Boondogle: A book that I recently finished is “Quest for the Dawn” by Shoji Kimoto. “Quest for the Dawn” is a fascinating true story set from about 1930 to the mid 1950s of a bold business quest to build an automobile from the ground up. The relentless inventors were Sakichi and Kiichiro Toyoda and, of course, the car manufacturer was the Toyota Motor Company. Look interesting, so I went on amazon.com and Quest for the Dawn by Shoji … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Books: Blink, Freakonomics and more

Posted on January 16, 2006 by John Hunter

I finished reading two very popular books this weekend: Freakonomics and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. While both books were enjoyable and interesting, they really seemed to offer a few good or interesting ideas stretched to fill a book. That is the same thought I had after reading The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. I found all of them fine. I found them to be worth reading, but I don’t know they warrant … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Economics, Fun | Tagged | 1 Comment

Lean Consumption

Posted on January 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean Consumption [the broken link was removed] by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, Harvard Business Review. An excellent article on the topic of their book: Lean Consumption. The Principles of Lean Consumption The concepts underlying lean consumption boil down to six simple principles that correspond closely with those of lean production. (For more on these principles, see our book Lean Thinking.) Solve the customer’s problem completely by insuring that all the goods and services work, and work together. … Continue reading →

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

Rebirth of American Industry

Posted on December 21, 2005 by John Hunter

William Waddell excellent posts on the Evolving Excellence blog are always an interesting read. He, and Norman Bodek, have published a new book, Rebirth of American Industry. Read the full Excerpt from the book [the broken link was removed]. The Evolving Excellence blog also has a post: A New Must-Read Book – From Our Own Bill Waddell [the broken link was removed]. Norman Bodek has also written: Kaikaku, The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen (with Bunji Tozawa) and The … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Lean thinking, Manufacturing | Tagged ,

Poka-Yoke Assembly

Posted on December 12, 2005 by John Hunter

Got Boondogle asks, Do you Read Instructions Carefully Before Assembly? Nope, I don’t. I expect I can make a quick judgment if I really need to or I basically get it and can put things together well enough. I expect the supplier to make very obvious anything critical. I am much less likely to read instructions that seem to be written by a lawyer, as I imagine are many others. If they provide simple, clear instructions I will use them … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Customer focus, Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Gary Hamel’s Idea Hatchery

Posted on December 4, 2005 by John Hunter

Gary Hamel’s Idea Hatchery [the broken link was removed] by Whitney Sparks: Q: So how do you hope to change the standard approach to management? A: Sometimes innovation is about creating a whole new class structure. Hierarchies are not very good at getting the best out of people. Communities are where people are most likely to give their gifts, bound not by economic dependency but [with] dreams. I’d like to make business more humane. How do you create organizations where … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Education, Innovation | Tagged | 1 Comment

IQ and Muda: Information Quality Eliminates Waste

Posted on December 1, 2005 by John Hunter

IQ and Muda: Information Quality Eliminates Waste [the broken link was removed] by Larry English The article provides an explanation of each of these 9 types of muda and relates them to information quality: There are nine types of muda in information quality: Muda of overproduction Muda of inventory Muda of repair/rejects Muda of motion Muda of processing Muda of transport Muda of waiting Muda of process failure caused by defective information Muda of wrong or suboptimized decisions caused by … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, IT, Management | Tagged ,

Box on Quality

Posted on October 11, 2005 by John Hunter

Dr. George Box is not as well known in the general management community as his ideas merit (in my biased opinion – photo of Bill Hunter and George Box). He is well know in the statistics field as one of the leading statistical minds. Box on Quality is an excellent book that gathers his essays from his 65th to 80th year. The book has just been issued in paperback (which helps as the hardback was pricey). While some of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Design of Experiments, Management, Management Articles, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Innovation in Organizations

Posted on October 10, 2005 by John Hunter

Assessing Your Organization’s Innovation Capabilities [the broken link was removed] by Clayton M. Christensen: Three classes of factors affect what an organization can and cannot do: its resources, its processes, and its values. When asking what sorts of innovations their organizations are and are not likely to be able to implement successfully, managers can learn a lot about capabilities by sorting their answers into these three categories. Innovation is one of the areas of management improvement that is not given … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, quote | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Toyota Way Fieldbook

Posted on October 6, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement The Toyota Way Fieldbook – a Practical Guide to implementing Toyota’s 4Ps by Jeffrey Liker has just been released. For this book he is joined by David Meier, and they delve into applying the concepts from his excellent book: The Toyota Way. Toyota’s 4Ps: Philosophy, Processes, People, and Partners. “The Toyota Way Fieldbook details the language, concepts, and tools that managers need to use Toyota’s success-proven practices in any organization. Readers are given valuable insights into the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Statistical Techniques for Quality

Posted on October 2, 2005 by John Hunter

A new book, Quality Engineering Applications of Statistical Design, by T. N. Goh [the broken link was removed], was recently published by Wiley. Links to three previous articles by the author are provided below. Improving on the Six Sigma Paradigm [the broken link was removed] As six sigma has taken the business world by storm in the past 15 years, many organizations have focused on acquiring and implementing the DMAIC methodology with performance benchmarks defined by “sigma levels”. However, after … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Six sigma | Tagged ,

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

Management Improvement Books

Posted on March 21, 2005 by John Hunter

My recent post on Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery , 2nd Edition reminds me I have not mentioned other good books that have been published recently. Three great books published last year are: Six Sigma Beyond the Factory Floor by Ronald D. Snee and Roger W. Hoerl. Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Management | Tagged , , , ,

Statistics for Experimenters – Second Edition

Posted on March 8, 2005 by John Hunter

The classic Statistics for Experimenters has been updated by George Box and Stu Hunter, two of the three original authors. Bill Hunter, who was my father, and the other author, died in 1986. Order online: Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery , 2nd Edition by George E. P. Box, J. Stuart Hunter, William G. Hunter. I happen to agree with those who call this book a classic, however, I am obviously biased. Google Scholar citations for the first edition … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Data, Design of Experiments, Innovation, Management, Manufacturing, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Adventure Capitalist and China Wakes

Posted on December 19, 2004 by John Hunter

I recently read two books that offered perspectives I found worthwhile and were enjoyable to read. Adventure Capitalist by Jim Rogers tracked his trip around the world by car. Previously he had documented his around the world motorcycle journey in Investment Biker. His views offer a worthwhile perspective that is often missed, in my opinion. That said I wouldn’t accept his views as the final truth they are valuable as one perspective to shed light on areas that are often … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Economics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment