Category Archives: Deming

Conference Calls with Scholtes and Joiner

Posted on September 23, 2008 by John Hunter

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s Enterprise Thinking Network Ongoing Discussion series this month features conference calls with Peter Scholtes (Thursday, September 25th, Noon to 2pm Pacific Time – USA) and Brian Joiner (Friday the 26th, Noon to 2pm Pacific Time – USA). See more details [the broken link was removed] and register online. Peter’s books (The Team Handbook and The Leader’s Handbook) are thought pieces for Thursday’s conversation with Peter. As a place to begin the conversation with Peter, we might … Continue reading →

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

Agile PDSA

Posted on September 16, 2008 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming encouraged the use of the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle to improve. Agile Management encourages a similar mindset – to test out ideas in practice and adapt quickly. A key to both strategies is to quickly iterate over possible solutions. Tesco provides an example of this strategy: This was our first opening since we took our 12 week pause, after we had opened 61 stores at breakneck speed. We used that time to reflect on what customers had told us they … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Our Failed Health-care System

Posted on September 10, 2008 by John Hunter

The bad idea behind our failed health-care system by Malcolm Gladwell One of the great mysteries of political life in the United States is why Americans are so devoted to their health-care system. … Americans spend $5,267 per capita on health care every year, almost two and half times the industrialized world’s median of $2,193; the extra spending comes to hundreds of billions of dollars a year. What does that extra spending buy us? Americans have fewer doctors per capita … Continue reading →

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

New Management Truths Sometimes Started as Heresies

Posted on September 7, 2008 by John Hunter

‘New’ management truths sometimes started as heresies by Cecil Johnson “The most effective management ideas follow a life cycle — from heresy to outlier (championed by a small group of people) to ingrained practice to conventional wisdom,” Kleiner writes. “In the process, if they are genuinely powerful management ideas, they distinguish the organizations that adopt them.” One of the management heresies focused upon by Kleiner that has morphed into accepted management wisdom of the highest order is the Toyota Production … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, quote, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Future Directions for Agile Management

Posted on August 25, 2008 by John Hunter

Agile management (agile software development specifically) is something that makes a big difference in my work life. David Anderson consistently provides great ideas on agile management and he does so again in this 90 minute presentation on the future directions for agile. As I learned about agile software development, what I saw was a great implementation of management improvement practices focused on software development that was very compatible with Deming’s management philosophy and lean thinking practices. The Agile manifesto: Individuals … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, IT, Lean thinking, Management, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Don’t Do What Your Users Say

Posted on August 11, 2008 by John Hunter

In, Don’t do what your users say [the broken link was removed], Hanford Lemoore, provides a nice illustration of why customer focus is important but must be done with care. in UI design it’s important to understand that what a user says and what a user is telling you can be two different things. … I got a good variety of comments back. Constructive thoughts. But I noticed an interesting trend: The most common thing suggested was “Add an undo … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , ,

“Pay for Performance” is a Bad Idea

Posted on July 21, 2008 by John Hunter

Pay for performance is a bad investment [the broken link was removed] by Pete Waters “Teacher pay set by the results” was the headline of a (Baltimore) Sun article I read the other day which suggested that “performance-based bonuses (were) cropping up across Maryland” in our state education system. Bonuses would be given to teachers and principals that were successful in raising test scores of students. … One of the many shortcomings of the program was that job duties were … Continue reading →

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

Outcome and In-Process Measures

Posted on July 14, 2008 by John Hunter

An outcome measure is used to measure the success of a system. For example, the outcome measure could be the percentage of people who do not get polio (the result). An output measure, for example, would be the number of people vaccinated with the polio vaccine (the output). Often we measure inputs (amount of money spent) or outputs (number of people vaccinated). They are usually easy to measure but obviously less valuable proxies for what the objective of the system … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Better Meetings

Posted on July 7, 2008 by John Hunter

Meetings are perennial problems. People sit through meetings and then complain about how big a waste of time it was. Here are a couple very simple tips to try and actually improve (instead of just agreeing that meetings are wasteful, but doing nothing to improve). Have an agenda (with desired outcomes – decision on x, or whatever) and stick to it (I think you can successfully adapt as the meeting goes on, but be truthful, can you do so successfully … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Management Improvement Jobs

Posted on June 25, 2008 by John Hunter

Curious Cat Management Improvement Career Connections provides a source of jobs targeted to those interested in this blog. Take a look at the jobs listed now including: Lean Manager at Erlanger in Kentucky; Senior Lean Six Sigma Specialist at Cooper Crouse-Hinds in New York and CEO of Jefferson State Forest Products in California. At the recent Deming Seminar in Colorado Springs I met the CEO of upstream21, which owns Jefferson State Forest Products: Bryan Redd. He has a great understanding … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged ,

Zipcar Innovation

Posted on June 21, 2008 by John Hunter

Zipcar is an intriguing idea where you rent cars by the hour. The whole process is a significant change from the previous rental model (gas, parking and insurance included). Zipcar makes deals with local governments to secure zipcar parking near public transportation. They also have deals with universities, apartment buildings and businesses all of which provides a new level of easy customer access with cars available in many locations. The internet is used to schedule and provide up to date … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

Respect for Employees at Southwest Airlines

Posted on June 12, 2008 by John Hunter

“You have to treat your employees like customers” “We’ve never had layoffs,” he told me the day before the annual meeting, sitting on the couch of the single messiest executive office I’ve ever seen. “We could have made more money if we furloughed people. But we don’t do that. And we honor them constantly. Our people know that if they are sick, we will take care of them. If there are occasions or grief or joy, we will be there … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking

Continual Improvement

Posted on June 10, 2008 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming used the term continual improvement (rather than continuous improvement) later in his life because that would include continuous and dis-continuous improvement (innovation, etc.). I use continual improvement for that reason also. I think the improvement process must be never ending must focus daily on how any process can be improved must focus on adopting improvement systemically (not just locally, by one person or team) must focus on discontinuous improvement which could include high energy kaizen events and dramatic … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

Deming Auto Repair

Posted on May 20, 2008 by John Hunter

Here is an interesting example of an auto repair shop applying Deming’s ideas, AGCO Automotive in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: In this section we hope to present our business philosophy, through a series of articles written by president Louis Altazan. Our strategy of continual improvement is based on the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and has been incredibly successful for us. There is nothing we enjoy more than discussing our methods and invite all questions and comments. The site includes … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Toyota Execution Not Close to Being Copied

Posted on May 7, 2008 by John Hunter

The Open Secret of Success Toyota’s innovations, by contrast, have [focused] on process rather than on product, on the factory floor rather than on the showroom. That has made those innovations hard to see. But it hasn’t made them any less powerful. At the core of the company’s success is the Toyota Production System, which took shape in the years after the Second World War, when Japan was literally rebuilding itself, and capital and equipment were hard to come by. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Popular, quote, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

I Don’t Know

Posted on May 5, 2008 by John Hunter

Guest post by David Kerridge (originally posted to the Deming Electronic Network): This is part of a series in which I recall striking or thought-provoking things that W. Edwards Deming said, but did not put into his books. I remember taking a manager to his first Deming 4-day seminar. Afterwards my friend said to me “I was very impressed with that man. He said ‘I don’t know.’” Something in our culture makes us ashamed to admit ignorance. We expect quick, … Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com, Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged , | 2 Comments