Category Archives: Deming

Revolutionary Management Improvement May Be Needed But Most Management Change is Evolutionary

Posted on August 26, 2014 by John Hunter

This month the ASQ Influential Bloggers were asked to respond to the question – will the future of quality be evolutionary or revolutionary? I think it has been and will continue to be both. Revolutionary change is powerful but very difficult for entrenched people and organizations to actually pull off. It is much easy to dream about doing so. Often even revolutionary ideas are adopted in a more evolutionary way: partial adoption of some practices based on the insight provided … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Toyota Posts Record Profit: Splits $15 million in Pay and Bonus for top 21 Executives

Posted on June 2, 2014 by John Hunter

After posting record profits of $17.9 billion Toyota proposes to increase the pay and bonus for the top 21 executives to $14.9 million. That is not as you might expect just the increase in the bonus to the CEO. That is the entire pay and bonus for the top 21 executives. That places all 21 together below the top 50 CEO paydays in the USA. Toyota’s net income for the year surged 89.5%. While the profits are partially due to … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Deming, Investing, Management, Popular, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Cognition: How Your Mind Can Amaze and Betray You

Posted on May 27, 2014 by John Hunter

The webcast above is from the excellent folks at Crash Course. This webcast provides another view into the area of Deming’s management system on the theory of knowledge (the one most people forget), how we know what we know and how that belief isn’t always right. Two of the four components of Dr. Deming’s management system were about our brains (psychology is the other) which makes a great deal of sense when you think about how focused he was on … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Psychology | Tagged , , , ,

George Box Articles Available for a Short Time

Posted on May 14, 2014 by John Hunter

A collection of George Box articles have been selected for a virtual George Box issue by David M. Steinberg and made available online. George E. P. Box died in March 2013. He was a remarkably creative scientist and his celebrated professional career in statistics was always at the interface of science and statistics. George Box, J. Stuart Hunter and Cuthbert Daniel were instrumental in launching Technometrics in 1959, with Stu Hunter as the initial editor. Many of his articles were … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Psychology, Public Sector | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Interview on PDSA, Deming, Strategy and More

Posted on May 8, 2014 by John Hunter

Bill Fox interviewed me and has posted part one of the interview on his web site: Predicting Results in the Planning Stage (sorry, the link has been hijacked to forward to an unrelated page [so obviously I removed the link], I have posted the interview which can now be reached here): Bill: John, what is your best process improvement strategy or tactic that has worked well for you or your clients? John: I would say the PDSA improvement cycle and … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Analysis Must be Implemented by People to Provide Value

Posted on March 25, 2014 by John Hunter

Guest Post by Bill Scherkenbach Every time I look at this picture, I think of Dr. Deming’s words to drive out fear and take joy in your work. We were talking in my home office when Sylvester saw a good lap and took it. Our conversation immediately shifted when both Dr. Deming and Sylvester started purring. The greatest statistical analysis is nothing if it can’t be implemented by people. But people learn in different ways. Some like good stories, others … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Deming and Software Development

Posted on March 17, 2014 by John Hunter

I am sometimes asked about how use Deming’s ideas on management in a software development context. My belief is Deming’s ideas work extremely well in a software development context. The main issue is often unlearning some assumptions that people might have about what the Deming management system is. It really is surprising to me how many “knowledge workers” respect Deming’s ideas but then say his attempts to treat factory workers as thoughtful people who should be respected and involved in … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, IT, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Respect, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Poor Results Should be Addressed by Improving the System Not Blaming Individuals

Posted on February 6, 2014 by John Hunter

My response to: Where is the Deming study that asserts most errors are in organization or process? There is no such study, it is based on Dr. Deming’s experience as I discuss in 94% Belongs to the System (improve the system, don’t blame the people in the system). “I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Resources for Using the PDSA Cycle to Improve Results

Posted on October 28, 2013 by John Hunter

Using the PDSA cycle (plan-do-study-act) well is critical to building a effective management system. This post provides some resources to help use the improvement cycle well. I have several posts on this blog about using the PDSA cycle to improve results including: keys to the effective use of the PDSA cycle Richard Feynman Explains the PDSA Cycle Tom Nolan on the PDSA cycle The authors and consultants with Associates for Process Improvement have the greatest collection of useful writing on … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

You are a Fool if You Do What I Say

Posted on August 21, 2013 by John Hunter

Guest post from Mark Graban There’s an interesting quote from Taiichi Ohno in “Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management,” which I was re-reading today… “You are a fool if you do what I say. You are a greater fool if you don’t do as I say. You should think for yourself and come up with better ideas than mine.” The best examples of Lean in healthcare are examples where leaders and organizations learned, but did not blindly copy. Sami Bahri DDS (the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Lean thinking, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Experience Teaches Nothing Without Theory

Posted on June 11, 2013 by John Hunter

Experience teaches nothing. In fact there is no experience to record without theory… Without theory there is no learning… And that is their downfall. People copy examples and then they wonder what is the trouble. They look at examples and without theory they learn nothing. W. Edwards Deming in The Deming of America Our brains are good at creating theories, from our experiences, so that our brain can learn. However when this is done only subconsciously we can be led … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Psychology, quote | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Executive Leadership

Posted on May 21, 2013 by John Hunter

Senior executives must lead management improvement efforts. When senior executives only give lip service to management efforts the result is normally the same: little happens. When Dr. Deming was working with companies after the 1980’s NBC white paper, If Japan Can Why Can’t We, he wouldn’t work with companies if the CEO wasn’t attending the meetings and learning how to manage the organization better. Dr. Deming had seen far too many CEOs want improvement but wanted to delegate the effort … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Lean Blog Podcast with John Hunter

Posted on May 13, 2013 by John Hunter

Mark Graban interviewed me for the Lean Blog podcast series: Podcast #174 – John Hunter, “Management Matters” (listen using this link). Links to more information on what we discussed in the podcast. Madison, Wisconsin: William G. Hunter, George Box, Brian Joiner, Peter Scholtes, Joe Sensenbrener (Quality Comes to City Hall), Statistics for Experimenters, Out of the Crisis, Doing More with Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin My online efforts: Curious Cat Management Guide, Curious Cat … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

94% Belongs to the System

Posted on April 24, 2013 by John Hunter

I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special. Page 315 of Out of the Crisis by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. the system that people work in and the interaction with people may account for 90 or 95 percent of performance. Dr. Deming’s quote from the introduction to the Team Handbook I think, in looking at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Popular, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

George Box

Posted on March 28, 2013 by John Hunter

I would most likely not exist if it were not for George Box. My father took a course from George while my father was a student at Princeton. George agreed to start the Statistics Department at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and my father followed him to Madison, to be the first PhD student. Dad graduated, and the next year was a professor there, where he and George remained for the rest of their careers. George died today, he … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Design of Experiments, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Respect, Six sigma, Statistics, Systems thinking, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Software Process and Measurement Podcast With John Hunter

Posted on February 25, 2013 by John Hunter

In my podcast with Tom Cagley, Software Process and Measurement Cast: John Hunter on Management Matters, as you might expect there was a bit of a focus on software development and agile software development as related to the ideas I expressed in Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. Deming: management system, continual improvement, respect for people (the 3rd point I said I would mention, but didn’t) Why do so many management improvement efforts fail? The proxy nature of data Building Adoption … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Customer focus, Deming, Six sigma | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments