Category Archives: Lean thinking

My New Book: Management Matters

Posted on August 2, 2012 by John Hunter

I have a new book in progress: Management Matters. It is now available in “pre-release format” via leanpub. The idea I am experimenting with (supported by leanpub) is pre-publishing the book online. The ebook is available for purchase now, and comes with free access to the updates. My plan is to continue working on the book for the next few months and have it “release ready” by October, 2012. One of the advantages of this method is that I can … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, curiouscat.com, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Value Stream Mapping for Fun and Profit

Posted on July 24, 2012 by John Hunter

Guest post by Evan Durant, author of the Kaizen Notebook blog [The broken link was removed]. I tend to get a little preachy about the importance of value stream maps, but they really can be useful tools not only to plan an improvement effort but also to monitor your progress going forward. In particular they provide a way to quantify the impact of changes to your process. Here’s a real life example as a case in point. For a particular … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Quality tools | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #166

Posted on May 11, 2012 by John Hunter

Tim McMahon is hosting the Management Improvement Blog Carnival #166, highlights include: Performance Organizations – Art Smalley answers why is there such a resistance to creating learning organizations and why are leaders letting the future deteriorate without doing anything about it. Trust – Cornerstone of Performance – George Rathburn explains that teams lose trust in their leaders when they fail to show trust and respect in their teams. Lean Snake Oil Cures What Ails Ya – Mike Wroblewski takes some … Continue reading →

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Long Term Thinking with Respect for People

Posted on May 9, 2012 by John Hunter

Toyota nearly went bankrupt near 1950 and had to lay off a third of their employees. A huge focus of the Toyota Production System as envisioned by Taiichi Ohno was to secure the long term success of the company. The priority of doing so is easier to see when you respect people and are in danger of witnessing the destruction of their careers. I can’t find the quote (maybe Jon Miller, or someone else, can provide one), but I recall … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Production System

Posted on May 3, 2012 by John Hunter

In this post I explore my thoughts about what lean (lean manufacturing, lean thinking…) means. The way I think about it is that lean manufacturing sprung from Toyota. It seems to me the lean manufacturing name was meant to capture the entire Toyota Way. Capturing the whole of what that encompasses isn’t possible in 1 or 2 or even 10 books so it wasn’t done completely. To me the difference between lean manufacturing described early on by Womack and Jones … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Webcast on Lean Startups by Eric Ries

Posted on April 23, 2012 by John Hunter

[broken embedded webcast link removed] Webcast with Eric Ries at PARC, author of Lean Startups, July 2011. Related: Why Lean is Different – An Introduction to Deming’s Management Ideas by Peter Scholtes (webcast) – Dr. Russell Ackoff Webcast on Systems Thinking

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Management Improvement Blog Carnival #160

Posted on March 11, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996 (Deming, innovation, lean manufacturing, customer focus, process improvement…). Reflections on the 100th Birthday of Taiichi Ohno by Masaaki Imai – “Taiichi Ohno always placed respect for the worker first in his approach to kaizen. His focus was always on the customer, both external and internal” A … Continue reading →

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Why Use Lean if So Many Fail To Do So Effectively

Posted on February 15, 2012 by John Hunter

If less than 1% of companies are successful with Lean, why are we doing it? Lots of us are not. I would say the efforts I see “fail” are because they don’t do it. They have something they call TQM, six sigma, lean management or whatever and try out 10-30% of it in some half-measures, with big doses of Dilbert’s pointy haired boss methods and then don’t get great results. Wow. The biggest complaint (with some merit) I see is … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #150

Posted on December 1, 2011 by John Hunter

Mark Graban is hosting Management Improvement Blog Carnival #150 on the Lean Blog, highlights include: Watching Waste in the ER! – As part of his relatively new blog, Anthony Scott (Frontline Lean) writes about his experiences with waste in an emergency department. The waste isn’t surprising to those who have been a patient or those who have worked in the E.D. Scott is a supervisor in a lean manufacturing setting and he applies lean thinking to this unfamiliar environment. Case … Continue reading →

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

Manufacturing Skills Gap or Management Skills Gap?

Posted on November 7, 2011 by John Hunter

I stumble across articles discussing the problem of manufacturers having difficulty finding workers with the skills they need (in the USA largely, but elsewhere too) somewhat regularly. While it is true that companies have this problem, I think looking at the problem in that way might not be the most insightful view. Is the problem just that potential workers don’t having the right skills or the result of a long term management skills gap? To me, the current manufacturing skills … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Practical Ways to Respect People

Posted on November 3, 2011 by John Hunter

What matters is not your stated respect for people but your revealed respect for people. Here are some ideas that I collected on how to practice respect for people. Don’t waste people’s time: have meetings only when necessary and provide agendas in advance. Use email effectively instead of presenting material in meetings that can better be presented in email. Don’t have complex benefit manuals, aimed at making lawyers happy, that employees are expected to use. Do what you say you … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

When Companies Can Treat You Like an ATM, Many Will Do So

Posted on August 29, 2011 by John Hunter

The End of Refrigeration One small custom chip, some relays, a transformer, a couple of heat sinks, and a bunch of passive parts. Maybe a build cost of $20-30 or so? But GE’s price to me was $250, plus $150 for the 20 minutes it took to pull out the old one and swap in the new one. Paying $400 for a big piece of physical gear plus a couple hours of labor didn’t bother me. Paying $400 for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Investing, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Touring Factories on Vacation When I Was Young

Posted on July 13, 2011 by John Hunter

Growing up, occasionally, a family vacation would include a factory tour related to my Dad’s work. He was providing some management or engineering consulting and took the opportunity to check in on progress and visit the gemba. Here is a photo from one of those tours (in Nigeria, I think). My brother and Mom are visible in the photo. The tours (which were not a very common occurrence) were quite enjoyable and interesting. Though I really didn’t like how noisy … Continue reading →

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

Management Improvement Carnival #132

Posted on June 1, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996 (Deming, agile software development, systems thinking, lean manufacturing, customer focus…). If management stopped demotivating their employees… by Mark Graban – “Think of a person in your workplace who is considered to have a “bad attitude.” Do you think they started their career or their job at … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Problems with Management and Business Books

Posted on April 18, 2011 by John Hunter

We really need to change how we improve the practice of management. Far too often management strategies are just the latest fad from some new book that successfully marketed an idea. The marketing effectiveness of a book, or consultant, has very limited correlation to their ability to improve management, in my experience. It is often true that they make very good keynote speakers, however. So if you want an entertaining keynote speaker looking at the authors of the best selling … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Six sigma | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Engage in Improving the Management System

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Hunter

To actually improve management you need to engage in continual improvement of your management systems. This requires doing the hard work of challenging complacency. The job of those improving the practice of management is not to make everyone happy and just ignore that the words about improvement are not actually carrying through to changes in behavior. Do Executives “Get It?” So many times executives spout the importance of new initiatives like wellness programs, safety programs, or improvement projects like Lean, … Continue reading →

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