Category Archives: Management

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged commentary, curiouscat, Deming, Economics, Investing, leadership, lean management, long term thinking, respect for people, Taiichi Ohno, Toyota, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged commentary, curiouscat, Deming, lean management, lean manufacturing, Toyota, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 6 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #165

Posted on May 2, 2012 by John Hunter

Matt May is hosting the 165th Management Improvement Carnival. He takes a look at the wonderful manifestos posted at ChangeThis. ChangeThis really is wonderful, if you haven’t already been looking at what they offer you are in for a treat … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged management | 1 Comment

Management Blog Posts From November 2006

Posted on April 26, 2012 by John Hunter

I have selected a few great posts from the Curious Cat Management Blog back in November 2006. What Could we do Better? – There are many important ideas to improve management. This is one of the most important tips to … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote | Tagged blogs, curiouscat, Data, Deming, management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, tips | Comments Off

Management Improvement Carnival #164

Posted on April 20, 2012 by John Hunter

Paul Borawski is hosting 164th Management Improvement Carnival on ASQ’s View from the Q blog. Highlights from this edition include: Designing Experiments with Gummi Bears. Yes, Gummi bears. What a way to make statistics and quality fun, creative, and topical! … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged management, quality | Comments Off

The Customer is the Purpose of Our Work

Posted on April 9, 2012 by John Hunter

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged aim, Customer focus, customer service, food, Psychology, purpose, quote, respect for people | 6 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #162

Posted on April 1, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with hand picked recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles for the Curious Cat Management Articles site; an RSS feed of new article additions is … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged management, Six sigma | Comments Off

Continual Feeding

Posted on March 29, 2012 by John Hunter

I like growing things. I think it is part the connection to system thinking I have had since I was a kid. I like finding ways to leverage my effort so that I put in a bit of thought and … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged build capacity, coaching, John Hunter, managing people, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

How Could They Know?

Posted on March 28, 2012 by John Hunter

I am a big fan of Dr. Deming’s ideas on management. The way I see one of the quotes of Dr. Deming used I don’t agree with. Dr. Deming said “How could they know?” to explain why people continued to … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged Books, Career, commentary, Deming, leadership, learning, management | 6 Comments

Selling Quality Improvement

Posted on March 19, 2012 by John Hunter

In this month’s ASQ influential quality voices post, Paul Borawski asks How Do You “Sell” Quality? I am amazed how difficult it is to sell quality improvement. I look at organizations I interact with and easily see systemic failures due … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, curiouscat, leadership, Management, marketing, Process improvement, Psychology, quality, Systems thinking | 4 Comments