Category Archives: Management

Understanding Psychology: Slogans – Risky Tools

Posted on February 3, 2010 by John Hunter

Slogans mainly are bad. But like most things they can be used in ways that help or hurt. The main problem is when they substitute for a method to achieve the aim (most of the time). If the slogan serves like a mission statement to focus people on something useful to focus on and it is one minor part of a system to achieve a result it can be fine and even useful. The issue, to me, is not so … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Quality tools, quote, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #87

Posted on February 1, 2010 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival provides links to recent articles to help managers improve the performance organization. Lean in Sweden: Tools < Thinking by Mark Graban – “Tools have some value, but only in context of lean thinking and the lean management philosophy. Tools aren’t value-less, but thinking is better.” Manufacturing starts to come home by Dan Markovitz – “NCR sees domestic manufacturing as key to increasing sales as well. It enables them to make higher value-added products that … Continue reading →

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The Trouble with Incentives: They Work

Posted on January 28, 2010 by John Hunter

Gipsie B. Ranney has a great new article – The Trouble with Incentives: They Work I have wondered whether the escalation of pay, perks and parachutes for CEOs actually tends to attract individuals who are primarily extrinsically motivated, rather than individuals who are seriously interested in creating value. Several recent examples appear to be consistent with this view. … An important issue with regard to incentives is possible effects on teamwork and cooperation. If the incentive system is set up … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Deming, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Toyota Stops Lines – Lots of Lines

Posted on January 26, 2010 by John Hunter

The practice of stopping (either the machine automatically detecting a problem and stopping or a person stopping) the line when a problem is detected is part of Jidoka. Jidoka is also highlighting and making problems visible. Jidoka and Just in Time are the two pillars of the Toyota Production System. Today Toyota practiced Jidoka on a large scale: Toyota Halts Sales of Eight Models After Recall [the broken link was removed] Toyota Motor, still struggling to resolve a problem with … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Prophet Unheard: Dr. W. Edwards Deming – 1992

Posted on January 25, 2010 by John Hunter

[embedded webcast links removed because they have been removed from YouTube. To see video with W. Edwards Deming see the Deming Institute YouTube channel.] This is an interesting video on Deming and American management (by the BBC in 1992): Prophet Unheard. It includes some nice old footage of Deming in Japan. The importance of respect for people is clear and the video also touches on the idea the danger of relying on data (when you do not understand variation and … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Manufacturing, Quality tools, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #86

Posted on January 24, 2010 by John Hunter

The collection of posts from 10 blogs that made up the 2009 annual management blog are counted as Management Improvement Carnival #85, making this post #86. Are Slogans Always Bad or Can They Inspire? by Mark Graban – “Why are slogans bad? Dr. Deming writes, in part, ‘They are directed at the wrong people. They arise from management’s supposition that the production workers could, by putting their backs into the job, accomplish zero defects, improve quality, improve productivity, and all … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged | 1 Comment

Hospital Providing Better Health Care While Reducing Costs

Posted on January 19, 2010 by John Hunter

Business Week has a good article on the strides one hospital has been able to make at reducing costs and improving quality. Hospitals: Radical Cost Surgery [the broken link was removed] Walk into Providence Regional Medical Center, in Everett, Wash., and you will see a hospital trying something different: It brings the equipment to the patient. In 2003, Providence opened one of the few “single stay” wards in the nation. After heart surgery, cardiac patients remain in one room throughout … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Health care, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , ,

Undercover Boss – Will They Really Change?

Posted on January 11, 2010 by John Hunter

[removed video that is no longer available] I am skeptical that this reality show (Undercover Boss) will actually do any good but the webclip looks fun. It will premier right after the Super Bowl on CBS. The concept, if done right, could actually be interesting. But even in that case, I would be skeptical it would do much good. I may be wrong, but I would think we will get a whole bunch of thoughts based on one single data … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

2009 Curious Cat Management Blog Carnival

Posted on January 9, 2010 by John Hunter

10 management blogs are participating in the 2009 Management Blog Carnival. Be sure to check out all the great posts. Here we are looking at some exceptional posts on the , Training Within Industry and Making IT Clear. The quotes below are taken from blog posts on these blogs (and include links to the posts they are taken from) Visual Management Blog by Xavier Quesada Allue “Visual Management is the practice of using information visualization techniques to manage work. A … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 2

Posted on January 4, 2010 by John Hunter

The 2009 annual management improvement blog carnival continues with more bloggers posting highlights from some of their favorite management blogs (see 2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 1). Kevin Meyer looked back through the posts from TimeBack Management, Lean Six Sigma Academy, Curious Cat Management Improvement, A Lean Journey, and Stats Made Easy and found some gems, including 7 Practical Ways to Respect People by Ron Pereira Sustainability: Ten Factors for Making Culture Change Stick by Tim McMahon Experiments for … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , ,

Worse Hotel Service the More You Pay

Posted on January 2, 2010 by John Hunter

The more you pay for your hotel room the more likely they will charge to provide decent WiFi in your room. Whether a company tries to rip you off with exorbitant prices, or lousy service, is just a function of their lack of respect for customers. Obviously it is cheap to provide decent WiFi (as staying at numerous cheap hotels shows – nearly all offer WiFi completely free). Most expensive hotels show they do not respect their customers. Some actually … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 1

Posted on December 30, 2009 by John Hunter

The 2009 annual management improvement blog review is underway. Jamie Flinchbaugh found excellent posts from In Pursuit of Elegance, Shmula blog and Got Boondoggle? Those posts include: The Art of Symmetry: Fractals and the Mandelbrot by Matthew May Respect for People, Underutilized People, and Waste by Pete Abilla Get Your Boots On! by Mike Wroblewski Mark J. Anderson has highlighted posts from Work Matters and will be reviewing Seth Godin and the Hexawise blog in upcoming posts. Highlights from Bob … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

2009 Annual Management Blog Review

Posted on December 21, 2009 by John Hunter

Over the next 2 weeks several management blogs will be posting their contributions to the 2009 year in review of management blogs. Posts will highlight some of the best posts on other management blogs in the last year. The home page of the 2009 review of management blogs will be updated as new posts are added. The hosts of the 2009 management blog carnival include the: Lean Blog, Jamie Flinchbaugh, Stats Made Easy, Gemba Panta Rei and Lean Reflections. See … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged ,

Video Overview of the PDSA Cycle

Posted on December 20, 2009 by John Hunter

Robert Lloyd, PhD From the IHI Open School‘s, presents a nice overview of the PDSA Cycle (plan-do-study-act). The webcast includes an example of using PDSA to improve the discharge process for a hospital. As I have said many times the keys to success are to turn the PDSA cycle rapidly, predict the results in advance, and analyze the results to continually improve. the Improvement Handbook is an excellent resource. The IHI Open School is a great resource and exactly the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Science, webcast | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The CEO is Only One Person

Posted on December 14, 2009 by John Hunter

The CEO is important but they are only one person. Rarely do they determine the success of a company. The instances where they seem to are so rare as to almost seem like just random luck. I think they can make a difference, but that they make a significant difference rarely. Steve Jobs seems to have made a huge difference to Apple, for example (and Jeffery Bezos at Amazon – note both of these examples are also founders of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #84

Posted on December 12, 2009 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival provides links to recent blog posts on improving the management of organizations. How Do You Get from Here to Agile? Iterate. by Mike Cohn – “…following an iterative transition process. Making small changes on a continual basis is a logical way to adopt a development process that is itself iterative.” What is Lean? by Mike Wroblewski – “Do we measure leanness on the number of lean tools being used? Let’s see, 5-S check, Kanban … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged | 1 Comment