Category Archives: Management

Strategic Deployment: How To Think Like Toyota

Posted on October 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Strategic Deployment: How To Think Like Toyota: Hoshin kanri is fundamental to Toyota’s success today, says Dennis, currently an instructor at the Lean Enterprise Institute. He says Toyota’s ability to grasp the situation, identify two or three obstacles, develop meaningful plans to address those obstacles, and deploy them “is outstanding.” Another company using strategy deployment, HNI Corp., has used a policy deployment mechanism for more than a decade. The office furniture manufacturer, an IndustryWeek Best Manufacturing Company for five consecutive … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS)

The Google Way: Give Engineers Room

Posted on October 23, 2007 by John Hunter

The Google Way: Give Engineers Room Google engineers are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time to work on something company-related that interests them personally. This means that if you have a great idea, you always have time to run with it. … These grouplets have practically no budget, and they have no decision-making authority. What they have is a bunch of people who are committed to an idea and willing to work to convince the rest of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, IT, Management, Software Development | 1 Comment

2007 William G. Hunter Award

Posted on October 19, 2007 by John Hunter

T.N. Goh received ASQ Statistics Division’s 2007 William G. Hunter Award. He sent me this email: You may not realize that I first met Bill 38 year ago, when he was in Singapore helping us set up the first school of engineering in the country. He persuaded me to go to the graduate school at UW-Madison and I daresay that’s the best advice I ever got in my whole career. Now when I come to think of it, what Bill … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Management, Statistics | 1 Comment

Deming Prize 2007

Posted on October 17, 2007 by John Hunter

India continues to shine with Deming Prizes (and of course there economy and stock market have been doing pretty well too). Companies based in India took home both Deming Prizes this year and the Japan Quality Medal. Countries of organizations receiving the Deming Prize since 2000 (prior to that almost all winners were from Japan): Country Prizes India 14 Thailand 8 Japan 4 USA 1 Singapore 1 The 2007 Deming Prizes went to Asahi India Glass Limited, Auto Glass Division … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, India, Management | 4 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #21

Posted on October 16, 2007 by John Hunter

Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. Leadership by Ron Pereira – “5. Learn. I recently discussed the importance of having mentors in your life. I also believe it is important for a leader to continue learning him/herself.” Prioritizing the Elimination of the 7 Types of Waste by Jon Miller – “Priority #1. Overproduction is the worst of the wastes because a) it multiplies the other 6 wastes, and b) it hides your … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management

Enhancing Passion of Employees

Posted on October 13, 2007 by John Hunter

What can we do to enhance passion amongst employees? Some think you need to pay people more. If tomorrow you doubled everyone’s pay they are excited for a short time a few months later everything is the same on the passion front (it would lesson turnover as people stay for the extra money compared to what they would get elsewhere). Douglas McGregor explained, in the Human Side of Enterprise, nearly 50 years ago, the theory x and theory y styles … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

Using Capitalism to Make the World Better

Posted on October 11, 2007 by John Hunter

I have mentioned Kiva before: Microfinancing Entrepreneurs (on our Curious Cat Economics and Investing blog). In addition to being a good cause Kiva really shows some great management strategies. The use of Information Technology to connect people directly is a wonderful example of using IT effectively (understanding psychology). Kiva lets you loan money directly to an entrepreneur of your choice. Kiva provides loans through partners (operating in the countries) to the entrepreneurs. Those partners do charge the entrepreneurs interest (to … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, curiouscat.com, Economics, Fun, IT, Management, Psychology | 7 Comments

Where to Start Improvement

Posted on October 10, 2007 by davenave

Guest post by Dave Nave The question of where to start improvement is not an ‘either/or’ choice of top-down or bottom-up approach. The place to start is both. Leading an organization requires both a long-term and a short-term focus. With changing management practices being long-term and improving operational efficiency being short-term. The organization is a system. Optimization of any single component (management practices or production operations) frequently detracts from the whole. For many years I firmly believed (actually hoped) the … Continue reading →

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

Early History Of Quality Management Online

Posted on October 5, 2007 by John Hunter

I started looking at quality management resources online in 1995 (maybe 1994). At the time I was on the board of the Public Sector Network – what would become the American Society of Quality (ASQ) government division. When we started working with ASQ it took something like 2 months from the time I wrote an article until people received it. Now in 1995, the internet (outside of universities) was in its infancy. I was writing a column on the resources … Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com, IT, Management, Public Sector | 4 Comments

Change for Your Customer

Posted on October 4, 2007 by John Hunter

Lets say you buy a some ice cream. You get your wonderful ice cream cone from the employee and they point you to a small metal dish to pick up the coins you should recieve as change (the currency is handed to the customer by the employee). A fair number of stores in the USA do this (the change is automatically put in the dish – essentially by the cash register). It is a small thing but it seems to … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Psychology

Management Improvement Carnival #20

Posted on October 3, 2007 by John Hunter

Read the previous management carnivals. The Management Improvement Carnival #20 is hosted by Evolving Excellence, some of the highlights include: Elegance Offsets at Elegant Solutions. If carbon offsets are viable, then why not lean offsets, feature creep offsets, and even PowerPoint offsets? Pushback at DailyKaizen. “… in the Toyota Motor company, staff understand why a certain thing needs to be done a certain way because it is explained to them as part of the process of training.” Top 10 Success … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management

Bring Me Solutions Not Problems

Posted on October 1, 2007 by John Hunter

My comments on: No Problem Without a Solution [I removed the broken link] I understand that most managers feel that their employees should not bring them problems. Instead, expressed in the most positive way, employees should fix things or bring possible improvements. However, I think that is poor management. I understand there may well be more detail than you provide that adds a more sensible (but more complex) reaction that stated in your post about your situation. However, there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

CEO’s Given Lottery Sized Payouts

Posted on September 27, 2007 by John Hunter

Comment on: Fun With Statistics, CEO Life Edition In the US, CEO’s tend to be fairly interchangeable these days and it is rare for their tenure to exceed five years. There are some notable exceptions such as chain-saw Al and Neutron Jack, but in general a change of CEO doesn’t seem to do much over the long term. This is one of the criticisms of American CEO’s they seem to be more interested in feathering their nest and getting out … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking | 2 Comments

Seven Fatal Flaws of Performance Measurement

Posted on September 25, 2007 by John Hunter

The Seven Fatal Flaws of Performance Measurement by Joseph F. Castellano, Saul Young, and Harper A. Roehm Performance measurement systems are used to establish specific goals, align employee behavior, and increase accountability. Organizations often use these systems to set targets for component units (e.g., individuals, profit centers, divisions, plants). Each unit is expected to develop its own goals consistent with overall targets. This process, sometimes called a “roll-up,” reflects the premise that if all units achieve their targets then the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Statistics, Systems thinking

Danaher Expands Lean Thinking One Acquisition at a Time

Posted on September 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Sybron Focuses on Operations Nearly 18 months into becoming part of Danaher Corp., life is different at Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. “Sybron was really a sales and marketing focused organization … and operations (were) part of supporting that,” said Don Tuttle, president of specialty products for Sybron, which is moving from Orange to Anaheim next year. “What Danaher brought to us, and has been successful with, is bringing us an operations focus.” Sybron has adopted principles known as Danaher Business … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing

This Too is a Kanban

Posted on September 21, 2007 by John Hunter

This Too is a Kanban by Jon Miller: The orthodox description of a kanban is a rectangular card in a plastic sleeve used to reorder materials from a supplier or an upstream process, or a triangular metal plate used to signal production for a process that requires changeovers for lot production. … The tile of section 3 of chapter 4 from the first textbook on the Toyota Production System is titled “This Too (is a kanban)”. The author (possibly dictated … Continue reading →

Posted in Management