Category Archives: Management

Short Video on TPS History

Posted on February 5, 2007 by John Hunter

Short video on TPS History from the Art of Lean web site. The video discusses Toyota history and topics including: Jidoka, Just in Time… Related: Toyota Production System posts – manufacturing posts – management webcasts

Posted in Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast

Motivating People to Change

Posted on February 4, 2007 by John Hunter

Don’t miss a nice series of posts by Jon Miller: How to Motivate People to Change – part 1, part 2, part 3. [links broken, so removed 🙁 ] Success may come in the short term when motivation is through a combination of fear and reward centering on financial safety and security, belonging to a group and achievement of status… There is some question as to whether this type of approach to motivation is sustainable, and at the very least … Continue reading →

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

Management Improvement Carnival #4

Posted on February 1, 2007 by John Hunter

Another edition with links to interesting management improvement blog posts. Lean Office Redesign by Marcie MacRae – “We freed up space, improved visibility and flexibility. And the best part is the lack of a “control center” for visual boards is no longer an excuse for not having Hoshin Kanri review sessions.” The Bullwhip Effect by Peter Abilla – Tips “Reduce lead time of material, Reduce variability with effective use of the Heijunka and one-piece flow, Cooperation and good relationships with … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management, Quality tools | Tagged ,

Transforming With Lean

Posted on January 31, 2007 by John Hunter

Dave Gleditsch, Chief Technology Officer, Pelion Systems, makes many excellent points in: Transforming Your Business To Lean: Lessons Learned [the broken link was removed]: First and foremost, we should always keep the customer at the forefront of the planning and implementation process. A key to success is in being able to find the customer in every single metric you choose to measure your Lean transformation progress by. Often measures become the focus and the reason for improvement is obscured. Improvement … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, quote | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Encourage Improvement Action by Everyone

Posted on January 31, 2007 by John Hunter

Centralizing decision making is not an effective way to manage organizations. Organizations need to encourage improvement by everybody in the organization. We need to create a system where that is encouraged and supported. However, there can be problems with just making improvements individually. We tend to overreact to variation. Therefore we tend to tamper with systems which actually increases variation and reduces performance. Also there can be effects on other parts of the system due to a change that are … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , ,

5 Million Lives Campaign

Posted on January 30, 2007 by John Hunter

IHI has created the 5 Million Lives Campaign [the broken link was removed] in the wake of the successful saving 100,000 lives campaign. Despite the extraordinary hard work and best intentions of caregivers, thousands of patients are harmed in US hospitals every day. Hospital-acquired infections, adverse drug events, surgical errors, pressure sores, and other complications are commonplace. Based on data collected over several years from multiple partner institutions, IHI estimates that nearly 15 million instances of medical harm occur in … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management | Tagged

Game Theory Management

Posted on January 26, 2007 by John Hunter

Interesting article on applying game theory to business decisions. Game theory is a tool that is not often used. Though most organizations are probably better off improving how they use the rest of their management tools, it is fun to read about and does have merit in the right situations. 16,777,236 [the broken link was removed] – That’s the number of outcomes that are possible when eight competitors each consider three strategic options. California Institute of Technology professor R. Preston … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , ,

Toyota’s Real Secret?

Posted on January 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Well actually it isn’t a secret – it is in fact the Toyota Production/Management System. Maybe, if people assume the TPS is about improvement in the factory alone, then they could miss the true importance as the management system that it is. So I quibble a little bit with the title but this is actually a good article by John Teresko, Toyota’s Real Secret: Hint, It’s Not TPS [the broken link was removed]: Toyota’s time-to-market metrics are one measure of … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged ,

Focus on Quality and…

Posted on January 23, 2007 by John Hunter

Recipe For Success [the broken link was removed]: “Recipe for Success: Focus on Quality, Reduce Work-in-Progress, Balance Capacity against Demand, Prioritize” These four statements really boil down all my management teaching in to four actionable directives that will deliver significant improvement. I have discussed some of his ideas before in, for example, Agile Management (which includes a link to a interesting interview on David Anderson’s work at Microsoft incorporating Deming’s ideas and Theory of Constraints. Others might have their own … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged ,

Newt on Management History

Posted on January 23, 2007 by John Hunter

The new Newt thing [the broken link was removed] “I don’t mean to be argumentative,” he says, as he scribbles a chart on the history of management reform, tucking dates alongside names like Motorola and Deming and Ohno, all the while peppering the group with questions. “But I’m dubious about externalized systems. It becomes a cult.” No one is insulted. On the contrary, everyone is enthralled by Gingrich and his well-informed romp through management history. (“There’s this whole romantic side … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Public Sector | Tagged | 1 Comment

Reacting to Product Problems

Posted on January 20, 2007 by John Hunter

Previously we posted on recalls at Toyota and Sony. Recently Toyota announced another large recall. Investor’s Business Daily writes on the topic in: The Ups And Downs Of Doing Product Recalls – Japan-Style [the broken link was removed]: Kitayama also said Akio Toyoda, grandson of Kiichiro Toyoda, Toyota’s founder, played a key role by opening a direct line to suppliers that had supplied defective car parts. He stressed that quality comes before meeting delivery deadlines. Interesting. The article also discusses … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , ,

Think Long Term Act Daily

Posted on January 17, 2007 by John Hunter

Great stuff from the DailyKaizen [the broken link was removed]: Over the last three months we have been working to incorporate PDCA discipline into our Model Line planning process. We are quite literally building a new management system in the organization and it is fascinating. There are many attributes of this system including developing standard work for managers, redesigning the strategic planning process, developing a strategic deployment process and most important formalizing the checking process at all levels. It will … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #3

Posted on January 16, 2007 by John Hunter

More links to interesting management improvement blog posts. Lean IT – what comes first, technology or waste reduction? by Kent Blumberg – “rather than pushing technology on people and processes (the traditional top-down approach), Toyota looks to the people and processes to pull the technology they need to support their decision making.” Who Is GM’s Customer? by Dan Markovitz – “The average car buyer can’t calculate the cost of GM’s excess inventory, of course, but they don’t need to. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Carnival, IT, Management | 2 Comments

UK National Health System Management

Posted on January 15, 2007 by John Hunter

Another article on the UK national health system using lean thinking: In the drive to save the NHS, I’m choosing a Toyota by Simon Caulkin: So the lessons of Toyota come out rather differently from what you might expect. Large size is no barrier to efficiency – although smaller than the NHS, Toyota’s 264,000 employees make it large by any other standard. You don’t need a market to lower transaction costs, but the opposite: trust and cooperation, which also lifts … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management | 1 Comment

In-house Health Clinics

Posted on January 14, 2007 by John Hunter

Big Companies Turning To In-house Health Clinics (article removed – poor usability – so link removed) Today a new wave of clinics is opening, driven largely by a motive that was less of a factor in the past: employers’ desires to reduce their health insurance premiums by taking care of workers before they need to see outside doctors. More than 100 of the nation’s 1,000 largest employers now offer on-site primary care or preventive health services – a number forecast … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 1 Comment

Innovation Examples

Posted on January 11, 2007 by John Hunter

Two examples from 37signals: first, Pioneer Theater. Good idea. I am stretching to call it innovation, today, maybe 5 years ago it was. Today I think any reasonably sized theater should have something like this in place. The interface is a bit confused. At first the views didn’t seem to correspond to what I would expect when I click on various seats [the broken link was removed]. Then I read a little closer and the view you see is shown … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Innovation, IT, Management | Tagged | 2 Comments