Category Archives: Management

Root Cause, Interactions, Robustness and Design of Experiments

Posted on June 18, 2014 by John Hunter

Eric Budd asked on The W. Edwards Deming Institute group (LinkedIn broke the link with a register wall so I removed the link): If observed performance/behavior in a system is a result of the interactions between components–and variation exists in … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, problem solving, Process improvement, process thinking, Quality tools, root cause, Software Development, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

George Box Webcast on Statistical Design in Quality Improvement

Posted on June 11, 2014 by John Hunter

George Box lecture on Statistical Design in Quality Improvement at the Second International Tampere Conference in Statistics, University of Tampere, Finland (1987). Early on he shows a graph showing the problems with American cars steady over a 10 years period. … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Innovation, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Science, Statistics | Tagged control chart, Design of Experiments, Europe, experiments, George Box, interactions, learning, management history, Process improvement, Quality tools, Science, Statistics, webcast | Comments Off

Practicing Mistake-Promoting Instead of Mistake-Proofing at Apple

Posted on June 5, 2014 by John Hunter

Mistake proofing is a wonderful management concept. Design systems not just to be effective when everything goes right but designing them so mistakes are prevented. I have had several bad customer experiences in the short time I have had my … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement | Tagged bad customer service, Customer focus, management system, mistake-proofing, Process improvement, process thinking | 4 Comments

Toyota Posts Record Profit: Splits $15 million in Pay and Bonus for top 21 Executives

Posted on June 2, 2014 by John Hunter

After posting record profits of $17.9 billion Toyota proposes to increase the pay and bonus for the top 21 executives to $14.9 million. That is not as you might expect just the increase in the bonus to the CEO. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Deming, Investing, Management, Popular, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged executive pay, executives, leadership, Management, overpaid executives, Popular, respect for people, Toyota | 3 Comments

Building a Great Software Development Team

Posted on May 29, 2014 by John Hunter

Elliot: I worked with some of the best programmers I’ve ever known at the tiny, obscure ASEE Adam Solove: Why do you think that happened? They hired for passion, rather than experience? If I had to pick one thing, passion … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Popular, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged curiouscat, hiring, John Hunter, managing people, organization as a system, Popular, Psychology, Software Development, teams | 4 Comments

A Good Management System is Robust and Continually Improving

Posted on May 22, 2014 by John Hunter

Imagine a big clock, the big and little and sweeping second hands moving with absolute accuracy for years and years. Then, imagine various people working within it, somehow swapping out gears and cogs without the clock stopping or slowing down … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, long term thinking, management system, managing people, organization as a system, robust, Software Development, sports, Systems thinking, teams | 5 Comments

George Box Articles Available for a Short Time

Posted on May 14, 2014 by John Hunter

A collection of George Box articles have been selected for a virtual George Box issue by David M. Steinberg and made available online. George E. P. Box died in March 2013. He was a remarkably creative scientist and his celebrated … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Psychology, Public Sector | Tagged Deming, George Box, management, Management Articles, management system, open access, Psychology, Public Sector, respect for people, Science, society, Statistics | Comments Off

Interview on PDSA, Deming, Strategy and More

Posted on May 8, 2014 by John Hunter

Bill Fox interviewed me and has posted part one of the interview on his web site: Predicting Results in the Planning Stage (sorry, the link has been hijacked to forward to an unrelated page [so obviously I removed the link], … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged curiouscat, Deming, experiments, interview, John Hunter, learning, management system, management tools, PDSA, Process improvement, Quality tools, strategy | 5 Comments

More Evidence of the Damage Done by Kleptocrat CEO Pay

Posted on April 21, 2014 by John Hunter

I have been writing about the problems of overpaid executives that has lately become so bad that “overpaid executives” doesn’t capture the nature of the problem. Today I see many CEO’s are acting as kleptocrats do – taking food out … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged business, executive pay, hiring, Investing, management research, overpaid executives, stakeholders, stockholders | 2 Comments

Innovative Thinking at Amazon: Paying Employees $5,000 to Quit

Posted on April 15, 2014 by John Hunter

Amazon continues to be innovative not just in technology but with management thinking. Jeff Bezos has rejected the dictates espoused most vociferously by Wall Street mouthpieces and MBAs that encourage short term thinking and financial gimmicks which harm the long … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Amazon, Bezos, Innovation, management, management system, managing people, respect for people, short term thinking, Systems thinking | 1 Comment