Category Archives: Process improvement

An Introduction to Deming’s Management Ideas by Peter Scholtes (webcast)

Posted on September 14, 2009 by John Hunter

An Introduction to Deming’s Management Teaching and Philosophy by Peter Scholtes – webcast from the Annual W. Edwards Deming Institute conference in Madison, Wisconsin, November 9th, 2008. My previous post on this speech: 6 Leadership Competencies. Next month, the Annual Deming Institute conference will be held at Purdue on Oct 10th, 2009. Related: Peter Scholtes’ Life – Curious Cat’s Deming on Management – The Leader’s Handbook – Performance without Appraisal

Posted in Creativity, curiouscat.com, Deming, Education, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Respect, Science, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

YouTube Uses Multivariate Experiment To Improve Sign-ups 15%

Posted on August 17, 2009 by John Hunter

Google does a great job of using statistical and engineering principles to improve. It is amazing how slow we are to adopt new ideas but because we are it provides big advantages to companies like Google that use concepts like design of experiments, experimenting quickly and often… while others don’t. Look Inside a 1,024 Recipe Multivariate Experiment A few weeks ago, we ran one of the largest multivariate experiments ever: a 1,024 recipe experiment on 100% of our US-English homepage. … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Design of Experiments, Google, IT, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Science, Software Development, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Baking in Quality to Software Development

Posted on August 15, 2009 by John Hunter

One of the reasons my organizations switched to Ruby on Rails for software development was the great integration with automated testing. We always wanted to have good test coverage on our software applications (which are web applications – some used only inside our organization) but didn’t actually find the time to do so. Since we adopted Ruby we have been doing much better in this regard. It isn’t just the switch to Ruby, of course, but the switch to Ruby … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Google Innovates Again with Google Wave

Posted on June 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year. They are developing this as an open access project. The creative team is lead by the creators for Google Maps (brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen). A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. You really have to watch to understand what it is. This is a long webcast … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Google, IT, Management, Process improvement, Software Development, webcast | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

If Your Staff Doesn’t Bring You Problems That is a Bad Sign

Posted on June 15, 2009 by John Hunter

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.         – Colin Powell I discussed my feelings on this in a previous post, Bring Me Problems: If an employee never learns how to find possible solutions themselves that is not a good sign. But it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Why Setting Goals can Backfire

Posted on April 27, 2009 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming long ago stated in his 14 obligations of management: “Eliminate numerical goals, numerical quotas and management by objectives.” I think he was right then, and is right now. A goal can help set the scope of the effort. If you are aiming for 2% improvement different strategies may make sense than if you are aiming at 50% improvement. But that type of use is rare. The problem with goals is what actually happens in organizations. They create serious … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

More Management Blog Posts From January 2006

Posted on April 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Great Charts – The lack of such effective visual display of information is another example of how much improvement could be made just by applying ideas that are already published. Change is not Improvement – if you have to document how you will know the change is successful it makes it more difficult to change for just the appearance of improvement. Management Excellence – Most management practices cannot be plugged into any organization and work well. That practice must be … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Checklists in Software Development

Posted on April 7, 2009 by John Hunter

Verify your work with checklists WHO has recently shown that surgical deaths can be reduced by a third when hospitals follow their Surgical Safety Checklist. The checklist is very low tech. It includes questions like whether the patient has been properly identified, whether the proper tools are available, and whether everyone knows what kind of procedure is about to be done. If a checklist so simple can save so many lives, I thought the technique could surely help us do … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, IT, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Software Development | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Jeff Bezos Spends a Week Working in Amazon’s Kentucky Distribution Center

Posted on March 28, 2009 by John Hunter

Photo of Jeff Bezos during the 2005 O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference by James Duncan. Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, is working for a week in Amazon’s Kentucky distribution center. I hope, and based on his past, I believe, that he is going to the gemba (Genchi Genbutsu) to learn more about how Amazon operates. That would be great. He worked on wall street and understands the fake constraints they attempt to put companies (you must focus on short term profits, you … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Combinatorial Testing for Software

Posted on March 26, 2009 by John Hunter

Combinatorial testing of software is very similar to the design of experiments work my father was involved in, and which I have a special interest in. Combinatorial testing looks at binary interaction effects (success or failure), since it is seeking to find bugs in software, while design of experiments captures the magnitude of interaction effects on performance. In the last several years my brother, Justin Hunter, has been working on using combinatorial testing to improve software development practices. He visited … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Process improvement, Quality tools, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

How to Create a Control Chart for Seasonal or Trending Data

Posted on March 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Lynda Finn, President of Statistical Insight, has written an article on how to create a control chart for seasonal or trending data (where there is an underlying structural variation in the data). Essentially you need to account for the structural variation to create the control limits for the control chart. She also provides a Minitab project file. Both are available for download from the Curious Cat Management Improvement Library. Related: Control Charts in Health Care – Common Cause Variation – … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Science, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Checklists Save Lives

Posted on January 17, 2009 by John Hunter

Checklists are a simple quality tool that have been used widely for decades. Pilots use them, without fail, to save lives. Some surgeons have been using them and the evidence is mounting that checklists can save many more lives if more in health care use them. Studies Show Surgeons Could Save Lives, $20B by Using Checklists Eight hospitals reduced the number of deaths from surgery by more than 40% by using a checklist that helps doctors and nurses avoid errors, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs

Posted on December 17, 2008 by John Hunter

Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs Hypertherm Inc. has never laid off a permanent employee in its 40-year history. A 20% downturn in sales in recent months led the closely held maker of metal-cutting equipment to eliminate overtime, cut temporary staff and delay a facility expansion, says Chief Executive Dick Couch. Managers are transferring employees to busy segments from those with less work. The Hanover, N.H., company also may bring some outsourced manufacturing in-house to keep its 1,100 … Continue reading →

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

Information Technology and Business Process Support

Posted on December 3, 2008 by John Hunter

I moved from management improvement work into information technology work (where I continue to practice management improvement). Many IT practices follow quality management guidelines well (agile software development for one). I have found it far easier to design and provide software solutions than convince people to change their processes directly. I found it funny that as I delivered new IT solutions, in which was embedded a redesign of the process, those changes were often accepted without any significant debate. But … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

CMMI and Agile Development

Posted on November 19, 2008 by John Hunter

CMMI or Agile: Why Not Embrace Both! is a new report that is worth reading. All too often, CMMI has been applied rather than implemented. The standards-centric application of CMMI has contributed to some spectacular failures and losses of time and money. The key difference between applying and implementing CMMI is that applying usually appears as a superimposition (or overlay) of model practices onto existing activities with an expectation of producing the example work products found in the model, rather … Continue reading →

Posted in Process improvement, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

2008 Deming Prize: Tata Steel

Posted on October 8, 2008 by John Hunter

Tata Steel, India, has been awarded the 2008 Deming Prize. They were the only organization to receive the prize this year. Mr. B. Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel, while expressing satisfaction over this accomplishment said, “No other activity made us think so deeply about our business and relationships than the process of applying for the Deming Prize. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a fundamental way of managing business and every organization can gain from institutionalizing the culture necessary to win … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, India, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement | Tagged , , | 5 Comments