Tags
blogs Books Career Carnival commentary continual improvement Creativity curiouscat Customer focus customer service Data Deming Economics engineering Google Health care Innovation internet Investing IT John Hunter leadership lean manufacturing Lean thinking management Management managing people Manufacturing organization as a system Popular Process improvement Psychology Public Sector Quality tools quote respect for people Six sigma Software Development Statistics Systems thinking tips Toyota Toyota Production System (TPS) webcast
Categories
- Books
- Career
- Carnival
- China
- Competition
- Creativity
- curiouscat.com
- Customer focus
- Data
- Deming
- Design of Experiments
- Economics
- Education
- Fun
- Health care
- India
- Innovation
- Investing
- IT
- Lean thinking
- Management
- Management Articles
- Manufacturing
- Performance Appraisal
- Popular
- Process improvement
- Psychology
- Public Sector
- Quality tools
- quote
- Respect
- Science
- Six sigma
- Software Development
- Statistics
- Systems thinking
- Tags
- Theory of Constraints
- Toyota Production System (TPS)
- Travel photos
- UK
- webcast
Recent Posts
Archives
- November 2026
- July 2025
- September 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- October 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- September 2022
- July 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- October 2021
- June 2021
- March 2021
- January 2021
- September 2020
- June 2020
- January 2020
- September 2019
- August 2019
- June 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
Category Archives: Process improvement
Why are you afraid of process?
Why are you afraid of process? by Seth Godin I spend a lot of time railing against organizations and teams that fall in love with process at the expense of innovation. This is not a post about that. It’s about the opposite. Seth Godin does a great job helping people think creatively. I am glad he sees that process management is not in conflict with that. Many others fall into the trap of thinking it is, see our previous post: … Continue reading
Using Design of Experiments as a Process Road Map
Using Design of Experiments as a Process Road Map by Davis Balestracci: The current design of experiments (DOE) renaissance seems to favor factorial designs and/or orthogonal arrays as a panacea. In my 25 years as a statistician, my clients have always found much more value in obtaining a process “road map” by generating the inherent response surface in a situation. It’s hardly an advanced technique, but it leads to much more effective optimization and process control. DoE is a tool … Continue reading
Posted in Design of Experiments, Management, Process improvement, Statistics
Tagged Design of Experiments
Organizational Learning
Why Your Organization Isn’t Learning All It Should [the broken link was removed, Harvard still doesn’t seem to realize how to manage a web resource] by Anita Tucker, Amy Edmondson, and Steven Spear Our analysis of qualitative data suggests that the problem-solving behavior of front-line workers may reduce an organization’s ability to detect underlying causes of recurring problems and thus take corrective action. While problems must be solved to reduce the impact on the current customer the organization must also … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Management, Process improvement
Cease Mass Inspection for Quality
Comment in response to, Re-Discovering W. Edwards Deming, a partial quote from that post: Not all of the Deming approach is part of core TPS thinking. In particular, Deming advocated a statistical sampling approach to quality inspection, while Toyota focuses on 100% inspection or eliminating the need for inspection through via the concepts of Poka Yoke and Jidoka. As much as I admire Deming and his philosophy, I agree with the Toyota innovation that it is better to prevent defects … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools
Tagged Deming, inspection, management, organization as a system, Process improvement
4 Comments
Lean Retailing
Teaching the Big Box New Tricks [the broken link was removed, *sigh* yet another website fails basic long term thinking related to usability, while saying they are aiming to help others adopt better management practices.] Tesco in Britain has been a pioneer in lean provision for more than a decade. In the mid-1990s, as he looked at the opportunities for retailers provided by the emergence of lean logistics, Graham Booth, Tesco’s supply-chain director (now retired) had a very simple insight: … Continue reading
Posted in Lean thinking, Process improvement
1 Comment
Learning, Systems and Improvement
A Major Mistake That Managers Make by Russell L. Ackoff Once again Ackoff provides great ideas: Page 4 and 5 explore the method to effectively learn from decisions the organization makes. The idea seem simple but they are powerful. Preparing a record of every decision of any significance, ones that involve doing something or (of particular importance) ones that involve not doing something. This record should include the following information: • The justification for the decision including its expected effects … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking
4 Comments
Agility vs. Six Sigma
My response to the agilemanagement list: I agree with David Anderson [the broken link was removed], in this thread [this broken link was also removed], as well as pretty much everything else actually. If I understand his writing correctly I am probably a bit more critical of how Six Sigma is actual practiced, but that is fairly minor difference of opinion. I have posted a couple item on managing innovation You manage processes, such as thinking up a new way … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Management, Process improvement, Six sigma
Tagged agile management, Six sigma, Software Development
1 Comment
Joel Management
Topic: Management Improvement, Lean Thinking Joel Spolsky writes the excellent Joel on Software blog and runs Fog Creek Software. Recently he has been writing about process improvement of the order fulfillment process for a movie on the experience of interns at Fog Creek Software, How to Ship Anything by Joel Spolsky Shipping an international order now takes about 35 seconds, down from 3 minutes, and can be done by anyone, whether or not they have SQL and Mail Merge skills. … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Process improvement
Tagged IT, Joel Spolsky, management, productivity
3 Comments
Not the End of Process
The End of Process by Ross Mayfield If a knowledge worker has the organization’s information in a social context at their finger tips, and the organization is sufficiently connected to tap experts and form groups instantly to resolve exceptions — is there a role for business process as we know it? Yes. There are some interesting comments spurring by this post but essentially I think the post is in no way a compelling argument that process management is not a … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management Articles, Process improvement
Tagged process thinking, Software Development
Google: Experiment Quickly and Often
Google Thinks Small by Quentin Hardy, Forbes: Brin and Page have created a corporate organism that tackles most big projects in small, tightly focused teams, setting them up in an instant and breaking them down weeks later without remorse. “Their view is that there is much greater progress if you have many small teams going out at once,” Schmidt says. The mission overall: to collect “all the world’s information” and make it accessible to everyone. “It’s a cause.” … Hundreds … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Data, Google, Innovation, Management, Process improvement, quote, Software Development
Tagged experiments, Google, iteration
12 Comments
Process Leadership
Process Leadership [the broken link was removed] by Daniel T Jones: the most promising approach is to create a small team, led by a high potential executive, operating initially outside the normal departmental structure and reporting to the top. They must be free to challenge the conventional wisdom, the firm’s current assets and relationships. Their job is to evaluate the core value creating processes of the organisation from the standpoint of the customer, and to work out how to flow … Continue reading
Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Process improvement
Tagged process thinking
Eliminating Complexity from Work
Eliminating Complexity from Work: Improving Productivity by Enhancing Quality [broken link replaced with link from the Internet Archive] by F. Timothy Fuller. National Productivity Review, Autumn, 1985. A case study of a process improvement from 1985. as much as half of the activities of about sixty people had been to set up and take down jobs, expedite, move material, count material, and do other tasks that were unnecessary in the new process. Related: productivity improvement articles and links
Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement
Tagged lean manufacturing, productivity
Seven Leadership Leverage Points
Seven Leadership Leverage Points [the broken link was removed]: for Organization-Level Improvement in Health Care by James L. Reinertsen, MD; Michael D. Pugh and Maureen Bisognano. If leaders are to bring about system-level performance improvement, they must channel attention to and take action regarding several, if not all, of these leverage points. In other words, this set of leverage points is not offered as a tried-and-true method, but as a theory-one that we hope will be useful for individual leaders … Continue reading
Posted in Health care, Management, Process improvement
Tagged Health care, Management, Systems thinking
1 Comment
How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers
How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers [the broken link was removed], Sarah Jane Johnston interview of Steven Spear. It is our conclusion that Toyota has developed a set of principles, Rules-in-Use we’ve called them, that allow organizations to engage in this (self-reflective) design, testing, and improvement so that (nearly) everyone can contribute at or near his or her potential, and when the parts come together the whole is much, much greater than the sum of the parts. The main … Continue reading
LA Jail Saves Time Processing Crime
After efficiency study, L.A. jail saves time processing crime by Dan Laidman Los Angels Daily News (pointy hired boss broke the link so I removed it) Last week, Chief William Bratton told the Board of Police Commissioners that Toyota methods have produced dramatic changes in a jail division once beset by delays, inefficient transportation, personnel shortages and troubles with medical treatment. … But the collaboration between Toyota and the LAPD marks the first time law enforcement has used the principles … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Public Sector, Toyota Production System (TPS)
Tagged Deming, government, Madison, management, Process improvement, Public Sector, Toyota
Indian Firms Learning From Toyota
Taking A Page From Toyota’s Playbook [the broken link has been removed], Business Week: The goal for Wipro is to become the Toyota of business services. Toyota preaches continuous improvement, respect for employees, learning, and embracing change. “It’s the soft stuff that makes a big impact on the hard numbers,” says Kurien, a cheerful 45-year-old. There is plenty of hard-edged analysis, as well. To embrace Toyota’s methods, Kurien last year assigned teams to examine business processes, break them into discrete … Continue reading
Posted in India, IT, Management, Process improvement, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS)
2 Comments