Category Archives: Public Sector

Manufacturing Employee Shortage in Utah

Posted on April 3, 2008 by John Hunter

Utah scrambling to meet need for technical workers The state faces challenges in generating necessary interest to fill available manufacturing jobs for what Utah’s governor has called the state’s “Aerospace Hub,” both immediately and in the future, the report said. The situation continues to worsen, with jobs being created and unemployment remaining low in the state. And as the current work force ages, the supply of skilled workers is diminishing, forcing employers to recruit outside of Utah and sometimes leave … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Manufacturing, Public Sector | Tagged , ,

Stupid Bureaucratic Requirement

Posted on March 3, 2008 by John Hunter

Quaker teacher fired for changing loyalty oath California State University East Bay has fired a math teacher after six weeks on the job because she inserted the word “nonviolently” in her state-required Oath of Allegiance form. … “I don’t think it was fair at all,” said Kearney-Brown. “All they care about is my name on an unaltered loyalty oath. They don’t care if I meant it, and it didn’t seem connected to the spirit of the oath. Nothing else mattered. … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Public Sector | Tagged ,

Six Sigma In New York Local Government

Posted on January 3, 2008 by John Hunter

New Erie County Government Executive, Chris Collins, discusses the director of six sigma position that will drive their new six sigma efforts. Related: Six Sigma for Erie County Government – Public Sector Management Improvement Site – Posts on improving management in the Public Sector – management webcasts

Posted in Management, Public Sector, Six sigma, webcast | 2 Comments

Six Sigma for Erie County Government

Posted on November 12, 2007 by John Hunter

Chris Collins proposed bringing six sigma to Erie County government in his campaign for county executive. He won the election. From his web site: In business, you satisfy your customers or you fail. But in Erie County government, if you fail taxpayers who are your customer, nothing happens. Under Chris Collins, that will change. As County Executive, Chris Collins will reform county government to make sure it serves its customers: the taxpayers. He will implement new management techniques – Total … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Public Sector, Six sigma | 1 Comment

Engineering Innovation for Manufacturing and the Economy

Posted on November 11, 2007 by John Hunter

Editorial: Engineering Innovation, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: They are the invisible heroes in business, the men and women who make innovation possible. They are people like Mary Ann Wright at Johnson Controls in Milwaukee, the former chief engineer for the Ford Escape hybrid who is leading a team bent on establishing world leadership in hybrid battery systems. Or Werner Zobel, a Modine Manufacturing engineer working in Germany who hatched the idea for a new cooling system that the Racine-based company believes … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Public Sector, Science, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Design of Experiments in Operational Testing

Posted on November 3, 2007 by John Hunter

Edwards looks toward future of testing We are fielding a Design of Experiments concept to ensure we conduct the right amount of testing — not too much or too little, but just right. We will field this approach in phases as we must train our people and put the right tools in place. However, it is already showing great promise. In a recent Benefield Anechoic Facility test, the 412th Electronic Warfare Group used Design of Experiments methodology to cut a … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Management, Public Sector, Quality tools

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

More Bad Customer Service Examples :-(

Posted on August 19, 2007 by John Hunter

It is sad to see so many examples of bad customer service. I wish enough companies would adopt management improvement principles so that at least I could avoid dealing with the others altogether. Here are 2 more bad examples from the Washington post today. Cellphone Contracts – Hard to Get off the Hook Fed up with dropped calls and a string of defective cellphones, Corey Taylor said he became irate when he learned he’d have to pay $175 to get … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management, Public Sector | 2 Comments

Failure to Address Systemic SWAT Raid Failures

Posted on July 3, 2007 by John Hunter

The systemic failure of police raids continues to cause deaths of innocent people. In congressional testimony last month Radley Balko presented more evidence in: Our Militarized Police Departments: Pay particular attention to the red markers on the map. Those are the approximately 40 cases where a mistaken raid resulted in the death of a completely innocent American citizen. The most recent example of course is the drug raid in Atlanta last fall that killed 92-year old Kathryn Johnston. Ms. Johnston … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Public Sector, Respect | 3 Comments

Jeffrey Pfeffer on Evidence-Based Practices

Posted on March 11, 2007 by John Hunter

Jeffrey Pfeffer Testifies to Congress About Evidence-Based Practices [the broken link was removed]: In this short statement, I want to make five points as succinctly as possible, providing references for background and documentation for my arguments. First, organizations in both the public and private sector ought to base policies not on casual benchmarking, on ideology or belief, on what they have done in the past or what they are comfortable with doing, but instead should implement evidence-based management. Second, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Public Sector, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged ,

Six Sigma City Government

Posted on February 28, 2007 by John Hunter

A recent report from the Brookings Institution, Reconnecting Massachusetts Gateway Cities [the broken link was removed], has some good words on the efforts of Fort Wayne, Indiana: In a short time, the city reduced water main replacement costs by 18 percent, cut pothole response time by 86 percent, and slashed the waiting time for building permits from 51 days to 12 days. And because the Six Sigma process permeates all functions of the city’s government, these productivity enhancements have piled … Continue reading →

Posted in Public Sector, Six sigma | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Georgetown Kentucky Way

Posted on February 27, 2007 by John Hunter

The Scott County Way [the broken link was removed] by Jillian Ogawa: It seemed only natural that Toyota’s corporate culture would influence the local schools, said Superintendent Dallas Blankenship. He estimated that one in three students in the school district have one or more parents that work for either Toyota or a Toyota supplier. The school district has had several partnership programs with Toyota in Georgetown. “Simply over time, we learned a lot of practices that have helped us to … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Management Articles, Public Sector, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , ,

Transformation and Redesign

Posted on February 23, 2007 by John Hunter

Here is an excellent article from 1999: Transformation and Redesign at the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) (pdf link) by March Laree Jacques This article describes an organizational transformation effort undertaken at the White House Communications Agency. It shares the Agency’s efforts through the period of 1992-1998, beginning with a Deming-based approach to continuous quality improvement through implementation of a total organizational redesign using systems thinking precepts. It describes the obstacles to implementing quality concepts in a high visibility, high … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Public Sector, Systems thinking | 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

Baldrige in Education

Posted on January 6, 2007 by John Hunter

Superintendent’s method used by Boeing, Motorola [the broken link was removed] by Helen Gao The three M’s – managing for innovation, management by fact and market focus – are unfamiliar phrases to most people in the educational establishment. But don’t be surprised if, in the coming months, leaders of the San Diego Unified School District start spouting corporate-speak. Management principles long embraced by companies seeking a competitive edge are making inroads in the public school system, as Superintendent Carl Cohn … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Management, Public Sector | Tagged

Customer Un-focus

Posted on December 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Counties caught in conundrum: getting Amish to take food stamps [the broken link was removed] by John Horton Accepting public assistance is verboten within the Amish culture. It simply is not done. But Taylor is under orders to at least try to get them enrolled. The Ohio Department of Job & Family Services has asked Geauga and Holmes counties, which feature the state’s largest Amish populations, to lift dismal food-stamp participation rates. Taylor and his Holmes counterpart, Dan Jackson, called … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Management, Public Sector | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments