Category Archives: Six sigma

Deming and Six Sigma

Posted on July 15, 2005 by John Hunter

The first Curious Cat Management Improvement blog post was on the Six Sigma and Deming Philosophies Recently the Deming Electronic Network has returned to this topic (broken link removed). The Quality Advisor web site has an article on this topic: Deming and Six Sigma (broken link so removed): The Six Sigma process can be seen to offer a parallel to Deming’s Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle, although Six Sigma brings experimental design and regression analysis to the forefront in the “plan” phase. Six … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Six sigma | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt

Posted on July 14, 2005 by John Hunter

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt, CEO, GE. What makes a growth leader today, and how does that differ from the sort of leader who was effective at GE in the past? GE has always been a believer in leadership development. When the economy was growing 5% a year, when oil was $14 a barrel, and when the world was at peace, the science of management was all about the how-to. That was the how-to generation. You didn’t have to think … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Process improvement, quote, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Millennium Development Goals

Posted on July 9, 2005 by John Hunter

re: Six Sigma Training for the G-8? Interestingly Prime minstrel Blair recently showed an understanding of systems thinking (specifically how targets can result in worse performance, when targets result in distortion of the system rather than improvement). In the targets in health care case the easy “politics of the warm fuzzy feeling” would be to declare victory in setting targets. In that case PM Blair realized that while the data might look better the actual results might not necessarily be … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged

Marketers Are Embracing Statistical Design of Experiments

Posted on May 27, 2005 by John Hunter

Marketers Are Embracing Statistical Design of Experiments (site broke link so I removed it) by Richard Burnham. Crayola® conducts an e-mail marketing DOE to attract parents and teachers to their new Internet site. The company discovers a combination of factors that makes their new e-mail pitch three-and-a-half times more effective than the control. (Harvard Business Review, October 2001, “Boost Your Marketing ROI with Experimental Design,” Almquist, Wyner.) … Marketers can’t always be certain what triggers buyers to respond. In the … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Management Articles, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Six Sigma and the Evolution of Statistical Management Methods

Posted on May 23, 2005 by John Hunter

Six-Sigma: the Evolution of 100 Years of Business Improvement Methodology (pointy haired bosses broke the link so I removed it) by Ronald D. Snee. The article includes a nice very quick summary of the development of statistical methods to aid management improvement in the last 100 years. Then the article gives a good overview of Six Sigma. There are four aspects of the Six-Sigma method… First, Six-Sigma places a clear focus on getting bottomline results… Next, Six-Sigma builds on improvement … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged

Six Sigma at the Kennedy Space Center

Posted on May 23, 2005 by John Hunter

The Lessons of Six Sigma [broken link was removed]: Management tool helped refocus priorities, by Napoleon Carroll and Christa Casleton : Process ownership is not a recognizable role in the CFO organization; it doesn’t fit anywhere in the standard position descriptions, and there’s no spot for it on the organization chart. After rigorous analysis, it was clear to us that unclear process ownership was one of our major problems.

Posted in Management Articles, Public Sector, Six sigma

Roger Hoerl’s Perspective on the Future of Six-Sigma

Posted on May 19, 2005 by John Hunter

One Perspective on the Future of Six-Sigma by Roger Hoerl. Originally published in the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage 2004 – Vol. 1, No.1 pp. 112 – 119. Six-Sigma has maintained momentum for over ten years now, longer than many pundits expected. However, the key question remains: how long will Six-Sigma remain front-page news? The answer is that it will remain front-page news as long as it delivers front-page results. A second, and related question is: how … Continue reading →

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Search for Improvement With Complex Six Sigma

Posted on May 15, 2005 by John Hunter

Search for Improvement With Complex Six Sigma [the broken link was removed] by Helen D’Antoni: To understand what companies are doing to curtail costs while improving performance, InformationWeek’s sister publication, Optimize magazine, conducted a survey of 156 business-technology executives, asking them about their company’s business-process frameworks, quality models, and technology standards. … of the 156 business-technology executives surveyed by Optimize Research, fewer than 40% report their company even employs Six Sigma.

Posted in Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged

Management Improvement Articles

Posted on May 10, 2005 by John Hunter

Michael Porter’s Big Ideas by Keith H. Hammonds The world’s most famous business-school professor is fed up with CEOs who claim that the world changes too fast for their companies to have a long-term strategy. If you want to make a difference as a leader, you’ve got to make time for strategy.” 3 Six Sigma Articles (link to one document in word format) by Gerry Hahn 20 Key Lessons Learned: May 2002 What Does it Take to be a Master … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Psychology, Six sigma

Statistics for Experimenters – Second Edition

Posted on March 8, 2005 by John Hunter

The classic Statistics for Experimenters has been updated by George Box and Stu Hunter, two of the three original authors. Bill Hunter, who was my father, and the other author, died in 1986. Order online: Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery , 2nd Edition by George E. P. Box, J. Stuart Hunter, William G. Hunter. I happen to agree with those who call this book a classic, however, I am obviously biased. Google Scholar citations for the first edition … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Data, Design of Experiments, Innovation, Management, Manufacturing, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Six Sigma and Deming Philosophies

Posted on September 27, 2004 by John Hunter

My oversimplified view is that the Deming philosophy aims to improve the system and Six Sigma is about improving within the current system. I think several Six Sigma efforts over the past 10 years have improved upon what many organizations tried with TQM, in large part by

1) putting substantial effort (significant training and application) into using statistical tools to improve

and 2) more focus on results (especially short term results) Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Six sigma | Tagged ,

Management Improvement History

Posted on September 23, 2004 by John Hunter

I do believe we need to improve our practice of Quality (and to do that we need to understand what happened in the past and why it was not more successful). The idea that Design of Experiments (DoE) was at the core of some Quality Movement to me is not at all accurate. In my experience only a few Quality professionals today understand what it means and how it should be applied. The idea that it was common place in the 40’s I seriously doubt (though I don’t have first hand knowledge of this). I find it difficult to believe we would have decided to stop using DoE if it was commonly done previously. The understanding I have from those that should know (like George Box and previously my father – Bill Hunter) is that it was not at all common practice and still is not outside of a few industries and even there it is isolated in the domain of a few experts. Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Design of Experiments, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Quality tools, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

New Management Improvement Library Articles

Posted on September 2, 2004 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Online Management Improvement Library includes hundred of online documents that have been individually selected as worthwhile for those interested in improving performance. The articles, reports, files, handbooks and guides touch on many areas of management improvement including: customer focus, lean manufacturing, systems thinking, understanding and managing with variation, six sigma, design of experiments, statistics, innovation, creativity, pychology, joy in work, continual improvement, mistake proofing (Poka Yoke), leadership, teams, process improvement and project management. Recent additions to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Public Sector, Six sigma