Category Archives: Systems thinking

Lean is Harmony

Posted on September 30, 2006 by John Hunter

In Mike Wroblewski’s capstone, to his posts on his tour of lean manufacturing in Japan, he states: My lean manufacturing epiphany is quite simple, LEAN IS HARMONY. … The lean principles are helping us develop and promote harmony by removing barriers, rocks, and conflicts that disrupt flow in our business. Yes, lean is about eliminating waste and using great lean tools to improve our business but that is all we seem to focus on in the US. Lean principles are … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Six sigma, Systems thinking

Excessive CEO Pay

Posted on September 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Overpaid CEOs and Underpaid Managers: Fairness and Executive Compensation by James B. Wade, Charles A. O’Reilly, III and Timothy G. Pollock: We also find evidence suggesting that CEOs serve as a key referent for employees in determining whether their own situation is “fair,” and this influences their reactions to their own compensation. More specifically, we find that when lower-level managers are underpaid relative to the CEO, that is, underpaid more than the CEO or overpaid less, they are more likely … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged deadly diseases, leadership, Management, organization as a system, overpaid executives, respect for people

Systemic Thinking

Posted on September 23, 2006 by John Hunter

Systemic Thinking by Gary Bartlett provides a nice introduction to systemic thinking compared to analysis. Analysis is very useful however, the strong tendency to focus on only breaking apart systems to analyze components does result in missing insight into improvement opportunities (that can be gained by looking at the system as a whole). Conventional thinking techniques are fundamentally analytical. Systemic thinking is different – it combines analytical thinking with synthetical thinking. … That tool is synthesis – seeing how things … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Systems thinking | Tagged Creativity, system thinking | 2 Comments

Going Lean Brings Long-term Payoffs

Posted on September 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Going lean brings long-term payoffs [the broken link was removed] by John Torinus: The growing number of Wisconsin manufacturers, and the few service companies, taking the lean journey are learning that it is not a sprint. … The immediate paybacks come in the form of saved space, less distance traveled, fewer handoffs, faster throughput, lower inventories and man-hours saved. I would state the authors next point differently. The early successes provide resources to invest in making large more fundamental changes … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Systems thinking | Tagged lean manufacturing, Lean thinking, long term thinking, Quality tools, Systems thinking, Wisconsin | 2 Comments

Permanent Innovation

Posted on August 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Langdon Morris has written a new book: Permanent Innovation [the broken link was removed]. There is a blog [the broken link was removed] and web site too. The book builds upon his article, Business Model Warfare: Furthermore, the core of the innovation value proposition need not be built around a technology per se. In the examples cited above – Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Nike, Visa, Dell, Fedex, Home Depot, Southwest Airlines, and Ford (in the early days) – proprietary technologies play … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Innovation, Systems thinking

Senge and Deming

Posted on August 29, 2006 by John Hunter

Jeff Sutherland quoting Dr. Deming‘s response to Peter Senge request for a comment on his book, The Fifth Discipline: “Our prevailing system of management has destroyed our people. People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-respect, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning. The forces of destruction begin with toddlers—a prize for the best halloween costume, grades in school, gold stars—and on up through the university. On the job, people, teams, and divisions are ranked, rewarded for the top, punished for … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, Psychology, respect for people, Systems thinking

Gladwell (and Drucker) on Pensions

Posted on August 21, 2006 by John Hunter

The Risk Poolhttps://management.curiouscatblog.net/2006/08/21/gladwell-and-drucker-on-pensions/ by Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point and Blink): The most influential management theorist of the twentieth century was Peter Drucker, who, in 1950, wrote an extraordinarily prescient article for Harper’s entitled “The Mirage of Pensions.” It ought to be reprinted for every steelworker, airline mechanic, and autoworker who is worried about his retirement. Drucker simply couldn’t see how the pension plans on the table at companies like G.M. could ever work. “For such a plan … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Economics, Health care, Investing, Management, Popular, Systems thinking | Tagged business, Data, Economics, Investing, leadership, long term thinking, Management | 1 Comment

Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs

Posted on August 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Excerpt from Idealized Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow’s Crisis…Today by Russell L. Ackoff, Jason Magidson and Herbert J. Addison: How Bell Labs Imagined — and Created — the Telephone System of the Future in the 1950s. Great stuff and another example showing the obsession with “new” ideas is wasteful. Idealized design is a way of thinking about change that is deceptively simple to state: In solving problems of virtually any kind, the way to get the best outcome is to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Ackoff, Books, Customer focus, Innovation, Management, management history, Systems thinking | 7 Comments

Distort the System

Posted on August 19, 2006 by John Hunter

From our post: Targets Distorting the System, Dr. Brian Joiner: spoke of 3 ways to improve the figures: distort the data, distort the system and improve the system. Improving the system is the most difficult. Another example of this in practice: Recount helps one university rise in the rankings [the broken link was removed]: Behnke, who says he’s no fan of rankings, said he recently spoke to a provost at another institution who was capping class sizes at 19 to … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged critical thinking, curiouscat, Data, management, organization as a system, Systems thinking | 6 Comments

Competition

Posted on August 11, 2006 by John Hunter

Why I hate programming competitions [the broken link was removed] by Mike Vanier Most aspects of Deming’s thinking seemed natural to me from the start. Some ideas have taken longer (it took me awhile to be won over to the harm caused by performance appraisals, for example). Competition is another area that I still struggle with. I have been moved greatly by my experience and the thoughts of people like Alfie Kohn (No Contest: The Case Against Competition). But I … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Psychology, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged Management, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people

Toyota Supplier Relations

Posted on August 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Toyota’s relationship with vendors is an important link in its success [link broken, so it was removed] by John Torinus, CEO of Serigraph: One of the big differentiators between how the Big Three operate and how the vaunted Toyota production system works is how they deal with suppliers. Toyota takes the stance that it competes supply chain against supply chain, so it works hand-in-hand with vendors. It’s not just what happens in its body and assembly plants. Taiichi Ohno, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged Manufacturing, suppliers, Systems thinking, Toyota, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Vacation: Systems Thinking

Posted on August 4, 2006 by John Hunter

There’s more vacation time on tap for you (in the USA) by Chris Taylor: U.S. employees are taking less time off than ever: Not only is the average number of annual vacation days granted to them a mere 12.4 – less than that of the average medieval peasant – but more than a third of us don’t even use all of our allotted time off. While a dramatic contrast, I don’t really believe it is accurate. I believe workers in … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged health, Health care, Management, Psychology, respect for people, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

Another Quota Failure Example

Posted on July 24, 2006 by John Hunter

Innocent People Placed On ‘Watch List’ To Meet Quota You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they’re reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it. The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they’re required to submit at least one report a month. If they don’t, there’s no raise, no bonus, no awards and … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, Management, organization as a system, Psychology, quota, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

Lean Management Case Study

Posted on July 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Learning the Rules…Playing to Win [the broken link was removed] (pdf) Lean concepts are taught through discussion and hands-on discovery, not lectures.” A popular part of the experience involves various simulation exercises including the beer game, which teaches that poorly organized systems will defeat the best of people, and the airplane simulation exercise, where student groups work together to build model airplanes. On the first try at this simulation, typically one airplane is completed in the allotted time. At the … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged Quality tools | 1 Comment

Usability Failures

Posted on July 15, 2006 by John Hunter

‘Smart’ phones, stupid punters? A survey* of 15,000 “faulty” devices by mobile data provider WDSGlobal found 63 per cent of the one in seven new phones which are returned have nothing wrong with them. I believe one in seven is the model of phone. I guess if you operationally define “nothing wrong” as a failure to work as the manufacturer intended that would be true. But is that what really matters? What is the number of defects that should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged bad usability, Customer focus, Data, Management, technology, usability | 7 Comments

Reducing Waste

Posted on July 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd – achieving zero waste to landfill [the broken link was removed] Toyota developed its Environmental Management System to stay on top of its environmental objectives and ensure that all processes are dealt with in an environmentally friendly way and are implemented across all the plants. There are full key performance indicator reporting systems, visual controls and displays throughout the plant. A great improvement strategy. Determine what you are trying to do. Understand the system. Set … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged continual improvement, Quality tools, suppliers, Toyota | 1 Comment