The Best Factory in the World

Posted on October 17, 2005 by John Hunter

The Best Factory in the World (site broke link so I removed it) by Norman Bodek (from his book, Kaikaku):

This is a story about a time when Bodek asked Shigeo Shingo to take him to the “very best factory in all of Japan.”
…
Pictures of areas of the factory or the office hung throughout the plant. Workers were encouraged to look at the pictures and talk about them together, then to make improvements.
…
After the visit, I could understand better how it is possible to have a super-efficient manufacturing plant where people’s needs for growth, respect and creativity are also met.

Another excellent article from Superfactory.

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing | Comments Off on The Best Factory in the World

New IT Lean Blog

Posted on October 17, 2005 by John Hunter

A new Lean Blog, Compound Thinking, focuses on Information Technology. It has started off with some interesting posts, including – Compound Thinking: Lean Manufacturing Principles — Trust the Team (link removed – blog was likely closed – now some spam blog has taken up residence):

If you aren’t trusting your people, you are slowly but surely sapping their morale. Even worse, you are cutting yourself from the source of real ground-floor process innovation.

Hopefully this blog will continue to offer interesting posts.

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Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

Posted on October 16, 2005 by John Hunter

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, and Scott D. Anthony in Harvard Management Update:

Companies have two basic options when they seek to build new-growth businesses. They can try to take an existing market from an entrenched competitor with sustaining innovations. Or they can try to take on a competitor with disruptive innovations that either create new markets or take root among an incumbent’s worst customers. Our research overwhelmingly suggests that companies should seek out growth based on disruption.

Clayton Christensen has put forth this position in several of his books including the Innovator’s Solution.
Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

BetterProcess Podcasts and Blog

Posted on October 16, 2005 by John Hunter

Edited to correct links – people involved with web content really need to learn that pages must live forever. They broke them again, so I gave up trying to make up for their failure to follow good management processes.

BetterProcess Podcast and Blog [I removed the broken link]

I found a new source of podcasts [I removed the broken link] focused on manufacturing, charting, use of data and the like. Yesterday I wrote about the potential for webinars and last week I wrote about the value of podcasts to the transfer of management improvement knowledge. The biggest problem right now is finding management improvement podcasts so I am glad to find another source of podcasts on management improvement topics.

Topics of the podcasts include: Pareto charting, P-charting, Six Sigma (Measurement System Analysis) and manufacturing news.

All the podcasts end with a musical selection. This new technology allows individuals to create what they want. So we get a much more personal creations than were common in the past. I can’t imagine many video training sessions each ending in a musical selection. It also is made possible by thinking like that of the creative commons license (that allowing more use of your content may actual be wiser, in some cases, than prohibiting any use of content that you own).

The most recent podcast is part 2 of 2 (and the 12th podcast overall): Broken link an interview with Andy Sleeper a Master Black Belt discussing Measurement System Analysis.

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Toyota Engineers a New Plant: the Living Kind

Posted on October 15, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement

Toyota Engineers…a Shrub

Toyota Motor Corp has developed a derivative of the Cherry Sage shrub that is optimized for absorbing pollutants from the air.

It seems Toyota is dominating the management improvement news in the same way Google is dominating the rest of the business news. It seems like Toyota is mentioned positively nearly as much as other companies combined on the management blogs that I read most often. And I am contributing to that. I doubt I would bother to write about this if it were most other companies. But then other companies don’t have letter signed by the President like the one I quote below.

And this seems to be another small example of Toyota’s vision, see our previous post on Toyota as Homebuilder and Biotechnology researcher.

Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, quote, Science, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Glacier National Park Photos

Posted on October 15, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Travel photos

I have posted the first batch of photos from my trip to Glacier National Park this June. See all Glacier National Park photos, I have posted so far. Previous posts show photos from North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park and Mount Saint Helens on the same trip.
Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com, Fun, Travel photos | Comments Off on Glacier National Park Photos

Lean Manufacturing Webinar

Posted on October 15, 2005 by John Hunter

Plant Design for Lean Manufacturing – view webinar archive [I removed the broken link]

This webinar archive is a series of slides with an audio track (my guess is the slides should be flipped as you listen though this didn’t happen for me). Use of webinars to present management improvement content over the web is fairly limited at this time. And archived webinars that are available on the public web (not hidden behind locked doors (login required) – whether they are free or require a fee).

I think there is much to improve in how we take advantage of this technology. Over time this method of presenting information could prove very valuable. It is good to see people trying to figure out how we can use this technology to deliver information more effectively.

It is good that they make an archive of the webinar available online (it would be better if it were not hidden behind a login system – even a free as this one is) but still I am glad to link to them which provides them potential customers.

The business model used by those providing the content will determine if they should charge for the content, or give it away. I strongly believe that in almost all cases it is best to make significant content available for free on the public web (not behind login systems).

Continue reading →

Posted in India, IT, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , | Comments Off on Lean Manufacturing Webinar

Seven Leadership Leverage Points

Posted on October 13, 2005 by John Hunter

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 in planning their work and for us in organizing a support and learning system to share best leadership practices and results across organizations; and from which all of us can learn about what works, and what doesn’t, in bringing about large-system change in health care.

Once again the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is doing a great job. This white paper does an excellent job of collecting knowledge and suggesting a way forward. And they are having an impact by getting people to participate in improvement efforts.

They have the courage to say one of the 3 sources for there hypothesis as “Hunches, Intuition, and Collective Experience.” While attempting to base plans on data and not hunches is good. Often you must make decisions without data. It is why Dr. Deming was so concerned with mobility of top management: that mobility means many managers don’t really understand what they are managing. Lean thinkers understand the value of having managers with deep knowledge of the areas they manage.

Continue reading →

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

Science and Engineering

Posted on October 13, 2005 by John Hunter

Broad Federal Effort Urgently Needed to Create New, High-Quality Jobs for All Americans in the 21st Century [the broken link was removed], news release on a report from the National Academies Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy – Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future:

U.S. 12th-graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries on a test of general knowledge in mathematics and science.

This is not a new discovery, but the continuing persistence of this result is none-the-less an important issue to consider.

In 2001 U.S. industry spent more on tort litigation than on research and development.

As Dr. Deming stated decades ago “Excessive legal damage awards swelled by lawyers working on contingency fees” is one of the seven deadly diseases of the American economy.
Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Science | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Science and Engineering

Shackled by Bad Six Sigma?

Posted on October 13, 2005 by John Hunter

Shackled by Bad Six Sigma? [the broken link was removed] by Fred Mullavey, Quality Digest:

Technical experts, customers and suppliers–both internal and external–all need to be involved, regardless of their department or discipline. When boundaries aren’t crossed in this manner, problems remain entrenched, and the Six Sigma effort fails.

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