Six Sigma Interview with Alan Harrison, Weir Pumps Ltd [the broken link was removed]:
Everyone has been trained to some degree on what we have termed the Weir Production System, which includes but is not limited to TPS and Six Sigma. We have created a pragmatic pull improvement system (driven by business needs) where we define what is needed, when it is needed, and how to make it happen.
Google is at it again. They have announce Google Talk [the broken link was removed]:
Google Talk is a simple and free way to talk with and send instant messages to your friends. Like Gmail, Google Talk uses Google’s innovative technologies to help people communicate more effectively and efficiently. Think of it as Google’s approach to communications.
Google Talk is easy and intuitive to use. All you need to make free calls is an Internet connection, a microphone, and a speaker. After you download Google Talk, sign in with your Gmail username and password. Invite your friends to download Google Talk, and once they do, you’ll be able to talk or IM with them instantly.
The rumors sure got this one right. Google Talk is already, and will continue to get Google a huge amount of publicity. It sure seems like the love affair with Google is cresting. Those pointing out problems (privacy…) are increasing. It will be interesting to see how much longer Google can retain the golden touch.
Toyota Production System Steers JAL Group Cargo Operations at Narita [the broken link was removed], press release from Japan Airlines
By applying the ingenuity and originality of the Toyota Production System to their cargo operations at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, Japan Airlines are on the way to saving millions of dollars annually and making huge strides in improving efficiency and productivity, while at the same time maintaining service quality and safety.
I don’t think I have ever seen such a press release. It reads like a good article for actually learning about their lean efforts. Unlike most press releases, it is actually worth reading.
In accepting new ideas the project team found that the people who had been on the job longest, ever since Narita started operating, and who had a lot of accumulated know-how and experience, had the most difficulty accepting in new ideas. The perspective from inside the company tended to be narrowly focused and it was hard to make changes, so the team started by trying to change attitudes with the help of the Toyota know-how.
The team carried out their project by encouraging personnel to take on challenges. The team discovered that staff needed to learn that making a mistake while acting proactively was not a problem. The problem lay in not attempting to do anything at all.
My response to the message, Has Six Sigma been a failure? (broken link was removed) on the Deming Electronic Network email list (DEN).
I think Six Sigma has been a success. Do I think it the best option? No, I would prefer a Deming based approach. But I think Six Sigma can be a successful improvement strategy. Like most any management strategy, many applying it do so poorly (hacks as Deming would say). But if most any DEN participant worked with the leading thinkers in the Six Sigma community you would find they fit very well within the community of the DEN, though with some distinguishing traits.
To varying extents the Six Sigma thinkers might not accept the level of importance we place on certain items, things like: “joy in work,” co-operation (vs. Competition), the need to change the organizations culture, the importance of unmeasurable factors, or eliminating performance appraisals. But the best minds (as I see it) in the Six Sigma community share our beliefs, to a large extent. The approach they have taken is to work with the current culture more than most of us would like, if we could instead have the culture move toward a more Deming based culture.
Many Six Sigma proponents have done great things: Gerry Hahn, Roger Hoerl, Soren Bisgaard, Bill Hill, Ron Snee, Forrest Breyfogle. They happen to all be statisticians, I believe; as were most (though not all) of those who taught with Deming. I think there is a connection. Statisticians that follow the applied statistics school of thought fit very well with Deming’s ideas, and with the good practice of Six Sigma.
Continue reading
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.
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But the collaboration between Toyota and the LAPD marks the first time law enforcement has used the principles in running a jail, said Mike Morrison, the dean of the University of Toyota.
The City of Madison Police Department applied Deming’s ideas in the 1980’s. Quality Improvement and Government: Ten Hard Lessons From the Madison Experience by David C. Couper, Chief of Police, City of Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Doing More With Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin by William G. Hunter, Jan O’Neill, and Carol Wallen, June 1986.
Transforming Aggression into Creative Problem Solving [the broken link has been removed] by Margaret J. Wheatley and Geoff Crinean
With their intelligence awakened, people want to contribute, want to change things, want to make things happen. They will work with existing structures and processes, but they will be altering and adapting them as needed, almost without noticing. Too often, leaders fear a loss of control and attempt to rein in such groups. Their own fear pushes them back into aggressive patterns of command and control.
A previous post making this point: Managing Fear
I think, some can leap to the conclusion that managing fear means you must avoid doing anything that may bother some people. That is not the case. If things need to be changed, that still must happen; even though people may fear change.
But managers must understand the psychological effects of fear and seek to move forward in the most effective way possible. That means taking into account the effect of the change, and the way the change is brought about, on those affected by the change.
The ABCs of Rank and Fire Management [the broken link has been removed] by Mark Edmondson
Due in part to the influence of GE, employee ranking has become more widely adopted over the past 20 years. According to a 2004 study, currently about 34 percent of firms rank employees.
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Our clients have learned that a performance management system that reinforces a culture of engaged employees can be at tremendous competitive advantage. While at least one-third of your competitors are alienating employees with some sort of dysfunctional ranking practice, you’re creating a high-performance culture by leveraging your most valuable asset- the minds and hearts of your people.
Previous Posts on the failures of Performance appraisal Process:
Going Lean in Health Care [the broken link has been removed] a report from the Institute for Healthcare improvement based on presentation by James Womack and others. This report is an another excellent resource from IHI, which I have mentioned before is doing great things. This is definitely worth reading.
Lean principles hold the promise of reducing or eliminating wasted time, money, and energy in health care, creating a system that is efficient, effective, and truly responsive to the needs of patients the “customers” at the heart of it all.
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The concept called lean management” or “lean thinking” is most commonly associated with Japanese manufacturing, particularly the Toyota Production System (TPS). Much of the TPS way of thinking is based on the work of quality guru W. Edwards Deming, who taught, among other things, that managers should stop depending on mass inspection to achieve quality and, instead, focus on improving the production process and building quality into the product in the first place.
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Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, has been using lean management principles since 2002. By working to eliminate waste, Virginia Mason created more capacity in existing programs and practices so that planned expansions were scrapped, saving significant capital expenses: $1 million for an additional hyperbaric chamber that was no longer needed; $1 to $3 million for endoscopy suites that no longer needed to be relocated; $6 million for new surgery suites that were no longer necessary.
CMMI Webcast Scheduled for August 18th [broken link removed]
David Anderson will present the Microsoft Solutions Framework for CMMI Process Improvement material live at 11am Pacific Daylight Time on August 18th. After the presentation he will answer questions in a chatroom session.
Prevoius Curious Cat Management Improvement posts on David Anderson’s ideas:
Collaboration Rules [broken link was removed] by Philip Evans and Bob Wolf:
We have found that Toyota’s managerial methods resemble, in a number of their fundamentals, the workings of the Linux community; the Toyota Production System (TPS) owes some of its vaunted responsiveness to open-source traits. In fact, Toyota itself is evolving into a hybrid between a conventional hierarchy and a Linux-like self-organizing network.
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Both emphasize granularity: They pay attention to small details, eliminate problems at the source, and trim anything resembling excess, whether it be work, code, or material. Linux members, for example, share an obsession with writing minimal code, compiling each day’s output before proceeding to the next and extirpating programming flaws as they go along. For their part, TPS engineers are relentless in applying short cycles of trial and error, focusing on just one thing at a time, and getting inside and observing actual processes. Both groups carry those principles to apparent extremes.
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Monetary carrots and accountability sticks motivate people to perform narrow, specified tasks. Admiration and applause are far more effective stimulants of above-and-beyond behavior.
