Tag Archives: continual improvement

Quality is a Journey to Excellence – Improving the System

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Curiouscat

Quality is a Journey to Excellence is a 2 day management seminar that Bill Hunter (my father) recorded in 1985 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The embedded clip shows the third section of a the seminar on improving the system. Deming has this pithy way of putting a lot of the problems along those lines and what he says is: “Lets play American industry and we’ll make toast. I’ll burn and you scrape.” These links provide more details on ideas he … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged continual improvement, Data, Deming, management, Process improvement, Statistics, Systems thinking, webcast, William Hunter

Expand the View of the System to Find Ways to Improve Results

Posted on January 10, 2023 by John Hunter

Here is an example of improvement made possible by expanding the view of the system (and viewing the results from the perspective of the customer instead of just looking at internal process measures). I was working to improve the processing time for court orders of child support (in the retirement system for the USA federal government). The time to process the court orders was taking far too long (longer than legally allowed). The first process improvements took place in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, Customer focus, organization as a system, problem solving

How to Lead From Any Level In the Organization

Posted on June 22, 2021 by John Hunter

By successfully helping other people get better results, whether it is your manager, peers, or subordinates, you will grow trust and influence with those around you. “You grow your influence with them by showing them that allowing you to have influence is good for them.” The more you show positive outcomes from your input, the more influence you will have over time. Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged build capability, continual improvement, interview, leadership, management, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people

Podcast: Building Organizational Capability

Posted on December 7, 2016 by John Hunter

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 420 features an interview with me, by Thomas Cagley, on Building Organizational Capability (download podcast). John Hunter in the podcast: Changing how organizations are managed makes a huge difference in people’s lives, not all the time and I understand most of the time it doesn’t. But when this is done well people can go from dreading going to work to enjoying going to work, not every single day – but most days, and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged build capability, change, continual improvement, culture, Data, iteration, John Hunter, Joy in Work, leadership, management, organization as a system, podcast, Psychology, transformation | 2 Comments

Continually Improving Using a Focus on Delighting Customers

Posted on December 1, 2016 by John Hunter

ASQ asked the ASQ influential voices to respond to this question: What is the best way to ensure quality and customer integration grow together? When I first got involved in the quality field that name (quality) seemed to vague for me. And different people and organizations seemed to have vastly different meanings in mind for efforts they all grouped under the heading of quality. What I came up with to capture what I was interested in was customer focused continuous … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, continual improvement, Customer focus, management system, organization as a system | 1 Comment

Transforming a Management System – A Case Study From the Madison Wisconsin Police Department

Posted on March 10, 2015 by John Hunter

This post in an excerpt from The Quality Leadership Workbook for Police by Chief David Couper and Captain Sabine Lobitz (buy via Amazon). Transformational Steps A Case Study Madison, Wisconsin (1981-1993) Step 1: Educate and inform everyone in the organization about the vision, the goals, and Quality Leadership. This step must be passionately led by the top leader. Begin discussion with top management team and train them. Discuss and ask employees; get feedback from them. Share feedback with the chief … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Deming, Management, Respect, Statistics | Tagged Books, case study, change, continual improvement, Customer focus, Data, Deming, leadership, Madison, management, organization as a system, Public Sector, respect for people, TQM, transformation | 6 Comments

Don’t Ignore Customer Complaints

Posted on November 20, 2014 by John Hunter

I find Paul Graham’s ideas very useful. I disagree with his recent tweet though. Update: See note at bottom of the post – Paul tweeted that his original tweet was wrong. Base your assessment of the merit of an idea on the actual merit of the idea, not the category you place the person in that is expressing the idea. His reply tweet addresses the problem with the first one in a very specific case. But you have “bugs” that … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus | Tagged continual improvement, Customer focus, customer service, evidence based management, feedback, gemba, organization as a system, Paul Graham | 2 Comments

Take Advantage of the Strengths Each Person Brings to Work

Posted on September 17, 2014 by John Hunter

The players have weaknesses. But it is our job as coaches to find the strengths in what our guys do. They all have strengths, and that’s what we highlight. What really helps is having Russell. He is so committed to improving on the littlest things every day. I try to find a word for this sometimes, but I can’t … it’s his refusal to fail. No detail is too small, and he makes sure to stress that every day.” Darrell … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged blame, continual improvement, Madison, managers, managing people, organization as a system, respect for people, teams | 7 Comments

Revolutionary Management Improvement May Be Needed But Most Management Change is Evolutionary

Posted on August 26, 2014 by John Hunter

This month the ASQ Influential Bloggers were asked to respond to the question – will the future of quality be evolutionary or revolutionary? I think it has been and will continue to be both. Revolutionary change is powerful but very difficult for entrenched people and organizations to actually pull off. It is much easy to dream about doing so. Often even revolutionary ideas are adopted in a more evolutionary way: partial adoption of some practices based on the insight provided … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, change, commentary, continual improvement, leadership, Lean thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 1 Comment

Root Cause, Interactions, Robustness and Design of Experiments

Posted on June 18, 2014 by John Hunter

Eric Budd asked on The W. Edwards Deming Institute group (LinkedIn broke the link with a register wall so I removed the link): If observed performance/behavior in a system is a result of the interactions between components–and variation exists in those components–the best root cause explanation we might hope for is a description of the interactions and variation at a moment in time. How can we make such an explanation useful? A single root cause is rare. Normally you can … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, problem solving, Process improvement, process thinking, Quality tools, root cause, Software Development, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

A Good Management System is Robust and Continually Improving

Posted on May 22, 2014 by John Hunter

Imagine a big clock, the big and little and sweeping second hands moving with absolute accuracy for years and years. Then, imagine various people working within it, somehow swapping out gears and cogs without the clock stopping or slowing down even a little. This is a fairly good quote on a good management system. Some people might not like the mechanistic model – comparing an organization to a clock, and I agree that isn’t the right model, but even so … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, long term thinking, management system, managing people, organization as a system, robust, Software Development, sports, Systems thinking, teams | 5 Comments

Toyota Understands Robots are Best Used to Enhance the Value Employees Provide

Posted on April 8, 2014 by John Hunter

Toyota has always seen robotics as a way to enhance what staff can do. Many USA executives think of robotics as a way to reduce personnel. Toyota wants to use the brainpower of employees to continually improve the organization. Toyota wants to free people for monotonous or dangerous work to let them use their minds. Humans Steal Jobs From Robots at Toyota Humans are taking the place of machines in plants across Japan so workers can develop new skills and … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged continual improvement, engineering, Innovation, Japan, lean manufacturing, managing people, Manufacturing, overpaid executives, respect for people, technology, Toyota, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Steve Jobs on Quality, Business and Joseph Juran

Posted on March 31, 2014 by John Hunter

This webcast shows an interesting interview with Steve Jobs when he was with NeXT computer. He discusses quality, business and the experience of working with Dr. Juran at NeXT computer. The video is likely from around 1991. America’s in a tough spot right now, I think. I think we have forgotten the basics. We were so prosperous for so long that we took so many things for granted. And we forgot how much work it took to build and sustain … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Apple, business, continual improvement, curiouscat, Customer focus, management, marketing, Process improvement, quality, respect for people, webcast | 3 Comments

Poor Results Should be Addressed by Improving the System Not Blaming Individuals

Posted on February 6, 2014 by John Hunter

My response to: Where is the Deming study that asserts most errors are in organization or process? There is no such study, it is based on Dr. Deming’s experience as I discuss in 94% Belongs to the System (improve the system, don’t blame the people in the system). “I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged coaching, continual improvement, Deming, gemba, process thinking, quote, respect for people, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Posted on November 5, 2013 by John Hunter

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a documentary on a Japanese sushi restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro, that is full of great quotes for those interested in continual improvement. Throughout the film people discuss a never ending focus on doing better and better – never becoming complacent. Quotes from Jiro Dreams of Sushi: Jiro: “Once you decide on your occupation you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with what you do… You must dedicate your life to … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Process improvement, Respect | Tagged continual improvement, Customer focus, Deming, food, Japan, Joy in Work, long term thinking, Psychology, suppliers | 4 Comments

Resources for Using the PDSA Cycle to Improve Results

Posted on October 28, 2013 by John Hunter

Using the PDSA cycle (plan-do-study-act) well is critical to building a effective management system. This post provides some resources to help use the improvement cycle well. I have several posts on this blog about using the PDSA cycle to improve results including: keys to the effective use of the PDSA cycle Richard Feynman Explains the PDSA Cycle Tom Nolan on the PDSA cycle The authors and consultants with Associates for Process Improvement have the greatest collection of useful writing on … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged continual improvement, Deming, evidence based management, experiments, online resources, PDSA, Process improvement, Quality tools, tips | 5 Comments