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Tag Archives: curiouscat
Illusions – Optical and Other
If the output for working for the year is a square. And the job is to produce dark squares who do you pay more A or B? Of course it is a trick question, the squares are the same color. But it doesn’t look that way at first does it? Optical illusions provide evidence that you cannot always trust what seems obvious. Dr. Deming’s red bead experiment provides some additional insight into the idea that our management systems often use … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Popular, quote
Tagged continual improvement, curiouscat, Deming, Popular, Psychology, theory of knowledge
10 Comments
Encourage Improvement Action by Everyone
Centralizing decision making is not an effective way to manage organizations. Organizations need to encourage improvement by everybody in the organization. We need to create a system where that is encouraged and supported. However, there can be problems with just making improvements individually. We tend to overreact to variation. Therefore we tend to tamper with systems which actually increases variation and reduces performance. Also there can be effects on other parts of the system due to a change that are … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Process improvement, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged curiouscat, system thinking, tips
How to Improve
My management philosophy is guided by the idea of seeking methods that will be most effective.* There are many ways to improve. Good management systems are about seeking systemic adoption of the most effective solutions. What this amounts to is learning about the ideas of Deming, Ackoff, Ohno, Chirstensen, Scholtes, Womack… and then adopting those ideas. In doing so learning about management tools and concepts as they are applied to your work. Here is a simple example. Years ago, my … Continue reading
What Could we do Better?
At the Hunter Conference, years ago, a speaker (I forget who) talked about how to get useful feedback. He discussed how asking “how is everything” normally will get the response: “fine” (which is often that is exactly what the staff wants so they can move on without wasting any time). However, if you really want to improve that doesn’t help. He explained how he worked with Disney to improve their restaurants. Using the “how is everything” question had not alerted … Continue reading
Posted in Customer focus, Management, Popular, Quality tools
Tagged continual improvement, curiouscat, Customer focus, Deming, Process improvement, Psychology
9 Comments
European Blackout: Human Error-Not
German utility E.On says major European blackout was caused by human error [the broken link was removed] Germany utility E.On AG said Wednesday that a European-wide blackout earlier this month that left millions without power was the result of human error and not any technical glitches. The Duesseldorf-based company said the power outage, which led to blackouts in parts of Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain on Nov. 4, was not caused by a lack of proper maintenance or … Continue reading
Hiring the Right People
The job market is an inefficient market. There are many reasons for this including relying on specification (this job requires a BS in Computer Science – no Bill Gates you don’t meet the spec) instead of understanding the system. Insisting on managing by the numbers even when the most important figures are unknown and maybe unknowable. Using HR to find the right person to work in a process they don’t understand (which reinforces the desire to focus on specifications instead … Continue reading
Posted in Career, Customer focus, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular
Tagged Career, curiouscat, Deming, hiring, management, managing people, Popular
15 Comments
Distort the System
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
Innovation Needed to Keep USA Manufacturing?
ICAR touted as example of innovation needed in U.S. [the broken link was removed] “Our ace in the hole is innovation, and that’s why intellectual property is so important to develop,” Graham said. “How do we protect that advantage within the rule of the law?” Lindsey Graham [the broken link was removed] and Hillary Clinton are co-chairs of the United States Senate Manufacturing Caucus. Is innovation our ace in the hole? I don’t think so. There is no ace in … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Innovation, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking
Tagged curiouscat, Economics, Innovation, Manufacturing, Systems thinking
2 Comments
More on Obscene CEO Pay
Study site: CEO-worker pay imbalance grows [the broken link has been removed] includes the graph above. Unfortunately this reverse robin hood (steal from the workers, stock holder, customers…) and give to the CEO tale continues. Hopefully someday soon we can at least turn the momentum in the right direction (stopping these incredibly excessive “pay” packages). Even then it will take quite a deal of reducing these ridiculous “pay” packages to reach some sense of decency. CNN article based on the … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Tagged charts, curiouscat, Deming, ethics, executive pay, leadership, management, overpaid executives, quote
12 Comments
Management Advice Failures
…when we fail to value the best ideas, instead valuing the new ideas, we are not as effective as we could be. We often accept pale copies of good old ideas instead of going to the good old ideas – which will often lead to a much richer source of knowledge. Continue reading
Posted in Management, Management Articles, Popular, quote
Tagged curiouscat, management, management experts, management history, Popular, research
17 Comments
Understanding Data
Statistics Abuse and Me [the broken link was removed] by Jay Mathews: the Simpson’s Paradox numbers. The national average for the SAT went up only 4 points between 1981 and 2005, but the average for whites went up 10 points, for blacks 21 points, for Asians 37 points, for Mexicans 15 points, for Puerto Ricans 23 points and for American Indians 18 points. How can that be? Is it important? First, yes it is important. Effective use of data is … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Education, Management, Statistics
Tagged critical thinking, curiouscat, Data, management, Statistics
9 Comments
Respect for People
A very thoughtful post, Respect for People on the Kaikaku blog raises some interesting questions. What does respect for people really mean? Toyota empowers people: To stop the line – to stop every other worker from working – that is real respect and trust. To implement creative improvement ideas around their work area. They trust you to come up with the best idea to make your work easier and more interesting. You don’t have to wait for management to tell … Continue reading
Find the Root Cause Instead of the Person to Blame
When encountering a problem or defect the inclination of many is to find a person to blame. W. Edwards Deming believed that the system was responsible for 93% of the problems and over time he increased that number to at least 97%. Why did he see it that way, while so many others first inclination is to blame someone? As I see it the issue has to do with what is the effective way to improve. Often if you ask … Continue reading
Excessive Executive Pay
Topic: Management Improvement Via Christian Sarkar [the broken link was removed], Too Many Turkeys, The Economist: Executive compensation in America – already far ahead of the rest of the world, despite the best efforts of overseas managers to catch up – is now rising inexorably again. In fiscal year 2004 the total compensation of the median American company boss rose in every industry… according to a new report by the Conference Board, a research organisation. In the big companies that … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect
Tagged business, curiouscat, deadly diseases, executive pay, leadership, overpaid executives, Systems thinking
18 Comments
Management Improvement Flavors
Lean Manufacturing Visionary Jim Womack On Frontiers Of Lean Thinking [broken link has been removed], webcast and additional questions and answers: Question: For a firm seeking to improve — what comes first? Six Sigma quality or lean implementation? James Womack: Agh! These are all the same thing. You need to start with the value stream for every product, draw a map of its current state, and ask about each step: Is it valuable? Is it capable? Is it available? Is … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, quote, Six sigma, Toyota Production System (TPS)
Tagged curiouscat, Deming, John Hunter, Lean thinking, management, management history, Six sigma, TQM
6 Comments
Manufacturing and the Economy
In Global Market, Iowa Manufacturers Fight for Survival: The conventional wisdom has been that expanded trade would result in the United States losing low-pay, low-skilled manufacturing jobs, said David Swenson, an economic scientist at Iowa State University. But “a lot of the jobs that we have traditionally thought of as high value, high quality, high benefits are in trouble, too.” The conventional wisdom was that the rest of the world would not be able to compete with the United States … Continue reading →