Tag Archives: Deming

Performance Appraisals Performance

Posted on February 21, 2007 by John Hunter

Appraising the Performance Of Performance Appraisals [the link that IEEE broke was removed] by Harry Goldstein: The traditional annual review covers a lot of ground: coaching and guidance for the employee, feedback and communication, compensation, staffing decisions and professional development, legal documentation, and ultimately, improvement for both the employee and the organization. According to Jenkins and Coens, all of the above can be done better and far less painfully by untangling these functions and designing a process for each. First, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , ,

Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service

Posted on February 20, 2007 by John Hunter

Once again Joel Spolsky spins a great post with, Seven steps to remarkable customer service. Read it. It’s crucial that tech support have access to the development team. This means that you can’t outsource tech support: they have to be right there at the same street address as the developers, with a way to get things fixed. This idea is powerful yet ignored by most companies. Management must look at the best way to improve the entire system not to … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, IT, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Illusions – Optical and Other

Posted on February 12, 2007 by John Hunter

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 , , , , , | 10 Comments

Reacting to Product Problems

Posted on January 20, 2007 by John Hunter

Previously we posted on recalls at Toyota and Sony. Recently Toyota announced another large recall. Investor’s Business Daily writes on the topic in: The Ups And Downs Of Doing Product Recalls – Japan-Style [the broken link was removed]: Kitayama also said Akio Toyoda, grandson of Kiichiro Toyoda, Toyota’s founder, played a key role by opening a direct line to suppliers that had supplied defective car parts. He stressed that quality comes before meeting delivery deadlines. Interesting. The article also discusses … Continue reading →

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

Performance Appraisals – Is Good Execution the Solution?

Posted on January 15, 2007 by John Hunter

Performance review proponents say the way it is done matters most[the broken link was removed] (based on reaction to: Performance appraisals get low marks[the broken link was removed]): Deming, it seems, has many fans. His view of performance reviews? He included them in his catalog of the “seven deadly diseases” afflicting U.S. management in the late 20th Century. Byrne referred to Deming when he wrote: “The ‘report card’ type of yearly review [does] more harm than good. Review the person … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Epidemic of Diagnoses

Posted on January 3, 2007 by John Hunter

What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses by Dr. Welch, Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Woloshin: For most Americans, the biggest health threat is not avian flu, West Nile or mad cow disease. It’s our health-care system. True, and probably the biggest economic threat too. See: Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases and Health Insurance Premiums Soar Again. But it also leads to more diagnoses, a trend that has become an epidemic. This epidemic is a threat to your health. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

How to Improve

Posted on December 12, 2006 by John Hunter

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 →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Common Cause Variation

Posted on November 30, 2006 by John Hunter

Every system has variation. Common cause variation is the variation due to the current system. Dr. Deming increased his estimate of variation due to the system (common cause variation) to 97% (earlier in his life he cited figures around 80%). Special cause variation is that due to some special (not part of the system) cause. The control chart (in addition to other things) helps managers to avoid tampering (taking action on common cause variation as though it were a special … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Quality tools, Theory of Constraints | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Could we do Better?

Posted on November 29, 2006 by John Hunter

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 , , , , , | 9 Comments

Information Quality

Posted on November 1, 2006 by John Hunter

The 14 Points of Information Quality Transformation [the broken link was removed] by Larry English, looks at Deming’s 14 obligations of management form information quality perspective: Drive out fear of data uncertainty or data errors. Create a nonblame, nonjudgmental environment. Encourage risk to change without punishing missteps. Encourage improvement by eliminating root causes without blame. Fear often can lead to obfuscated, hidden and even faked data. And certainly it is hard to get open and honest sharing of data with … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming | Tagged

Deming in Japan

Posted on October 26, 2006 by John Hunter

Great article by John Dowd [the broken link was removed], How the Japanese learned to compete: This is a key lesson because with attention to quality, the company begins a journey on a “virtuous circle” of simultaneously improving quality and lowering costs. As quality improves, there are less rework, scrap and waste of all kinds. As products become more attuned to customers’ needs, there is less effort spent producing items people don’t want. Costs go down. Quality improves. Thus paying … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , ,

Deming Institute Conference: Tom Nolan

Posted on October 16, 2006 by John Hunter

I attended the annual W. Edwards Deming Institute conference this weekend: it was quite good. Tom Nolan [the broken link was removed] lead off the conference with: Developing and Applying Theory to Get Results. He discussed the theory of knowledge: how we know what we know. See my attempt to introduce the idea of the theory of knowledge within Deming’s management system. It is probably the least understood of Deming’s four areas of profound knowledge, the others areas are: knowledge … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Righter Performance Appraisal

Posted on October 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Speaking of “doing the wrong things righter” Microsoft has eliminated forced rankings in performance appraisal: to do performance appraisals righter. Microsoft exec puts her stamp on human resources: The forced curve was company policy. And it climbed up a list of employee gripes that grew as Microsoft’s stock, which accounts for much of the company’s compensation, languished. In May, after barely a year as Microsoft’s human-resources chief, Lisa Brummel swept away “artifacts of the past,” starting with the widely disliked … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Hiring the Right People

Posted on October 7, 2006 by John Hunter

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 , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Deming in the New Economy

Posted on September 15, 2006 by John Hunter

I just read an interesting paper (found via – Stating the Obvious [the broken link was removed]): New Economy Concepts and the Application of Deming’s Theories on Management [the broken link was removed] by Christian Buckley and Arthur Close All measures should supply accurate information usable for making good decisions. To paraphrase Dr. Deming – if you don’t know how to use the answer to improve you process, the calculation(s) were a waste of time. Great point, see: Measurement and … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management Articles, Software Development | Tagged , ,

Thoughts on Hospital Management by Deming

Posted on September 6, 2006 by John Hunter

The latest newsletter from the W. Edwards Deming Institute [new link since the old link was broken] includes the photo of Dr. Deming from 1951 and: Some notes on management in a hospital by W. Edwards Deming, Ph.D.: Fifteen hours elapse between dinner and breakfast. I was hungry in the middle of the night, first night. Fortunately had candy bars on hand. I have learned how to acquire and store up food like a squirrel if I get hungry during … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management | Tagged , , ,