Tag Archives: Deming

Performance without Appraisal

Posted on April 2, 2005 by John Hunter

re: Managing with Trust post from Coding Horror This interesting post includes the quote: “It seems cheap to dispatch [performance reviews] without suggesting some alternative.” Dr. Deming would mention Peter Scholtes thoughts on why performance appraisals were bad management when asked about his belief that performance appraisals should be eliminated. In the short article Performance Without Appraisal: What to do Instead of Performance Appraisals, Peter wrote: Dr. Deming said of Performance Appraisals, “Stop doing them and things will get better.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged curiouscat, Deming, Performance Appraisal, Peter Scholtes, Software Development | 10 Comments

Who Influences Your Thinking?

Posted on March 10, 2005 by John Hunter

Comments on Who Influences Your Thinking? [broken link removed] – Survey results [broken link removed] > 1. Are people getting most of their information > from other sources? That would be my guess. Similar to the phenomenon of “the long tail” which is an interesting topic in its own right. We tend to focus on the popular few (books, musicians, movies, authors, computer programs…) but often the sum of the less popular many is more significant. See: The Long Tail … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, quote | Tagged Ackoff, Bill Hunter, Brian Joiner, curiouscat, Deming, Douglas McGregor, George Box, management, management history, Peter Scholtes, quality management experts, Six sigma, TQM, Womack | 4 Comments

Control Charts in Health Care

Posted on February 26, 2005 by John Hunter

This post is an edited version of a message I sent to the Deming Electronic Network. I find the “control charts in health care” thread quite interesting. From Mike Woolbert’s post [link broken, so I removed it] > I have read many comments about the 8 minute ambulance trip. > This doesn’t seem to be a system measure, but a result measure. It seems to me the 8 minute (90% of the time) measure is an attempt at a process … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Health care, Management, Quality tools, Statistics | Tagged Brian Joiner, control chart, Data, Deming, Health care, management tools, SPC, Statistics, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

Theory of Knowledge

Posted on January 29, 2005 by John Hunter

Deming’s Management System, as expressed in his book: The New Economics has four interdependent parts: Appreciation for a System (systems thinking) Knowledge about Variation (see: variation definition) Theory of Knowledge Psychology (the human element of management systems) Quotes on the Theory of Knowledge portion from The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming. “Management is Prediction. The theory of knowledge that management in any form is prediction” (Page 101) “Knowledge is built upon theory… Rational prediction requires theory and build knowledge … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged curiouscat, Data, Deming, management, prediction | 1 Comment

Designing a New Organization

Posted on January 22, 2005 by John Hunter

re: What about Designing New Organizations? [the broken link has been removed] Guidance for “designing a new organisation and not for analysis of an existing one?” (edited) I would add Russell Ackoff to the top of the list of those to consult. Start with his book Re-Creating the Corporation and continue to quite a few of his other books. After Ackoff, I would look to Deming and Senge. Other interesting folks would be Dee Hock, Brian Joiner, Peter Scholtes, Robert … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Ackoff, Deming, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

Operational Excellence

Posted on January 15, 2005 by John Hunter

In, the post Is Operational Excellence Dead? the argument is made that operational excellence is dead as a differentiator of companies. “All of the emphasis on outsourcing to low labor cost countries seems to imply that organizations no longer consider their operations strategic.” I would state that, in fact, the opposite is true. Leading companies, for years, have focused on continual improvement. Toyota is the best known example. They drove the adoption of just in time inventory and then other … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, quote | Tagged curiouscat, Deming, Innovation, management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

USA Health Care Costs reach 15.3% of GDP – the highest percentage ever

Posted on January 11, 2005 by John Hunter

re: Health Care Spending In The United States Slows For The First Time In Seven Years The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services) issued a report (the press release states that report will appear in the Jan/Feb edition of Health Affairs but does not provide a link so the link is my guess of where the report will appear) and a news release putting a positive spin on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Popular, quote | Tagged curiouscat, Deming, economic data, Economics, Health care, health care system, USA | 7 Comments

2004 Deming Prize Awardees

Posted on October 17, 2004 by John Hunter

2004 Deming Prize announcement – JUSE (Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers) This year again provided impressive showings by India and Thailand: of the 6 awards 3 went to Indian Companies and 3 went to companies in Thailand. And this is not a fluke, a unit of the TVS group (India) has been awarded in each of the last four years, see, “Deming medal for Lucas TVS and SRF.” 2004 The Deming Prize for Individuals – Mr. Akira Takahashi, Senior … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, India, Management | Tagged Asia, Deming, Deming Prize, India, Japan, Thailand | 3 Comments

Taguchi Loss Function

Posted on October 14, 2004 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Written in response to this post on the Deming Electronic Network (DEN) [broken link removed]. The responses on this topic show the strength of the DEN. 1) thoughtful responses that should help the person posting the original message 2) thoughtful responses that are of interest to many of us 3) the chance to explore concepts in some greater depth than we may otherwise Relating to the 3rd item in my list I would like to explore part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Quality tools | Tagged curiouscat, Customer focus, Deming, management tools, Quality tools, Systems thinking

NYC Travel Photos

Posted on October 9, 2004 by John Hunter

In August I spoke to the Fordham University Deming Scholars MBA Program. I spent the weekend with my brother’s family in Brooklyn. The photo to the left shows my nephew at the Statan Island Children’s Museum. The photo accurately conveys my weekend as I stuggled to keep up with his blur of activity. See more photos: Curious Cat NYC Travel Photos

Posted in curiouscat.com, Travel photos | Tagged curiouscat, Deming, photos, travel

How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business.

Posted on September 29, 2004 by John Hunter

Comment on How to Destroy Morale #1 from the excellent Agile Management Blog.If you want to learn to be more like Morris the Deming Institute has a seminar for you: How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business. Full disclosure, I played a small part in helping design the seminar. Serious the seminar is designed to help managers focus on the poor practices most complain about in the morning and then tolerate or actual practice in the … Continue reading →

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

Six Sigma and Deming Philosophies

Posted on September 27, 2004 by John Hunter

My oversimplified view is that the Deming philosophy aims to improve the system and Six Sigma is about improving within the current system. I think several Six Sigma efforts over the past 10 years have improved upon what many organizations tried with TQM, in large part by

1) putting substantial effort (significant training and application) into using statistical tools to improve

and 2) more focus on results (especially short term results) Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Six sigma | Tagged Deming, Six sigma

Management Improvement History

Posted on September 23, 2004 by John Hunter

I do believe we need to improve our practice of Quality (and to do that we need to understand what happened in the past and why it was not more successful). The idea that Design of Experiments (DoE) was at the core of some Quality Movement to me is not at all accurate. In my experience only a few Quality professionals today understand what it means and how it should be applied. The idea that it was common place in the 40’s I seriously doubt (though I don’t have first hand knowledge of this). I find it difficult to believe we would have decided to stop using DoE if it was commonly done previously. The understanding I have from those that should know (like George Box and previously my father – Bill Hunter) is that it was not at all common practice and still is not outside of a few industries and even there it is isolated in the domain of a few experts. Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Design of Experiments, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Quality tools, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged Bill Hunter, curiouscat, Deming, Design of Experiments, George Box, management, management experts, management history, quality, Six sigma, SPC, Statistics, TQM | 4 Comments

Dangers of Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data

Posted on August 29, 2004 by John Hunter

We use data to act as a proxy for some results of the system. Often people forget that the end result is not for the number to be improved but for the situation to be improved. We hope, if the measure improves the situation will have improved. But there are many reasons this may not be the case (one number improving at the expense of other parts of the system, the failure of the number to accurately serve as a proxy, distorting numbers, etc.). Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Popular, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged Brian Joiner, curiouscat, Data, Deming, Madison, Management, Popular, quote, Statistics, Systems thinking | 7 Comments