Tag Archives: Deming

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged control chart, Deming, process thinking, Quality tools, tampering, variation | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged blame, build capacity, continual improvement, curiouscat, Deming, management, managing people, process thinking, Quality tools, Systems thinking, tips | 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%). … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Quality tools, Theory of Constraints | Tagged common cause, Data, Deming, management concepts, problem solving, Process improvement, variation | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Popular, Quality tools | Tagged continual improvement, curiouscat, Customer focus, Deming, Process improvement, Psychology | 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. … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming | Tagged Deming | Comments Off

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles | Tagged Deming, Japan, management history | Comments Off

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: … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged continual improvement, Deming, PDSA, theory of knowledge | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, managing people, organization as a system, Performance Appraisal, respect for people | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Customer focus, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular | Tagged Career, curiouscat, Deming, hiring, management, managing people, Popular | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management Articles, Software Development | Tagged Data, Deming, IT | Comments Off