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Tag Archives: Deming
Leanpub Podcast on My Book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability
I recently was interviewed for a podcast by Len Epp with Leanpub: Leanpub Podcast Interview #9: John Hunter. I hope you enjoy the podcast (download the mp3 of the podcast). In the podcast we cover quite a bit of ground quickly, so the details are limited (transcript of the interview). These links provide more details on items I mention in the podcast. They are listed below in the same order as they are raised in the podcast: John Hunter’s professional … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking
Tagged Books, Data, Deming, John Hunter, leadership, management, Management Matters, overpaid executives, podcast
2 Comments
Management Blog Review 2012: Gemba Walkabout
This is my second, of two, 2012 management blog review posts. In this post I look back at the last year on Mike Stoecklein’s Gemba Walkabout blog. Mike is the Director of Network Operations at Thedacare Center for Healthcare Value. In a very long post, Some thoughts on guiding principles, values & behaviors, he provides a sensibly explanation for one the real difficulties organization have making progress beyond a certain point (project success but failure to succeed in transforming the … Continue reading
Posted in Carnival, Deming, Health care, Process improvement
Tagged Deming, Health care, Process improvement, Quality tools
1 Comment
Customers
Customer focus is critical to succeed with management improvement efforts. Few argue with that point, though my experience as a customer provides plenty of examples of poor systems performance on providing customer value (usability, managing the value stream well, etc.). At times people get into discussion about what counts as a customer. Are customers only those who pay you money for a product or service? What about internal customers? What about users that don’t pay you, but use your product … Continue reading
Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management
Tagged curiouscat, Customer focus, customer service, Deming, gemba, Innovation, management, quote, Systems thinking, value stream
11 Comments
Business 901 Podcast with Me: Deming’s Management Ideas Today
I recently was interviewed for a podcast by Joe Dager, at Business 901: Dr. Deming on Lean in 2012. I hope you enjoy the podcast. Listen to this podcast. Here are some links related to items I mention in the podcast: The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog William Hunter, my father. Link to paper with Easaw Chacko on Building a Quality Movement within a developing nation, 1972. Developing Children’s Numeracy Using Dice Statistics for Experimenters by George Box, Bill Hunter … Continue reading
Posted in Lean thinking, Management
Tagged Deming, interview, John Hunter, lean manufacturing, Lean thinking, podcast, Toyota Production System (TPS)
6 Comments
The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog
I am authoring the new W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog. Make sure you subscribe to the Deming Institute blog’s RSS feed if you want to keep up with my posts there. Some of the posts so far: Dr. Deming on Innovation 2012 Deming Prize Winners Video of Dr. W. Edwards Deming: Deadly Diseases of Western Management I will continue posting to this blog (the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog): subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog. Related: My New … Continue reading
Posted in Deming
Tagged blogs, Deming, John Hunter
Double Loop Learning Presentation by Benjamin Mitchell
Benjamin Mitchell – Using the Mutual Learning Model to achieve Double Loop Learning [the original video is not online anymore, I replaced it with another presentation by Benjamin on the same topic at a different conference at close to the same time – JH] Benjamin Mitchell presents ideas using Chris Argyris thinking on double-loop learning. “Double-loop learning occurs when error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and objectives.” Single loop … Continue reading
Special Cause Signal Isn’t Proof A Special Cause Exists
One of my pet peeves is when people say that a point outside the control limits is a special cause. It is not. It is an indication that it likely a special cause exists, and that special cause thinking is the correct strategy to use to seek improvement. But that doesn’t mean there definitely was a special cause – it could be a false signal. This post relies on an understand of control charts and common and special causes (review … Continue reading
New Deadly Diseases
Management and the economy keep evolving. Many good things happen. In the last decade the best things are probably the increased deep adoption of lean thinking in many organizations and the adoption of lean and Deming methods in software development (agile software development, kanban and lean startup [which I do realize isn’t limited to software development]). Sadly all the deadly diseases Dr. Deming described remain. And, as I said in 2007, I think 2 new diseases have become so widespread … Continue reading
Customer Focus by Everyone
There are many critical elements to a management system. One that is fundamental, yet still poorly executed far too often, is creating a system where all staff can focus on enhancing value to the customer every day. If your enterprise does not focus on this, it should. If you think your enterprise does, my first, second and third suggestions are to think more critically about whether it really does. If the answer is yes, then you are lucky to work … Continue reading
Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, Systems thinking
Tagged build capacity, Customer focus, customer service, Deming, management, Systems thinking
6 Comments
My New Book: Management Matters
I have a new book in progress: Management Matters. It is now available in “pre-release format” via leanpub. The idea I am experimenting with (supported by leanpub) is pre-publishing the book online. The ebook is available for purchase now, and comes with free access to the updates. My plan is to continue working on the book for the next few months and have it “release ready” by October, 2012. One of the advantages of this method is that I can … Continue reading
Posted in Books, curiouscat.com, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, quote, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged Books, curiouscat, Customer focus, Data, Deming, John Hunter, Lean thinking, management, respect for people, Six sigma, Systems thinking
3 Comments
Long Term Thinking with Respect for People
Toyota nearly went bankrupt near 1950 and had to lay off a third of their employees. A huge focus of the Toyota Production System as envisioned by Taiichi Ohno was to secure the long term success of the company. The priority of doing so is easier to see when you respect people and are in danger of witnessing the destruction of their careers. I can’t find the quote (maybe Jon Miller, or someone else, can provide one), but I recall … Continue reading
Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Production System
In this post I explore my thoughts about what lean (lean manufacturing, lean thinking…) means. The way I think about it is that lean manufacturing sprung from Toyota. It seems to me the lean manufacturing name was meant to capture the entire Toyota Way. Capturing the whole of what that encompasses isn’t possible in 1 or 2 or even 10 books so it wasn’t done completely. To me the difference between lean manufacturing described early on by Womack and Jones … Continue reading
Management Blog Posts From November 2006
I have selected a few great posts from the Curious Cat Management Blog back in November 2006. What Could we do Better? – There are many important ideas to improve management. This is one of the most important tips to aid improvement that I know of: it is easy to do, brings huge benefits and most organizations fail to do it. Ask your customers: “What one thing could we do to improve?” Ackoff’s F-laws: Common Sins of Management presents 13 … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote
Tagged blogs, curiouscat, Data, Deming, management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, tips
How Could They Know?
I am a big fan of Dr. Deming’s ideas on management. The way I see one of the quotes of Dr. Deming used I don’t agree with. Dr. Deming said “How could they know?” to explain why people continued to follow less successful practices (for example, page 55 of Out of the Crisis). How could they know of better practices, he would say. I must say I have always thought the answer to that question was pretty easy. They could … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management
Tagged Books, Career, commentary, Deming, leadership, learning, management
6 Comments
Massively Unjust Executive Compensation Damages Companies and Investments
For years I have believed the massively unjust executive compensation packages have been doing great harm to American businesses. As an investor, one of the big risks that has to be evaluated is how much of the business profits executives will divert to their personal bank accounts. And investors also have to worry about the risks executives take to reach huge incentives which then greatly damage your investment. In 2007, I added two of my own deadly diseases to Dr. … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Respect
Tagged bonus, Deming, ethics, executive pay, incentives, Investing, motivation, overpaid executives, respect for people
4 Comments
Respect for Everyone
TL;DR – The two pillars of the Toyota Way are: respect for people and continuous improvement. One of the big reasons my career followed the path it did (into management improvement) was due to the impact of respect for people. My father was a professor (in statistics, engineering and business) and consulted with organizations to help them achieve better results. To achieve results he took advantage of the gains possible when using statistical tools to manage with respect for people. … Continue reading →