Tag Archives: Deming

Blame the Road – Not the Person

Posted on August 19, 2009 by John Hunter

The system is responsible for 90, 92, 94, 97% of problems – W. Edwards Deming. Fix the system, don’t blame the people. When you seek system fixes you approach situations differently than if you search for people to blame. By the way, I am often asked about the data supporting Deming’s contention that the system was responsible for 97% of the problems. This statement was not based on a set of data but on Dr. Deming’s decades of experience. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Economics, Health care, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Baking in Quality to Software Development

Posted on August 15, 2009 by John Hunter

One of the reasons my organizations switched to Ruby on Rails for software development was the great integration with automated testing. We always wanted to have good test coverage on our software applications (which are web applications – some used only inside our organization) but didn’t actually find the time to do so. Since we adopted Ruby we have been doing much better in this regard. It isn’t just the switch to Ruby, of course, but the switch to Ruby … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bogus Theories, Bad for Business

Posted on August 6, 2009 by John Hunter

The Wall Street Journal has a book review of The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart. The book flushes out the ideas Matthew Stewert explored in a previous article in the Atlantic about the failure of management to mature as a discipline. Mr. Stewart quotes Bruce Henderson, the founder of the Boston Consulting Group, who describes consulting as “the most improbable business on earth” and who goes on to ask: “Can you think of anything less improbable [sic] than taking the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Science | Tagged , , , , , ,

Akio Toyoda’s Message Shows Real Leadership

Posted on July 26, 2009 by John Hunter

Speech by Akio Toyoda Since the birth of Toyota, the company’s philosophy has always been to “contribute to society.” … “Contributing to society” at Toyota means two things. First, it means, “to manufacture automobiles that meet the needs of society and enrich people’s lives.” And second, “to take root in the communities we serve by creating jobs, earning profits and paying taxes, thereby enriching the local economies where we operate.” … Toyota has overcome many challenges during its seven decades … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, quote, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Peter Scholtes

Posted on July 11, 2009 by John Hunter

Peter Scholtes died peacefully this morning [11 July 2009] in Madison, Wisconsin. His family was with him. My father wrote about the First Street Garage project in W. Edwards Deming’s Out of the Crisis (pages 245-247). Peter (who was working for the City of Madison at the time) and he became good friends working on that project together. Peter went to work for Joiner Associates afterwards and was a primary author of the Team Handbook. And Peter spent many years … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 34 Comments

The Trouble with Performance Reviews by Jeffrey Pfeffer

Posted on July 6, 2009 by John Hunter

The Trouble with Performance Reviews [the broken link was removed] by Jeffrey Pfeffer Managers don’t like giving appraisals, and employees don’t like getting them. Perhaps they’re not liked because both parties suspect what the evidence has proved for decades: Traditional performance appraisals don’t work. But as my colleague and fellow Stanford professor Bob Sutton and I pointed out in our book, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management, belief and conventional wisdom often trump the facts. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal, Respect, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Community Medical Care Successes

Posted on June 18, 2009 by John Hunter

The Cost Conundrum by Atul Gawande, New Yorker (The Power of a Checklist was published there in 2007 by the same author) For example, Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic dominates the scene, has fantastically high levels of technological capability and quality, but its Medicare spending is in the lowest fifteen per cent of the country—$6,688 per enrollee in 2006, which is eight thousand dollars less than the figure for McAllen. Two economists working at Dartmouth, Katherine Baicker and Amitabh … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Economics, Health care, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

CEOs Want Health-Care Reform

Posted on May 28, 2009 by John Hunter

Decades ago Dr. Deming emphasized the deadly disease of excessive health care costs in the USA. Since then, year after year, the situation has become worse (reaching $2.2 trillion in spending in 2007 – 16.2% of GDP). During that time senior executives has put forth very little serious effort (in comparison to the huge cost) to fix this problem. Finally, in the last few years, more and more senior executives are actively moving to address the ever worsening crisis (including, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Health care | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Why Setting Goals can Backfire

Posted on April 27, 2009 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming long ago stated in his 14 obligations of management: “Eliminate numerical goals, numerical quotas and management by objectives.” I think he was right then, and is right now. A goal can help set the scope of the effort. If you are aiming for 2% improvement different strategies may make sense than if you are aiming at 50% improvement. But that type of use is rare. The problem with goals is what actually happens in organizations. They create serious … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Red Bead Experiment Webcast

Posted on April 22, 2009 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming used the red bead experiment to present a view into management practices and his management philosophy. The experiment provides insight into all four aspects of Dr. Deming’s management system: understanding variation, understanding psychology, systems thinking and the theory of knowledge. Red Bead Experiment by Steve Prevette Various techniques are used to ensure a quality (no red bead) product. There are quality control inspectors, feedback to the workers, merit pay for superior performance, performance appraisals, procedure compliance, posters and … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Education, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, quote, Respect, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Management Blog Posts From January 2006

Posted on April 15, 2009 by John Hunter

John Hunter on the top of the Bear’s Hump trail in the park, Waterton, Canada. A great, very steep trail. Agility vs. Six Sigma – “Process improvement should be part of a well run system, as should innovation. Deming, who many believe focused only process improvement, knew the importance of both. See several of Deming’s ideas on innovation.” The Public Sector and Deming – Madison’s quality improvement efforts began after then-Mayor James F. Sensenbrenner and his staff were exposed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , ,

How We Know What We Know

Posted on April 9, 2009 by John Hunter

Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s management philosophy is a system of management composed of four interdependent areas: knowledge about variation, understanding psychology, systems thinking and the theory of knowledge. The theory of knowledge is the least understood, and the least adopted in the various other management improvement theories (lean manufacturing, six sigma, theory of constraints…). A recent op-ed in the New York Times touches on the ideas behind how we learn: Learning How to Think The actor was introduced as “Dr. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, quote | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Out of the Crisis Seminar

Posted on March 31, 2009 by John Hunter

I will be co-presenting an Out of the Crisis seminar for the W. Edwards Deming Institute next month, April 20-22, in Philadelphia. Companies around the world are on the brink of destruction. When they get bailed out, or economies improve, they won’t survive if they continue to make products and provide services the same way as before, with the same style of management. They need to change. It was the ideas of an American, W. Edwards Deming, that transformed Japanese … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

How to Create a Control Chart for Seasonal or Trending Data

Posted on March 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Lynda Finn, President of Statistical Insight, has written an article on how to create a control chart for seasonal or trending data (where there is an underlying structural variation in the data). Essentially you need to account for the structural variation to create the control limits for the control chart. She also provides a Minitab project file. Both are available for download from the Curious Cat Management Improvement Library. Related: Control Charts in Health Care – Common Cause Variation – … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Science, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Knowledge, Imagination, Innovation and Risk

Posted on March 23, 2009 by John Hunter

A consumer can seldom say today what new product or new service would be desirable and useful to him three years from now, or a decade from now. New product and new types of service are generated, not by asking the consumer, but by knowledge, imagination, innovation, risk, trial and error on the part of the producer, backed by enough capital to develop the product or service and to stay in business during the lean months of introduction. W. Edwards … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, Management | Tagged , ,

NUMMI, and GM’s Failure to Manage Effectively

Posted on February 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Gipsie Ranney recently sent me an article on her thoughts on NUMMI and the current problems with the Big Three car makers to post to the Curious Cat Management Improvement Library. NUMMI is the plant that Toyota and General Motors run together as a joint venture. The article is excellent. The answer to a question asked by someone else on the tour was stunning to me. The person asked what kind of computerized inventory system they had at NUMMI. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, quote, Respect, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments