Tag Archives: government

Burning Toast: American Health System Style

Posted on October 4, 2016 by John Hunter

Democrats and Republicans have created a health care system in the USA over the last 40 years that “burns toast” at an alarming rate. As the symptoms of their health care system are displayed they call in people to blame for burning toast. Their participation in the “you burn, I’ll scrape” system is even worse than the normal burning then scraping process. They create a bad system over decades and ignore the burnt toast just telling people to put up … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management, Public Sector | Tagged blame, Economics, global, government, health care system, organization as a system

Decades Later The USA Health Care System is Still a Deadly Disease for Our Economy

Posted on March 30, 2016 by John Hunter

Decades ago W. Edwards Deming named 7 deadly diseases of western management. One of those was excessive health care costs. Sadly that deadly disease has become much worse in the last several decades. Americans pay 300% more for this prostate cancer drug than much of the rest of the world Xtandi, a prostate cancer drug co-licenced by Japan’s Astellas Pharma and Medivation Inc. was developed at a U.S. university with grants funded by taxpayer dollars. That gives the federal government … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Economics, Health care | Tagged deadly diseases, Deming, Economics, government, Health care, patent | 3 Comments

Out of Touch Executives Damage Companies: Go to the Gemba

Posted on August 20, 2014 by John Hunter

When your customer service organization is universally recognized as horrible adding sales requirements to customer service representatives jobs is a really bad practice. Sadly it isn’t at all surprising to learn of management doing just that at our largest companies. Within a system where cash and corruption buys freedom from market forces (see below for more details) such practices can continue. Such customer hostile practices shouldn’t continue. They shouldn’t be allowed to continue. And even though the company’s cash has … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged bad management, business, commentary, curiouscat, Customer focus, customer service, Economics, executives, gemba, Google, government, internet, leadership, management, Psychology, regulation, respect for people, sales, targets

Business 901 Podcast: Two New Deadly Diseases for Business

Posted on February 4, 2013 by John Hunter

I continue to record podcasts as I promote my new book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. In this podcast I discuss the 2 new deadly diseases facing companies. The second part of the Business 901 podcast will be posted soon. Links to more information on items discussed in the podcast: Dr. Deming’s 7 Deadly Diseases + 2 Executive pay: Excessive Executive Pay (2005) Taking What You Don’t Deserve, CEO Style (2011) Warren Buffett: “Too often, executive compensation in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Management | Tagged copyright, Deming, Economics, government, John Hunter, management, overpaid executives, patent, podcast | 1 Comment

5s at NASA

Posted on September 11, 2012 by John Hunter

NASA did some amazing things culminating with landing on Moon. Much of what they did was doing many small things very well. They used 5s, checklists, gemba thinking, usability, simplicity, testing out on a small scale and much more. Here are a few photos from the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in Washington DC. I also have some nicer NASA 5s photos from the new Annex near Dulles Airport, but, ironically, I can’t find them. These kits were used by … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged government, lean manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, USA, usability | 1 Comment

Better Management in Government

Posted on May 27, 2012 by John Hunter

This month Paul Borawski (CEO of ASQ) has asked the ASQ Influential Voices to share their thoughts on quality management in the public sector. I have been involved in quality improvement in government at the Office of Secretary of Defense Quality Management Office and the White House Military Office and elsewhere. Transformation and Redesign at the White House Communications Agency by March Laree Jacques provides a nice look at some good efforts. I also was on the board of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Public Sector | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, government, leadership, management, Public Sector | 2 Comments

Dr. Deming in 1980 on Product Quality in Japan and the USA

Posted on December 5, 2011 by John Hunter

I posted an interesting document to the Curious Cat Management Library: it includes Dr. Deming’s comments as part of a discussion organized by the Government Accounting Office in 1980 on Quality in Japan and the United States. The document provides some interesting thoughts from Dr. Deming and others; Dr. Deming’s statements start on page 52 of the document. For those really interested in management improvement ideas it is a great read. I imagine most managers wouldn’t enjoy it though (it … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Public Sector, Quality tools, quote, Respect, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, curiouscat, Deming, government, Japan, Lean thinking, management, management history, managing people, Process improvement, Psychology, Public Sector, quality, Quality tools, quote, respect for people, SPC, Statistics, Systems thinking, variation

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 Deming, Economics, government, Health care, health care system, leadership | 6 Comments

Why Congress Won’t Investigate Wall Street

Posted on April 30, 2009 by John Hunter

Why Congress Won’t Investigate Wall Street The famous Pecora Commission of 1933 and 1934 was one of the most successful congressional investigations of all time, an instance when oversight worked exactly as it should. The subject was the massively corrupt investment practices of the 1920s. In the course of its investigation, the Senate Banking Committee, which brought on as its counsel a former New York assistant district attorney named Ferdinand Pecora, heard testimony from the lords of finance that cemented … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Systems thinking | Tagged Economics, ethics, government, Public Sector, regulation | 2 Comments

Community Banks Ask Why They Must Pay for Wall Street Greed

Posted on March 7, 2009 by John Hunter

Minnesota Bank Asks Why It Pays for Wall Street Greed TCF is among more than 8,300 banks and lenders insured by the FDIC facing increased fees and a one-time “emergency” charge designed to raise $27 billion this year for the agency’s depleted coffers. … Community banks rely more on deposit funding, so they suffer a “much heavier burden” as a result of deposit insurance proportionate to size than peers such as New York-based Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Tagged commentary, economy, ethics, government, John Hunter | 1 Comment

Lean Thinking in Minnesota Government

Posted on February 8, 2009 by John Hunter

The Office of Governor Pawlenty issued a press release on Minnesota’s Drive to Excellence effort: Increased Quality via Lean Continuous Improvement Reform – The State has adopted “Lean Thinking” as its preferred process improvement tool. So far, 18 agencies are actively involved, with 302 staff members participating in 38 Kaizen improvement events. These events have yielded significant improvements in the delivery of state government services, from issuing duplicate birth certificates to processing State Soldiers Assistance requests. … The Drive to … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Public Sector | Tagged government, Lean thinking, Public Sector | 1 Comment

Federal Government Chief Performance Officer

Posted on January 15, 2009 by John Hunter

A Quality Manager for Obama President-Elect Obama has hired a quality manager, and her name is Nancy Killefer. She is the newly appointed “Chief Performance Officer” whose mandate is to manage budget reforms while eliminating waste in government processes, ultimately making it more effective. An MIT & McKinsey alum, Time calls her the “first official waste watchdog.” Previous administrations have had exactly the same thing (regardless what Time magazine says), so I don’t think we should get carried away. Eliminating … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Public Sector | Tagged change, commentary, curiouscat, Deming, government, John Hunter, management, Public Sector, quality, quote | 1 Comment

Lean Management in Policing

Posted on August 18, 2008 by John Hunter

Justice served up Jacksonville–style is all lean [broken link was removed] by Joe Jancsurak: The Jacksonville Sheriff Office’s (JSO) Crime Reducing Initiatives Management and Enforcement Strategies (CRIMES) measures, tracks and analyzes crime-fighting statistics, such as the number of arrests and value of stolen and recovered property. Such findings are instrumental in determining the overall effectiveness of the JSO and where improvements need to be made. Investigations stress uniformity. Lean “changed how we approach investigations,” says Sheriff Rutherford. “We found that … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Public Sector | Tagged government, Madison, Public Sector | 1 Comment

Department of Defense Lean Six Sigma

Posted on June 5, 2008 by John Hunter

Gordon England, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, signed a directive establishing policy and assigning responsibilities to institutionalize the effort throughout DoD. See a webcast of his speech [the broken link was removed] on lean six sigma to a DoD conference on continuous process improvement. Leading Business Transformation the “Lean” Way [the broken link was removed] Since it began employing LSS, the Department of the Navy (DON) has completed 1,700 Black Belt/Green Belt projects and over 2,000 Kaizen events (i.e., action-oriented … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Public Sector, Six sigma | Tagged government, lean six sigma, Public Sector, Six sigma, webcasts

Businesses Tell the IRS They Are Not American but Executives Stay in USA

Posted on June 4, 2008 by John Hunter

I have previously written about the ethically challenged companies that claim they are not American to avoid paying the taxes that they owe. For some reason the executives, often seem to stay in the USA though? It is sad that such behavior is tolerated. 10 Big Businesses That Have Moved Their Headquarters Abroad to Pay Less U.S. Taxes [the broken link was removed] Halliburton: Houston-based Halliburton, which offers a broad array of oil-field technologies and services to upstream oil and … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Tagged commentary, Economics, ethics, government, usability | 3 Comments

Confusing Customer Focus

Posted on April 10, 2008 by John Hunter

Misuse of the “Customer” Concept “We are told that the airlines are our customers,” FAA inspector Charlambe “Bobby” Boutris said. “But we have a more important customer, the taxpayers” who want government to ensure a safe aviation system. That’s crazy. The FAA is supposed to be serving and protecting the passengers, not the airlines. This is like a supervisor in a workplace treating their employee as a customer… even in a “servant leadership” environment, that’s not right. “Customer focus” is … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Public Sector | Tagged airlines, customer service, government, management | 4 Comments