Tag Archives: John Hunter

The Problem is Likely Not the Person Pointing Out The Problem

Posted on July 19, 2010 by John Hunter

I believe the problem is likely not the person pointing out the problem. Now granted I have often been that person. Part of what I have been tasked with doing in various jobs is finding ways to improve the performance of the organization. I was told the managers wanted to hear about problems from someone working there, so I was asked to do so. What it often meant was they wanted someone to fix the problems they thought existed not … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Involve IT Staff in Business Process Improvement

Posted on July 6, 2010 by John Hunter

I started out basically working on management improvement from the start of my career. My makeup (I am never satisfied and figure things should always be better) along with a few traits, experiences and probably even genes made this a natural fit for me. I tend to take the long view and find fire fighting a waste of time. Why fix some symptom, I want to fix the system so that problem doesn’t happen again. My father worked in statistics, … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, IT, Management, Popular, Process improvement, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Illusion of Knowledge

Posted on June 28, 2010 by John Hunter

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge. – Daniel J. Boorstin Great quote on a topic I discussed in, How We Know What We Know. Dr. Deming included the theory of knowledge as one of the 4 pillars of his management system. When you do not question what you think you know, and conventional thinking, that will keep you from discovery. Now much of conventional wisdom is right, so you often do well … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Statistical Engineering Links Statistical Thinking, Methods and Tools

Posted on June 3, 2010 by John Hunter

In Closing the Gap Roger W. Hoerl and Ronald D. Snee lay out a sensible case for focusing on statistical engineering. We’re not suggesting that society no longer needs research in new statistical techniques for improvement; it does. The balance needed at this time, however, is perhaps 80% for statistics as an engineering discipline and 20% for statistics as a pure science. True, though I would put the balance more like 95% engineering, 5% science. There is a good discussion … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Interruptions Can Severely Damage Performance

Posted on May 12, 2010 by John Hunter

Interruptions can severely degrade your performance. The type of work you are doing impacts the cost greatly. I have spent some of my time programming web applications. When I am doing that interruptions are a huge drain on my performance (for me the costs of interruptions while programming are far higher than any other type of work I have done – many times higher). If the interruption disrupts my flow (an interruption needn’t necessarily disrupt it I found, instant messages … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Kiva – Giving Entrepreneurs an Opportunity to Succeed

Posted on April 3, 2010 by John Hunter

I really like Kiva. Kiva lets you lend small amounts of money to entrepreneurs around the world. My latest loan is to a manufacturing entrepreneur in the USA. When Tony’s 6’0 6″ body could not fit in the traditional supercars, he built his own in 1990. Tony says, “If one door closes I just look for another opening; I don’t give up.” With much patience and hard work he continues to expand his business and hopes to make it a … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Fun, Investing, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Aligning Marketing Vision and Management

Posted on March 23, 2010 by John Hunter

Why do so many companies market one thing and provide something else? I know it might be easier to sell something different than what you offer your customer today. But if you decide to market one vision, why don’t you change your organization to actually offer that? I suspect this is substantially due to the outsourced nature of large marketing efforts. It makes sense to me that when you outsource your marketing message creation it isn’t tied to your management … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Popular, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Improving Software Development with Automated Tests

Posted on March 8, 2010 by John Hunter

Automated software testing is a mistake proofing (poka-yoke) solution for software development. The way automated testing works is that software code is written that tests the software code of the application. This automated testing code test that business rules are correctly being followed by the code in the application. So for example, a user should not be able to create a new account without entering password. Then you create code that does not allow an account to be created without … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Circle of Influence

Posted on February 9, 2010 by John Hunter

In, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey discusses the circle of control, circle of influence and circle of concern. This provides a good framework from which to view issues as you look for improvement strategies. Within your circle of control you have much more autonomy and have less need to win others over to your plan. However, in practice, even here, you benefit from winning over those who are involved (for example you are their boss). Our … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Deming, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Understanding Psychology: Slogans – Risky Tools

Posted on February 3, 2010 by John Hunter

Slogans mainly are bad. But like most things they can be used in ways that help or hurt. The main problem is when they substitute for a method to achieve the aim (most of the time). If the slogan serves like a mission statement to focus people on something useful to focus on and it is one minor part of a system to achieve a result it can be fine and even useful. The issue, to me, is not so … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Quality tools, quote, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Soren Bisgaard

Posted on December 22, 2009 by John Hunter

Soren Bisgaard died earlier this month of cancer. Soren was a student of my father’s who shared the commitment to making a difference in people’s lives by using applied statistics properly. I know this seem odd to many (I tried to describe this idea previously, also read his acceptance of the 2002 William G. Hunter award). Soren served as the director of the director of the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (founded by William … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Habits

Posted on December 10, 2009 by John Hunter

Some things about what people do also have their roots in psychology. Deming had an understanding of psychology as one of 4 areas in his system of management. A huge factor in what people do is based on what they are used to doing – habits. It is often difficult for people to change – not necessarily because they don’t want to, or the alternative is more difficult or they think it is unwise. It is difficult just because they … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Biggest Manufacturing Countries in 2008 with Historical Data

Posted on December 7, 2009 by John Hunter

Once again the USA was the leading country in manufacturing for 2008. And once again China grew their manufacturing output amazingly. In a change with recent trends Japan grew output significantly. Of course, the 2009 data is going to show the impact of a very severe worldwide recession. Chart showing the percentage output of top manufacturing countries from 1990-2008 by Curious Cat Management Blog, Creative Commons Attribution. The first chart shows the USA’s share of the manufacturing output, of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Manufacturing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Making Better Decisions

Posted on November 24, 2009 by John Hunter

I think the most important thing you can do to make better decisions is to learn from the decisions you make. It sounds easy, but very few people do so effectively. The best strategy to learn from decisions is to: predict the results of your decisions write down those predictions Then analyze the results Then adjust future predictions and decisions based on what you learn Failing to do this leads most people to fail to learn from there decisions. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Highlights from Recent George Box Speech

Posted on November 16, 2009 by John Hunter

The JMP blog has posted some highlights from George Box’s presentation at Discovery 2009 [the broken link was removed] Infusing his entire presentation with humor and fascinating tales of his memories, Box focused on sequential design of experiments. He attributed much of what he knows about DOE [design of experiments] to Ronald A. Fisher. Box explained that Fisher couldn’t find the things he was looking for in his data, “and he was right. Even if he had had the fastest … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Design of Experiments, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Learn Lean by Doing Lean

Posted on November 13, 2009 by John Hunter

In response to: Developing Your Lean Education Plan [the broken link was removed] If you actually let the lean leaders practice lean management you are probably doing more to help them learn than anything else. Reading is great, but 10 times better when reading to find solutions you need to deal with issues you have in place. Same for going to conferences. Consultants can be a huge help, but if you just bring in consultants without allowing the changes needed … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Education, Lean thinking, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments