Tag Archives: Lean thinking

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #150

Posted on December 1, 2011 by John Hunter

Mark Graban is hosting Management Improvement Blog Carnival #150 on the Lean Blog, highlights include: Watching Waste in the ER! – As part of his relatively new blog, Anthony Scott (Frontline Lean) writes about his experiences with waste in an emergency department. The waste isn’t surprising to those who have been a patient or those who have worked in the E.D. Scott is a supervisor in a lean manufacturing setting and he applies lean thinking to this unfamiliar environment. Case … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , ,

The Need to Improve Management While Building Organizations Fit For Human Beings

Posted on September 29, 2011 by John Hunter

[embedded video link broken, so that code was removed but you can watch the video by following this link: Gary Hamel: Reinventing the Technology of Human Accomplishment. I agree with Gary Hamel that we need to adopt new management strategies. I happen to believe most of new strategies we need to adopt have been known for decades, we just fail to implement many of them. He argues it is hard to retain knowledge advantages (within companies). I agree. However execution … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Deming, Innovation, Management, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

When Companies Can Treat You Like an ATM, Many Will Do So

Posted on August 29, 2011 by John Hunter

The End of Refrigeration One small custom chip, some relays, a transformer, a couple of heat sinks, and a bunch of passive parts. Maybe a build cost of $20-30 or so? But GE’s price to me was $250, plus $150 for the 20 minutes it took to pull out the old one and swap in the new one. Paying $400 for a big piece of physical gear plus a couple hours of labor didn’t bother me. Paying $400 for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Investing, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #132

Posted on June 1, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996 (Deming, agile software development, systems thinking, lean manufacturing, customer focus…). If management stopped demotivating their employees… by Mark Graban – “Think of a person in your workplace who is considered to have a “bad attitude.” Do you think they started their career or their job at … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Problems with Management and Business Books

Posted on April 18, 2011 by John Hunter

We really need to change how we improve the practice of management. Far too often management strategies are just the latest fad from some new book that successfully marketed an idea. The marketing effectiveness of a book, or consultant, has very limited correlation to their ability to improve management, in my experience. It is often true that they make very good keynote speakers, however. So if you want an entertaining keynote speaker looking at the authors of the best selling … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Six sigma | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Why Lean is Different

Posted on April 12, 2011 by John Hunter

[the broken link to the embedded video was removed] Short webcast by Michael Ballé discusses what makes lean manufacturing different: going to where the work is done, standardize processes (from the gemba view), practice respect for people and continually improve. Lean thinking focuses on achieving better results and through that process improves trust and teamwork internally, as well as better supplier and customer relationships. Related: Non-technical Control Chart Webcast – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow – lean management, books, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Respect, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #128

Posted on April 10, 2011 by John Hunter

The management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with select recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles through Curious Cat Management Articles, you can subscribe via RSS to new article additions. Resist your machine thinking! [the broken link was removed] by Jeff Liker – “To maintain consistent output, one must continually adjust the system to changing environmental conditions. This is called dynamic homeostasis in systems thinking, or running to stay in place. … Maintenance comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Toyota Kata Song – The Times They Are Changing

Posted on April 4, 2011 by John Hunter

Very well done song, Toyota Kata – Managing by Means, by Doug Hendren – to the music of “The Times They are A-changing” by Bob Dylan. Doug sounds impressively similar to Dylan and the words are actually wonderful. Managing by results, it don’t work anymore. Don’t stand in your office, go to the shop floor … to really improve you must iterate, see our problems as treasures before its too late, and eliminate waste, whether little or great. Take baby … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Lean thinking, webcast | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #124

Posted on March 1, 2011 by John Hunter

The management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with select recent management blog posts. Also try Curious Cat Management Articles for online management improvement articles. Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret by Brad Isaac – “Think for a moment about what action would make the most profound impact on your life if you worked it every day. That is the action I recommend you put on your Seinfeld calendar.” Employee Engagement by Krista Ogburn Francis – “Meaningful work. Most people … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #121

Posted on February 6, 2011 by John Hunter

This edition of the Management Improvement Carnival is #121 (editions 119 and 120 were the annual 2010 blog reviews part 1 and part 2). Also try Curious Cat Management Articles for online management improvement articles: you can subscribe to an RSS feed for management articles now. Managing Nerds – “Until you’ve experienced the solving of a seemingly impossible problem, it’s hard to understand how far a nerd will go to protect his problem solving focus and you can help. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged ,

Respect for People Doesn’t Mean Avoiding Any Hint of Criticism

Posted on January 14, 2011 by John Hunter

As I said in a post a few years ago on respect for people and Taiichi Ohno‘s sometimes very aggressive style: The difference between respect and disrespect is not avoiding avoiding criticism. In fact often if you respect someone you can be much more direct and critical than you can with someone you treat as though they don’t have the ability to listen to hard truths and improve. I think we often have so little respect for people we just … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Annual Management Blog Review: Software, Manufacturing and Leadership

Posted on January 9, 2011 by John Hunter

In my contribution to the 3rd annual management blog roundup I will take a look at 3 blogs: Dennis Stevens, How to implement “Lean Thinking” in a Business and the Three Star Leadership Blog. This year 14 management bloggers contributed to highlight over 40 blogs, be sure to check out all the posts. Dennis Stevens writes a blog of the same name focused on agile software development principles with a strong focus on Dr. Deming’s ideas and lean thinking. What’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools, Software Development, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Deming Seminar in Singapore: New Philosophy of Management

Posted on December 27, 2010 by John Hunter

The W. Edwards Deming Institute is working with the NTUC LearningHub to offer management seminars in Singapore. I will be co-facilitating at several seminars in Singapore with Kelly Allan and Kevin Cahill next month. The 2 1/2 day Seminar, Deming’s New Philosophy of Management, is open for registration to the public so if you want to join us, sign up (link removed) for the seminar which will be held January 18 to 20, 2011 in Singapore. In the seminar you … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #118

Posted on December 11, 2010 by John Hunter

Mike Wroblewski is hosting the Management Improvement Carnival #118 on the Got Boondoggle? blog, highlights include: Voice of Customer (VOC): What does it mean? By Mark Wheeler – “Most companies have some type of VOC program in place. Many programs fall short of delivering measurable value. This failure often lies at the definition level of VOC. But how do you actually define it?” He Should Have Seen It by Mark Rosenthal – “We talk about 5S, separating the necessary from … Continue reading →

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Building Adoption of Management Improvement Ideas in Your Organization

Posted on December 8, 2010 by John Hunter

Continuation of How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted Target something that actually provides a good story. It often helps if there have been failures in attempts to solve a problem in the past. That makes the new success more impressive. Something that is relate-able to the audience you are trying to win over is also useful. Even if senior management cares about an issue, if the solution is so technical they are completely baffled, they … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Popular, Quality tools, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

No True Lean Thinking or Agile Software Development

Posted on November 22, 2010 by John Hunter

“There is no true value of any characteristic, state, or condition that is defined in terms of measurement or observation.” – Dr. W. Edwards Deming. The value depends on your operational definition. Once you operationalize management ideas in a real organization it necessarily should have differences from how it is operationalized elsewhere. As Deming said there are no effective simple recipes for management. It is one of the frustrations people have with Dr. Deming: that there is no cookbook telling … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment