Tag Archives: Lean thinking

Don’t Hide Problems in Computers

Posted on August 11, 2009 by John Hunter

Making things visible is a key to effective management. And data in computers can be easy to ignore. Don’t forget to make data visible. Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston recently hosted Hideshi Yokoi, president of the Toyota Production System Support Center and wrote this blog post: Together, we visited gemba and observed several hospital processes in action, looking for ways to reduce waste and reorganize work. It was fascinating to have such experts here … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 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 , , , , , ,

Lean Manufacturing Webcast from India

Posted on July 28, 2009 by John Hunter

This lean thinking webcast from India actually does a pretty decent job of providing an overview (for a business TV channel) even if they get some things a bit confused. The discuss TQM in India preceding lean which is an accurate view in my opinion – quality management shared many lean principles. They even talk of lean at Ford doing lean first. But they get the decades for that a bit off. They seem to mash together the “quality is … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, India, Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Build Your Business Slowly and Without Huge Cash Requirements

Posted on April 12, 2009 by John Hunter

Get Rich Slow by Josh Quittner At no other time in recent history has it been easier or cheaper to start a new kind of company… These are Web-based businesses that cost almost nothing to get off the ground … The term ramen profitable was coined by Paul Graham, a Silicon Valley start-up investor, essayist and muse to LILO entrepreneurs. It means that your start-up is self-sustaining and can eke out enough profit to keep you alive on instant noodles … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Competition, Creativity, Innovation, Investing, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , ,

Zara Thrives by Ignoring Conventional Wisdom

Posted on February 18, 2009 by John Hunter

Zara Thrives by Breaking All the Rules Many U.S. apparel retailers are choking on slow-moving inventories as consumers hold back on spending. But Spain’s Inditex, whose Zara chain pioneered cheap chic, is zipping ahead. The $13.8 billion company, which is closing in on Gap (GPS) for the title of world’s biggest clothing retailer, has nearly quadrupled sales, profits, and locations since 2000 … Wages are higher at Inditex—its factory workers in Spain make an average of $1,650 a month, vs. … Continue reading →

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

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 , , | 1 Comment

Curious Cat Management Carnival: Select 2008 Highlights

Posted on January 12, 2009 by John Hunter

Over the last couple of years the quality of management material available online has increased dramatically. And blogs have provided much of the best management material. The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival now provides highlights 3 times a month. Each carnival post highlights recent management related posts from several management blogs. And for the 2008 year in review 9 blogs have each taken a handful of management blogs and provided annual highlights. In this post we will cover four blogs: … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Cost Cutting is Much Different than Waste Removal

Posted on December 30, 2008 by John Hunter

Cost Cutting is Much Different than Waste Removal by Jim Womack The very last thing to consider is the one thing managers seem to embrace most readily: cost cutting. This means leaving out steps and features that actually create value from the perspective of the customer and removing employees who are actually needed to get the job done right using the current process. The hope, usually wrong, is that the customer won’t notice. This last expedient is the one I … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Lean thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Lean and Kanban for Software Developers

Posted on November 15, 2008 by John Hunter

Lean and Kanban for Software Developers by Clinton Keith Time-boxing allows us to employ a very powerful aspect of Kanban. The cards in each column represent capacity for each stage of the value stream. As we see above, each stage can only handle one zone at a time. That is the capacity of each stage, if we have one person working at each stage. Time-boxing is the first step in beginning to find a balanced flow for our value stream … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | Tagged , ,

The Software Engineering Manager’s Lament

Posted on October 23, 2008 by John Hunter

The engineering manager’s lament by Eric Ries: In teams that follow the “pick two” agenda [quality, time or price], which two has to be resolved via a power play. In companies with a strong engineering culture, the engineers pick quality. It’s their professional pride on the line, after all. So they insist on having the final say on when a feature is “done” enough to show to customers. Business people may want to speed things up by spending more money, … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #43

Posted on September 15, 2008 by John Hunter

The management improvement carnival highlights posts helping managers do a better job on topics such as: leadership, customer focus, lean manufacturing, process improvement, managing people and innovation. Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival | Tagged , ,

Great Visual Instruction Example

Posted on December 14, 2007 by John Hunter

This does a great job of explaining what you need to know clearly. While this presentation for Azithromycin doesn’t prevent a mistake it sure makes it much more likely that the process can be completed successfully. We need more effort in creating such clear instructions. Visual clarity is more important than lots of words. Applying that concept is not as easy as it sounds but it is a very important idea for instructions to end use and instructions for processes … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged , , , ,

The Power of a Checklist

Posted on December 7, 2007 by John Hunter

Great article on The Checklist – If something so simple can transform intensive care, what else can it do? by Atul Gawande A decade ago, Israeli scientists published a study in which engineers observed patient care in I.C.U.s for twenty-four-hour stretches. They found that the average patient required a hundred and seventy-eight individual actions per day, ranging from administering a drug to suctioning the lungs, and every one of them posed risks. Remarkably, the nurses and doctors were observed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Lean, Toyota and Deming for Software Development

Posted on December 2, 2007 by John Hunter

Mary Poppendieck on The Role of Leadership in Software Development, very nice 90 minute webcast: In this 90-minute talk from the Agile2007 conference, Lean software thought leader Mary Poppendieck reviewed 20th century management theories, including Toyota and Deming, and went on to talk about “the matrix problem”, alignment, waste cutting, planning and standards. She closed by addressing the role of measurement: “cash flow thinking” over “balance sheet thinking”. via, Leadership is not Obsolete for Self-Organizing Teams! Once again Mary provides … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Software Development, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Arbitrary Rules Don’t Work

Posted on November 28, 2007 by John Hunter

Procedurally Enforcing Workflow by Michael Salamon: UI gem, and a great reminder for the RIAA/MPAA: You can’t force people to follow directions they deem arbitrary. I bet if that gate spit out $100 bills people would use it. Why matters. You can’t just expect people to act in a way that seems arbitrary. As I stated in Poka-Yoke Assembly, Do you Read Instructions Carefully Before Assembly? Nope, I don’t. I expect I can make a quick judgment if I really … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno

Posted on August 8, 2007 by John Hunter

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno is an excellent management book. Taiichi Ohno is known as the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS), also called lean manufacturing. He dictated the text to the Japan Management Association (in a series of interviews in 1982), which gives the book a sense of listening to him talk about the ideas. I found the conversational tone made it very easy to read and reminiscent of Dr. Deming’s tone in many places. Ohno focused a … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments