Tag Archives: management tools

Integrating Technical and Human Management Systems

ASQ has asked the Influential Voices on quality management to look at the question of integrating technical quality and human management systems. How do different systems—technical or human—work together? How should they work together? My view is that the management … Continue reading

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Visual Management and Mistake-Proofing for Prescription Pills

Good ideas often just require some sensible thought to think of an improved approach. Management concepts can help guide such thinking, such as mistake-proofing and visual management. To apply visual management requires giving a bit of thought to how to … Continue reading

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Interview on PDSA, Deming, Strategy and More

Bill Fox interviewed me and has posted part one of the interview on his web site: Predicting Results in the Planning Stage (sorry, the link has been hijacked to forward to an unrelated page [so obviously I removed the link], … Continue reading

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How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted

Often when learning about Deming’s ideas on management, lean manufacturing, design of experiments, PDSA… people become excited. They discover new ideas that show great promise to alleviate the troubles they have in their workplace and lead them to better results. … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Understanding Psychology: Slogans – Risky Tools

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 … Continue reading

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Webcast on 2-Bin Systems

Illustration of how 2-Bin Systems work, by Bill Hanover. Related: Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) video by Bill Hanover – Messiness is Bad – Drum-Buffer-Rope Example – lean manufacturing resources

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Management Improvement Carnival #30

Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. How not to improve a process – “It is not enough to think you know what’s right for the process, if you don’t understand how the … Continue reading

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Lean Six Sigma Case Studies

ValuMetrix Services provides some really nice lean six sigma case studies. Simple short but still with enough detail to actually provide some sense of what is going on. While on the topic of online case studies let me plug the … Continue reading

Posted in curiouscat.com, Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Power of a Checklist

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 … Continue reading

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

Improvement Tools and Improving Management

Tools are just tools [the broken link has been removed] by Lee Fried We have begun to shift away from a tool driven approach to one more centered on improving our management systems. This makes the work far more difficult, … Continue reading

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