Tag Archives: Quality tools

Performance Measures and Statistics Course

Posted on January 20, 2007 by John Hunter

Performance Measures and Statistics Course [the broken link was removed] – free course materials from a 2 day training course by Steven Prevette. Topics include: Dr. Deming’s red bead experiment, operational definitions, selecting performance targets, SPC, theory of variation, case studies, control charts, pdsa, pareto charts, histograms… Related: Quality, SPC and Your Career – articles by Steven Prevette

Posted in Education, Statistics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Epidemic of Diagnoses

Posted on January 3, 2007 by John Hunter

What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses by Dr. Welch, Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Woloshin: For most Americans, the biggest health threat is not avian flu, West Nile or mad cow disease. It’s our health-care system. True, and probably the biggest economic threat too. See: Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases and Health Insurance Premiums Soar Again. But it also leads to more diagnoses, a trend that has become an epidemic. This epidemic is a threat to your health. It … Continue reading →

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

Messiness is Good?

Posted on January 2, 2007 by John Hunter

Time to get organized? Not so fast [the broken link was removed], interview of David Freedman on Marketplace. Marketplace is a great show on PBS that covers economics and related matters. This interview, though, fails to inspire me. RYSSDAL: Is it expensive in a corporate sense to be neat? FREEDMAN: It’s extremely expensive. I mean let’s start off with the fact that U.S. corporations spend some $45 billion a year on management consultants. They come in and they help companies … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , ,

How to Improve

Posted on December 12, 2006 by John Hunter

My management philosophy is guided by the idea of seeking methods that will be most effective.* There are many ways to improve. Good management systems are about seeking systemic adoption of the most effective solutions. What this amounts to is learning about the ideas of Deming, Ackoff, Ohno, Chirstensen, Scholtes, Womack… and then adopting those ideas. In doing so learning about management tools and concepts as they are applied to your work. Here is a simple example. Years ago, my … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Toyota Production System for Sales…

Posted on December 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Corporate profile: the Toyota Production System [the broken link was removed] by Sarah Perrin: Within Toyota itself, non-production personnel support the TPS approach. “We very much value the Toyota way,” says David Betteley, managing director of Toyota Financial Services (UK) and vice president operations for Europe and Africa. “The key values of the Toyota way are teamwork, respect, challenge, kaizen and genchi genbutsu. “You produce a new product and it can be replicated by a competitor almost immediately, so you … Continue reading →

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

Meeting Like Google

Posted on September 29, 2006 by John Hunter

How to Run a Meeting Like Google [the broken link was removed], offers good advice like agendas distributed ahead of time, having a note taker… Instead, she encourages such comments as “The experimentation on the site shows that his design performed 10% better.” This works for Google, because it builds a culture driven by customer feedback data, not the internal politics that pervade so many of today’s corporations. Also definitely read: Most Meetings are Muda and meeting advice from 37 … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Leaving Quality Behind – Again No

Posted on September 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Is PAT Leaving Quality Behind? [the broken link was removed] The intent of PAT was to advocate a more scientific and methodical approach to product development, scale-up and production. The impact of PAT will be felt in all sectors of the organization, and if applied correctly, will increase granularity in the quality and quantity of data being created throughout the product development lifecycle. Ok, so in what way is that leaving quality behind? Does this add something to design of … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , ,

Japan Kaikaku Experience

Posted on September 14, 2006 by John Hunter

Mike Wroblewski is blogging a great series of posts on his Japan Kaikaku Experience, including Toyota Motor Kyushu: An interesting point is that the assembly line had a goal of only 97% uptime. They did not want 100%. It was believed that a goal of 97% was better (more realistic) and prevented quality problems from being slipped through. If the goal is 100%, the employees would say that something was not really a problem and let it go to keep … Continue reading →

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

Going Lean Brings Long-term Payoffs

Posted on September 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Going lean brings long-term payoffs [the broken link was removed] by John Torinus: The growing number of Wisconsin manufacturers, and the few service companies, taking the lean journey are learning that it is not a sprint. … The immediate paybacks come in the form of saved space, less distance traveled, fewer handoffs, faster throughput, lower inventories and man-hours saved. I would state the authors next point differently. The early successes provide resources to invest in making large more fundamental changes … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Root Cause Analysis

Posted on August 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Nice post on Root Cause Analysis: This, more rigorous and long-lasting, approach to solving problems is called Root Cause Analysis. There are several tools that can aid in the process of Root Cause Analysis. One common tool developed by Toyota is called “5-why’s”. Basically, it is a simple approach of asking “why” several times until you arrive at an atomic but actionable item. To visually view the process of the “5-why’s”, a tool called an (Ishikawa Diagram) or a (Cause-and-Effect … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Quality tools | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Lean Management Case Study

Posted on July 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Learning the Rules…Playing to Win [the broken link was removed] (pdf) Lean concepts are taught through discussion and hands-on discovery, not lectures.” A popular part of the experience involves various simulation exercises including the beer game, which teaches that poorly organized systems will defeat the best of people, and the airplane simulation exercise, where student groups work together to build model airplanes. On the first try at this simulation, typically one airplane is completed in the allotted time. At the … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Birth of the Kaizen Blitz

Posted on July 19, 2006 by John Hunter

The Birth of the Kaizen Blitz [the broken link was removed] What happens when productivity improves to the point where fewer people are needed? Bodek says a layoff is a mistake. He says that Toyota, rather than eliminating the poorest performers, takes the best performers from a cell and gives them something more creative to do. It’s the human side of lean that provides the payoff.

Posted in Management Articles, Quality tools | Tagged

Evolution of the PDSA Cycle

Posted on July 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Evolution of the PDSA Cycle by Ron Moen and Cliff Norman. Another historical article that explores the growth of management improvement concepts – this time the PDSA improvement cycle. via: Deming Electronic Network [the broken link was removed] See also: Improvement Handbook by Gerald J. Langley, Kevin M. Nolan, Clifford L. Norman, Lloyd P. Provost and Thomas W. Nolan. Deming on Management Variation Through the Ages by Lloyd Provost and Clifford Norman

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged , , , ,

Reducing Waste

Posted on July 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd – achieving zero waste to landfill [the broken link was removed] Toyota developed its Environmental Management System to stay on top of its environmental objectives and ensure that all processes are dealt with in an environmentally friendly way and are implemented across all the plants. There are full key performance indicator reporting systems, visual controls and displays throughout the plant. A great improvement strategy. Determine what you are trying to do. Understand the system. Set … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

TQM for the Water Business

Posted on July 1, 2006 by John Hunter

How dealers can put TQM to work [the broken link was removed] by Brian Cusimano Deming did not like the term TQM. It was not defined, so each person using it meant something different. And the faddish nature of the term drew a large number of “hacks” (consultants who spoke with authority but without knowledge). Seeing the term TQM used now however, I find refreshing. To use the term TQM you must go against the temptation to talk only about … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Quality tools | Tagged , , ,

Toyota IT for Kaizen

Posted on June 22, 2006 by John Hunter

How Toyota Uses Information Technology (IT) for Kaizen [the broken link was removed] by Jon Miller. He quotes Toyota’s CIO from the Japanese article: Part of my job as CIO is to take on these company-wide issues and use this data to make improvement suggestions when I have an opportunity to meet with the managing executives. Of course, it requires more than me making suggestions for Toyota to make good use of IT. The departments who are the users of … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments