Tag Archives: quality

Design Your Organization to Serve Customers Well

Posted on June 26, 2024 by John Hunter

Quality is a Journey to Excellence is a 2 day management seminar that Bill Hunter (my father) recorded in 1985 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The embedded clip shows the second section of a the seminar discussing customers and how to organize your systems to serve customers well. See part one of the seminar, and the full seminar. Some aspects of managing an organization well are quite challenging. But some aspects really are not and yet we still often fail to … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bill Hunter and the Quality Movement

Posted on August 26, 2019 by John Hunter

Watch this presentation by George Box at the 1st Annual Hunter Conference on Quality: Bill Hunter and the Quality Movement. In the presentation George discusses interesting student design of experiments projects; read more on those efforts in 101 Ways to Design an Experiment, or Some Ideas About Teaching Design of Experiments. To read more about the quality management efforts in Madison, Wisconsin see: Doing More With Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin and Quality In … Continue reading →

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

Software Testing and the Impact on Quality

Posted on May 9, 2016 by John Hunter

My response to a question on Reddit. “Software quality does not come from testing” Does anybody have any thoughts on the validity of the above statement? That statement is similar to the idea you can’t inspect in quality. Basically “Inspection is too late. The quality, good or bad, is already in the product.” W. Edwards Deming I agree with those ideas. Software testing is a bit different (at least some of it is) from the inspection mentioned above. You are … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Software Development | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Teaching Students How to Use Better Management Practices

Posted on October 27, 2015 by John Hunter

This month Edwin Garro writes about the Quality and Productivity Technical Program for high school students that has been adopted in Costa Rica. 5 high schools joined in the first year and 7 more will join in the next 2 years. The ASQ Influential Voices are commenting on this idea this month. I was glad to see the point Edwin makes about the teaching critical thinking. I wrote a blog post about critical thinking perhaps being the most important catalyst … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged , ,

The Future of Quality is to Actually Do What People Talked About Decades Ago

Posted on June 3, 2015 by John Hunter

In the current ASQ Influential Voices post, Laurel Nelson-Rowe, ASQ managing director, asks: What’s the Future of Quality? The report they link to is hidden behind a register-wall. Hopefully in the future ASQ will have better User Experience (Ux) practices in place on the web site. But it is a good example of the failures to adopt well known, decades old recommended practices. This failure to just do what the best experts have suggested for a long time is an … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

The Importance of Leadership by Those Working to Improve Management

Posted on November 25, 2014 by John Hunter

This month Bill Troy, ASQ CEO, asked ASQ Influential Voices bloggers to explore the importance of leadership for every quality management professional. Leadership is important but also something that often is difficult to understand what exactly is meant by the person using the term. In Bill’s case he provides some guidance with: “Leadership encompasses… business savvy, people skills, and decisive action all are required to get results in the world.” The ability to find solutions and move forward efforts in … Continue reading →

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

Attracting Members and Volunteers to Professional Organizations

Posted on November 4, 2014 by John Hunter

This month Bill Troy, ASQ CEO, asked ASQ Influential Voices bloggers to explore recruiting members and volunteers amid a changing landscape. In most ways the answer is the same as any large question on directing an organization. We must figure out the value we wish to offer that is in demand and provide it in a package people desire. As part of that we need to continually focus on the customer and adjust to their changing desires and the changing … Continue reading →

Posted in Career | Tagged , , ,

Peter Drucker Discussing The Work of Juran, Deming and Himself

Posted on September 10, 2014 by John Hunter

In this clip Peter Drucker talks about Japan and his work there as well as the work of W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. His discussion highlights how he remembers the Japanese were so willing to take new ideas and implement them immediately. There was not a reluctance to try things that “were not invested here.” They were also ready to abandon ideas if they were tried and didn’t work. Drucker talked about the shared importance he, Deming and Juran … Continue reading →

Posted in Process improvement | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Steve Jobs on Quality, Business and Joseph Juran

Posted on March 31, 2014 by John Hunter

This webcast shows an interesting interview with Steve Jobs when he was with NeXT computer. He discusses quality, business and the experience of working with Dr. Juran at NeXT computer. The video is likely from around 1991. America’s in a tough spot right now, I think. I think we have forgotten the basics. We were so prosperous for so long that we took so many things for granted. And we forgot how much work it took to build and sustain … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Getting Known Good Ideas Adopted

Posted on June 19, 2013 by John Hunter

This month Paul Borawski asked ASQ’s Influential Voices to explore two questions; first, what is the most important challenge the quality community faces in ensuring that the value of quality is fully realized for the benefit of society? I really think it is just getting the good ideas to improve management, that have been around for decades, adopted. This might not seem that important. But I hear almost no talk about this and tons of talk about all sorts of … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Process improvement | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Going Beyond Quality Makes No Sense – There is No Border to Move Beyond

Posted on October 24, 2012 by John Hunter

This month, Paul Borawski selected the topic of going beyond the traditional quality function for discussion by ASQ’s Influential Voices. I don’t pay much attention to the tradition role for quality. Dr. Deming’s ideas, for well over half a century, have emphasized the importance of improving the entire management system and the entire enterprise. That systems view is the way I think and act. When a quality office exists that office has a role to play within the system. So, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Moving Beyond Product Quality

Posted on June 12, 2012 by John Hunter

This month Paul Borawski (CEO of ASQ) has asked the ASQ Influential Voices to share their thoughts on moving beyond product quality. The opening paragraph of the Quality Council’s perspective is, “For some organizations, ‘quality’ remains a set of tools and techniques associated almost exclusively with quality control. For others, quality has evolved into a critical partner, closely linked with business model development and the enterprise-wide execution of long-term strategy to achieve results. The way to move beyond just the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #164

Posted on April 20, 2012 by John Hunter

Paul Borawski is hosting 164th Management Improvement Carnival on ASQ’s View from the Q blog. Highlights from this edition include: Designing Experiments with Gummi Bears. Yes, Gummi bears. What a way to make statistics and quality fun, creative, and topical! “I am surprised at how many organizations don’t recognize the importance of sharing with others their success,” writes Quality Doc, the blogger behind Making Medical Lab Quality Relevant. Kevin Meyer of the Evolving Excellence blog writes about the purpose of … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged ,

Joy in Work in the Quality Improvement Field

Posted on April 17, 2012 by John Hunter

As I mentioned previously, I will be posting on a topics raised by Paul Borawski, CEO, ASQ as part of ASQ Influential Voices. This month Paul’s post, Are Quality Professionals Happy On the Job? looks at job happiness in the quality improvement field. Paul stated he “wasn’t surprised that Forbes Magazine named software quality assurance engineer as the ‘happiest job’ in the U.S.” I was. Frankly looking at the results I question the methodology used – I just find their … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Selling Quality Improvement

Posted on March 19, 2012 by John Hunter

In this month’s ASQ influential quality voices post, Paul Borawski asks How Do You “Sell” Quality? I am amazed how difficult it is to sell quality improvement. I look at organizations I interact with and easily see systemic failures due to faults that can be corrected by adopting management improvement strategies that are decades old. Yet executives resist improving. The desire to retain the comforting embrace of existing practices is amazingly strong. What sells to executives are usually ideas that … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

ASQ Influential Voices: Future Engineers and Scientists

Posted on February 13, 2012 by John Hunter

As I mentioned previously, I will be posting on a topics raised by Paul Borawski, CEO, ASQ as part of ASQ Influential Voices. This month Paul’s post, New Bloggers, STEM & More, looks at the development of future engineers. How can we, those who understand, use, and love science and technology, pass it along. I have discussed this issue often, on one of my other blogs: Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog: Encouraging Curiosity in Kids, Passion for Mechanical Engineering … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Science | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments