Tag Archives: William Hunter

Quality is a Journey to Excellence – Improving the System

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Curiouscat

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 third section of a the seminar on improving the system. Deming has this pithy way of putting a lot of the problems along those lines and what he says is: “Lets play American industry and we’ll make toast. I’ll burn and you scrape.” These links provide more details on ideas he … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Who Inspires Your Management Thinking and Action?

Posted on January 22, 2015 by John Hunter

This month Bill Troy, ASQ CEO, asked ASQ Influential Voices bloggers: “who influenced or inspired your management thinking and in what ways?” He discussed Paul O’Neill’s influence on his thinking [the broken link was removed – so many websites have no evidence of long term thinking]; I agree that Paul has done some very impressive work in health care. I have written about my management influences in the past: Active Management Improvement Leaders (2006) and Who Influences Your Thinking? (2005). … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

George Box

Posted on March 28, 2013 by John Hunter

I would most likely not exist if it were not for George Box. My father took a course from George while my father was a student at Princeton. George agreed to start the Statistics Department at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and my father followed him to Madison, to be the first PhD student. Dad graduated, and the next year was a professor there, where he and George remained for the rest of their careers. George died today, he … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Design of Experiments, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Respect, Six sigma, Statistics, Systems thinking, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Respect for Everyone

Posted on November 7, 2012 by John Hunter

TL;DR – The two pillars of the Toyota Way are: respect for people and continuous improvement. One of the big reasons my career followed the path it did (into management improvement) was due to the impact of respect for people. My father was a professor (in statistics, engineering and business) and consulted with organizations to help them achieve better results. To achieve results he took advantage of the gains possible when using statistical tools to manage with respect for people. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, quote, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

ASQ Influential Voices

Posted on January 26, 2012 by John Hunter

I am joining the ASQ Influential Voices project for 2012. The effort started last year when ASQ chose a few people to participate in a group effort to share their thoughts on various topics in quality improvement. I have been asked to join for 2012, along with a couple lean bloggers (Mark Graban and Tim McMahon) and others. Each month the ASQ executive director will post on a topic and I, and the other influential voices participants, will share out … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Statistical Engineering Links Statistical Thinking, Methods and Tools

Posted on June 3, 2010 by John Hunter

In Closing the Gap Roger W. Hoerl and Ronald D. Snee lay out a sensible case for focusing on statistical engineering. We’re not suggesting that society no longer needs research in new statistical techniques for improvement; it does. The balance needed at this time, however, is perhaps 80% for statistics as an engineering discipline and 20% for statistics as a pure science. True, though I would put the balance more like 95% engineering, 5% science. There is a good discussion … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Soren Bisgaard

Posted on December 22, 2009 by John Hunter

Soren Bisgaard died earlier this month of cancer. Soren was a student of my father’s who shared the commitment to making a difference in people’s lives by using applied statistics properly. I know this seem odd to many (I tried to describe this idea previously, also read his acceptance of the 2002 William G. Hunter award). Soren served as the director of the director of the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (founded by William … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Importance of Management Improvement

Posted on August 23, 2007 by John Hunter

If organizations just adopt management improvement practices I firmly believe customer service, financial performance and employee satisfaction could be improved. This was a big part of the reason I started to use the internet to share management improvement ideas back in 1996 (plus I find management improvement interesting). On the note of making a difference in people’s lives. I have had far more people tell me how my father (Bill Hunter) made a huge difference in their lives than ever … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, curiouscat.com, Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Statistics | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments