Blog posts on business

Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs

• Not Exactly Lean Packaging

  Sadly not. What the überbox did contain was 16 smaller boxes “which in turn [each] contained (wrapped in foam so they wouldn’t get broken) exactly two sheets of A4 paper”

  It is hard to imagine what management system creates such solutions. But it is not hard to image Dilbert’s pointy haired boss fitting right in there. It also isn't surprising the incredibly poorly managed HP is responsible for this instance of idiocy.

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• Using Customer Feedback to Drive Continual Improvement

  That impact of creating systems that continually improve the value provided to customers is still very much under appreciated. The Deming Chain Reaction is such a powerful concept that allows us to create more value and reduce costs over the long term.

  ...

  Long term thinking with an appreciation for systems allows managers to focus on improving value over the long term while many of their competitors focus on reducing current costs no matter how much damage they do to their customers and the long term success of their business.

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• Learning, Systems and Improvement

  Errors of omission, lost opportunities, are generally more critical than errors of commission. Organizations fail or decline more frequently because of what they did not do than because of what they did.

  Russel Ackoff

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• Innovation at Toyota

  While targets and goals can distract from improvement some guidance is useful. If the desire to is have incremental improvement one strategy may be reasonable but if the desire is to aim for huge improvement another strategy is likely required...

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