Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs - Managing the Supplier Relationship, at Ford and Elsewhere
Ford said they were committed to the Deming philosophy in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Donald Petersen, former CEO of Ford Motor Company, was one of those included in the Deming Library Tapes.
Nothing has changed from 1990 to today [October 2005] that explains why Ford saying they are going to deal with suppliers differently now should work any better then such statements 15 years ago. Until they acknowledge what problems in their management system have caused them to fail to use sensible management practices that have been well know for decades I see no reason to believe their claims that they will behave differently this time. continue reading: Managing the Supplier Relationship, at Ford and Elsewhere - Innovation and the Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a license that lets the creators of intellectual property clearly define how that property may be used by others. Partially this license is a reaction to the poor way copyright law is being viewed today (see links below).
Partially it is tool that gives creators a way to provide for more interaction with their ideas. And this interaction is a great way to market, in the right circumstances. More managers should be thinking about how their organizations can use this tool to improve performance. continue reading: Innovation and the Creative Commons - Statistical Techniques for Quality
As six sigma has taken the business world by storm in the past 15 years, many organizations have focused on acquiring and implementing the DMAIC methodology with performance benchmarks defined by “sigma levels”. However, after perhaps proclaiming the “six sigma organization” label for the company, it is important for the business leaders to look beyond immediate concerns, i.e. those issues embodied in black belt projects, and adopt holistic and forward-looking perspectives in seriously advancing organizational interests.
continue reading: Statistical Techniques for Quality - The Dramatic Spread of Lean Thinking
Life indeed will be better for all of us with the improvement of management. The benefits of economic success are large. Good jobs are desired everywhere: USA, India, Germany, Singapore… Those jobs provide positive externalities that create a reinforcing loop of improving conditions. There are many important factors (education, investment, political stability, rule of law…) to economic success. Effective management is among the factors that can provide dramatic increases in the standard of living of a country or community. continue reading: The Dramatic Spread of Lean Thinking - Lean Government
I was one of the founding board members on the ASQ Public Sector Network (now the ASQ Government Division). I also, created and have maintained the Public Sector Continuous Improvement web site for a decade (some additional details on my background).
There have been many great efforts in the government, but still so much more needs to be done.
Here are articles exploring what has been done:
continue reading: Lean Government - More Lean Thinking Applied in Government (2005)
Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center:
the Tanker Division utilized an array of process improvement tools to facilitate improvements while increasing quality, efficiency and safety; thus enabling them to become the benchmark effort in lean implementation for Tinker Air Force Base. The results were dramatic: within four years, the average yearly flow time for a KC-135 PDM dropped 52%, the number of aircraft on station (WIP) decreased 49%, and capacity increased 75%. continue reading: More Lean Thinking Applied in Government (2005) - Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations
measure [parameter] in the hopes of improving [goal]
When dysfunction occurs, the values of [parameter] go up comfortingly, but the values of [goal] get worse. Dysfunction often occurs. continue reading: Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations - Management Improvement in Healthcare
Health care (and especially M.D.s) have always been seen as among the most difficult environment to introduce new management principles (universities are another). It was surprising to me since so much of management improvement is largely about using the scientific method, but it seems to be a reality. It seems these highly educated people are used to having huge freedom to act as they wish, and seem to resist participating in a system to improve rather than doing as they wish.
To improving results in health care I strongly recommend looking at the work of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. continue reading: Management Improvement in Healthcare - Education Improvement
Education is another area where applying management improvement concepts can be difficult. The Education area does require special care but management improvement concepts can work very well in Education.
David Langford has done some great work in this area. He wrote a book, Orchestrating Learning With Quality, which while I would definitely recommend it for anyone planning on applying these concepts... continue reading: Education Improvement - Box on Quality
Dr. George Box is not as well known in the general management community as his ideas merit (in my biased opinion – photo of Bill Hunter and George Box). He is well know in the statistics field as one of the leading statistical minds. Box on Quality is an excellent book that gathers his essays from his 65th to 80th year. continue reading: Box on Quality - Seven Leadership Leverage Points
IHI has the courage to say one of the 3 sources for there hypothesis as “Hunches, Intuition, and Collective Experience.” While attempting to base plans on data and not hunches is good. Often you must make decisions without data. It is why Dr. Deming was so concerned with mobility of top management: that mobility means many managers don’t really understand what they are managing. Lean thinkers understand the value of having managers with deep knowledge of the areas they manage. continue reading: Seven Leadership Leverage Points - Lean Consumption: the Customer’s Perspective
The concepts underlying lean consumption boil down to six simple principles that correspond closely with those of lean production.
- Solve the customer’s problem completely by making sure that all the goods and services work together to do so.
- Don’t waste the customer’s (or the provider’s) time.
- Provide exactly what the customer wants.
- ...
continue reading: Lean Consumption: the Customer’s Perspective - Malcolm Gladwell and Synchronicity
- Toyota Engineers a New Plant: the Living Kind
Toyota’s vision:
First, making things that benefit both people and the world as a whole. … Second, as a member of society, we must fulfill our responsibilities to all stakeholders. We must provide to customers cleaner, safer, and more attractive products with excellent value. To shareholders, we must enhance share value through long-term and stable growth by increasing profits and paying appropriate dividends. With business partners, we must engage in fair business based on a spirit of mutual benefit.
To our employees, we must provide a workplace where they can work with pride based on mutual trust and responsibility between labor and management, and respect for people.
continue reading: Toyota Engineers a New Plant: the Living Kind - There is Much to Improve in How We Use the Internet to Serve Customers
Webinars can have great interaction. They can provide very useful archived webinars covering some content (live webinars could be provided for free too if the reward was worth the cost) . If the public finds that free content valuable it can be about the most effective marketing in many ways including for gaining customers for live interactive webinars on more advanced topics.
Webinars also allow the presenter to do multiple two hour sessions for different clients anywhere in the world in the same day. So you could customize your content to specific client needs. Also each of those sessions could include employees from multiple sites around the globe. continue reading: There is Much to Improve in How We Use the Internet to Serve Customers
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