Guest post by John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Don’t think customers will let you know if there are problems. Some will, most won’t. Even internal customers are often quiet. Learning the voice of the customer requires proactive effort. Doing so also requires designing your organization to seek out […]

People are often surprised that the mission statement of Bama Companies, an international food manufacturer, is “People helping people be successful through caring and accountability.” When a heart attack prevented my father from continuing to run Bama Companies, a family business, he asked me to take over. It was 1984, and I was young and […]

So many of us strive to be a force for good—for our families, businesses and communities. Dr. Deming’s teachings helped me understand how I could lead a company through crisis with compassion. That’s why I joined The Deming Institute’s Board of Trustees, to help others do the same. My Deming journey began in 1996 when, […]

Guest post by John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. Using data to access and guide improvement efforts is extremely useful. Data must be used appropriately, however. Thought must be given to understand the systems being studied and what the data actually indicates. It is easy to be misled if you are not […]

Often, when the days grow shorter and holiday preparations are underway, I find myself taking time to reflect. Not just on the year that is coming to a close, but on the Deming community that I have been a part of for more than 40 years. I began to accompany my father, Dr. W. Edwards […]

Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) has announced the 2021 Deming Prize winners. 2021 Deming Prize Toyota Boshoku, Kariya Plant and Unit Production Engineering Center (Japan) From the 2020 Toyota Boshoku annual report We are now tackling the challenge of winning the Deming Prize, but […]

Guest post by John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). This post is part of our Deming on Management series that aims to provide resources to help those transforming their management system to one based on Deming’s management ideas. Many people link Deming’s management ideas to only the use of […]

Guest post by John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. Lean Blog Interview with Balaji Reddie, Founder of the Deming Forum of India.  “So when I told him about profound knowledge, and when we started all of that, the next day he was eyes and ears, and it was, it was really mind-bending. […]

An appreciation for a system is one of the four interrelated components that form Dr. Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge. In his guest post, Drake University Professor, Dr. Doug Stilwell, explores how adopting a systems-thinking approach can help in our efforts to eradicate COVID-19.

Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Often when problems occur, we seek to figure out who is to blame for the problem. This is not an effective management strategy as Dr. Deming made clear, and I have discussed before: Attributing Fault to the Person Without Considering the System, Distorting the System, Distorting the […]