Reflections on the Fabric of the Toyota Production System
Are you managing the parts of your company, or the way the parts interact with each other? We look to Toyota Motor Corporation for insight.
Appreciation for a System
Ackoff on Systems Thinking and Management
Are you using analysis to solve problems at your company? Try synthesis instead! For help, John Hunter directs us to this still-mind-blowing talk from Dr. Russell Ackoff, author of The Art of Problem Solving.
What is a system?
“Humans create systems all the time…How well any of these systems function, how effective and efficient they are, often comes down to how well the parts cooperate to support the aim.”
A Brief History of Quality, Part 1 – “Time has no divisions to mark its passage…”
Bill Bellows looks at “step changes” and how they relate to quality.
Break the Cycle
Bill Bellows discusses using the Deming approach to turn things around – whether prompted by a crisis or an essential effort in an organization’s continued success.
Customer Satisfaction is Not Enough
To succeed over the long term, organizations must seek not to satisfy customers but to delight them.
In Search of Excellence
Post by Bill Bellows, Deputy Director, The Deming Institute “A product or service possesses quality if it helps someone and enjoys a sustainable market.” W. Edwards Deming “Quality is defined by doing it right the first time.” Phillip Crosby “There is not a day I don’t think about what Dr. Deming meant to us. Deming is …
Restoring Joy and Meaning to Learning
Guest post by John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability David Langford has taken his experience with applying Deming’s ideas to education to his position as the Superintendent of Ingenium schools in Los Angeles, California. The focus of Ingenium is “restoring joy and meaning to learning.” David talks about how Ingenium schools are …
Why Deming / Why Now
“Now, more than ever, organizations possess limitless opportunities to improve how they manage resources within a system.” – Bill Bellows
Two Tweets & A Blog
Guest blog by Bob Browne, author of Sys-Tao – Western Logic and Eastern Flow and former Chairman and CEO of the Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company Tweet One The question, “If Japan can, why can’t we?” conjures up the works of W. Edwards Deming. It also begs another question, “If the Japanese so easily understood …