Deming Philosophy
By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Bob Browne is the former CEO of the Great Plains Coca Cola Bottling Company and soon to be author of a new book, The Sys-Tao Way, that outlines his application of the Deming Philosophy. In the most recent Deming Institute podcast, Bob […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. The Birth of Lean is an valuable book from the Lean Enterprise Institute. It collects the thoughts of those leading and working with the Toyota Production System in the early days: Taiichi Ohno, Eiji Toyoda, Michikazu Tanaka, Kikuo Suzumura and others. The book doesn’t talk about Dr. Deming directly […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. In this clip from volume 14, Understanding Profound Knowledge, of the Deming Library, W. Edward Deming discusses the problem with people putting forth their best efforts. Deming theorem #2 We are being ruined by people putting forth their best efforts. Brian Joiner quoted Dr. Deming as follows: Best efforts […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). In this episode of The W. Edward Deming Institute Podcast (download) Andrea Gabor begins by discussing her book The Man Who Discovered Quality: How W. Edwards Deming Brought the Quality Revolution to America – The Stories of Ford, Xerox, and GM. And […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Response to a question on the Deming Institute LinkedIn group: let’s say Dr. Deming wanted to sit down with his boss to negotiate a compensation increase. What grounds would he use to justify the request? I believe he would explain how the value he brought to the system was […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. One of the most powerful aspects of Deming’s management ideas also frustrate some people. Dr. Deming didn’t believe in simple guides telling managers what to do – his ideas are not prescriptive. The challenges of management don’t lend themselves to simple instructions spelling out […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Best efforts are essential. Unfortunately, best efforts, people charging this way and that way without guidance of principles, can do a lot of damage. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, page 19 There are many great quotes from Dr. Deming, and this is one of my favorite. To […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Managers must make decisions when data is unavailable or even impossible to collect. A simple example is training. The only immediate evidence is its cost, expense. The effect of training will not be realized for months or even years in the future. Moreover, the effect can not be measured. […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Dr. Deming was very quotable. There are a great number of wonderful quotes. They capture ideas well and are powerful. Without context though quotes can be mis-interpreted. And without context they lose much of the power they have when understood within the management system […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. All that we learned about the 14 points and the diseases of management applies to service organizations, as well as manufacturing. In this chapter we focus on service organizations. A system of quality improvement is helpful to anyone that turns out a product or is engaged in service, or […]
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