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Curious Cat Management Improvement Library - New Additions

My Life and Work by Henry Ford, Jan 1922
Henry Ford's 1922 book is available online.
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Understanding variation - the springboard for process improvement by Henry R. Neave, Jan 0004
"Process monitoring merely aims to reach and maintain a state of statistical control. But that's only the beginning. The next issue is: is the process capable? That means that, when it is in control, it is capable of providing outputs that meet the customers' stated requirements."
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Deming Based Organizations by John Hunter, Dec 2007
"Dr. Deming did not propose a cookbook to follow. Instead he proposed a theory that requires learning and application within a specific institution. I see Toyota as the best example of a Deming company. Toyota has created a management system that is based on Dr. Deming's ideas. Adding new ideas Dr. Deming did not mention. Evolving those ideas over 60 years into something that is consistent with Deming's management philosophy."
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Why Managing by Facts Works by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, Jun 2006
"From our research, we are convinced that when companies base decisions on evidence, they enjoy a competitive advantage. And even when little or no data is available, there are things executives can do that allow them to rely more on evidence and logic and less on guesswork, fear, faith, or hope."
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To build a better hospital, Virginia Mason takes lessons from Toyota plants by Cherie Black, Mar 2008
"Virginia Mason said overall benefits include an 85 percent reduction in how long patients wait to get lab results back, and lowering inventory costs by $1 million. They've redesigned facilities to make patient and staff work flow more productive. The hospital reduced overtime and temporary labor expenses by $500,000 in one year and increased productivity by 93 percent."
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Good is not almost as good as great by Seth Godin, Mar 2007
"In this case, it's obvious that a great salesperson is going to sell far, far more than a good one. Nine women working together can't have a baby in one month, and ten good salespeople still aren't going to close the account that a great one could."
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Write it Down by John Hunter, Mar 2007
"In meetings writing down decisions (what is the issue, who is going to do what...) is very helpful. It is very easy for people to think people agree to some somewhat clear statements made in the meeting. Only later it becomes obvious several people have different understandings"
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You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss by Paul Graham, Nov 0002
"So working in a group of 10 people within a large organization feels both right and wrong at the same time. On the surface it feels like the kind of group you're meant to work in, but something major is missing. A job at a big company is like high fructose corn syrup: it has some of the qualities of things you're meant to like, but is disastrously lacking in others."
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Berkshire Hathaway 2007 Letter to Shareholders by Warren Buffett, Feb 2008
"A truly great business must have an enduring "moat" that protects excellent returns on invested capital. The dynamics of capitalism guarantee that competitors will repeatedly assault any business "castle" that is earning high returns... She's smart, she loves the business, and she loves her associates. That beats having an MBA degree any time. (An aside: Charlie and I are not big fans of resumes. Instead, we focus on brains, passion and integrity..."
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Reduce Inventory and Need for Expedited Deliveries by ValuMetrix, May 2005
"The Lean team conducted a step-by-step analysis of the procurement process. After identifying causes of waste and inefficient ordering, it rearranged the supply room, making the most frequently used items more accessible. It instituted a color-coded inventory management system with all necessary information centralized on convenient reorder cards. A monitoring process is helping to identify opportunities for further gains."
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Better Patient Care Using Lean Thinking by ValuMetrix, May 2007
"Lean is not just about better ROI; it's actually fundamentally about better patient care....the end result is, if you improve quality your costs will go down. If you focus on patient quality and safety, you just can't go wrong. The idea is, you do the right thing with regard to quality and the costs will take care of themselves..."
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Rental Car IT by Neal Ford, Feb 2007
"watching the sheer number of keystrokes that the counter attendee must perform to put me in a car is astounding. The same is true when you bring it back. It's like they are typing the great American novel. What could possibly require so typing? They know who I am. They have all my credit card, insurance, and driver's license information (enough that they'll usually just let me get in a car and drive away). This isn't confined to a single rental car company either. I've dealt with a bunch of them and they all have an enormous amount of data entry."
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The Purpose of an Organization by John Hunter, Aug 2005
"The aim proposed here for any organization is for everybody to gain - stockholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment - over the long term." Dr. W. Edwards Deming
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The rule is simple: be careful what you measure by Simon Caulkin, Feb 2008
"Activity measures prevent managers from seeing that cheaper calls aren't the answer: better to improve the service so that they don't need a call centre with all its associated costs in the first place."
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The Rationale of Scientific Experimentation by John Dowd, Nov 0002
"In addition to their efficiency, factorial designs also offer the only method of detecting interactions through experimentation. Because numerous factors can be combined in the same series of experimental runs, the interactions can be detected and the nature of their effects can be evaluated when they are present."
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An Interim Report on Motivation in the Workplace by Gipsie B. Ranney, Oct 2007
"Following the work of Maslow, Douglas McGregor argued that the conventional view of employees (Theory X) as indolent, lacking ambition, self-centered, and not very bright was inadequate. He advocated an alternative (Theory Y): 'The motivation, the potential for development, the capacity for assuming responsibility, the readiness to direct behavior toward organizational goals are all present in people... A responsibility of management is to make it possible for people to recognize and develop these human characteristics for themselves'"
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Best Practices of Global Innovators by Alan D. MacCormack, Nov 2007
"successful firms recognize the inherent uncertainty in innovation, where a range of problems that cannot be predicted in advance must be resolved. Dealing with uncertainty requires different organizational choices in terms of team design, contract structure, and IP management."
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The Checklist by Atul Gawande, Dec 2007
"Pronovost and his colleagues monitored what happened for a year afterward. The results were so dramatic that they werent sure whether to believe them: the ten-day line-infection rate went from eleven per cent to zero. So they followed patients for fifteen more months. Only two line infections occurred during the entire period. They calculated that, in this one hospital, the checklist had prevented forty-three infections and eight deaths, and saved two million dollars in costs."
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