What is the guiding rule that should inspire any managerial decision? The job of Management is to work on the system and create a predictable environment; as Dr. Deming reminds us “the job of managers is to reduce variation”. Management and predictability A company is a complex system ruled by non-linear interactions that make it difficult […]
Archives for October 2012
Variation and Processes
Everything we do in an organization can be considered as a process, and, whether we realize it or not, every process is affected by variation. We need to understand and manage this phenomenon of variation if we want to achieve the best results. Let’s look at the process of sales In our last post […]
Managing Variation: Why Entropy Matters
No management effort can ignore the existence of entropy and variation. What do we need to do about them? What is variation? It is beyond the scope of any blog to teach the fundamentals of Statistical Process Control; Don Wheeler and other experts have already done that majestically. The goal here is to examine […]
Mining: A Network of Human and Environmental Interactions
An unprecedented breakthrough in mining in the historical gold mining district of the Comstock in Nevada is happening through a systems-based approach to management. This post is by Travis Higgins, Director of Quality for Comstock Mining Inc. who is in charge of the implementation of the Decalogue Management Methodology within the company. Travis is an […]
