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Latest "Improvement Insights" Posts
In school, they always made you search for the one right answer. In real life, things are rarely that simple. There are often many right answers. Here’s how to choose the best among those:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but in school – first grade all the way through college – it seemed like they were preaching that there was always one right answer to a question. You had to get that one right answer to be able to get a hundred percent on your test (unless it was an essay thing, and then that was a different thing).
Continue Reading "The Myth of the One Right Answer"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Most of us are hesitant to admit that we don’t know how to do something. So we can waste a lot of time trying to learn how. But in business, that’s a foolish waste of time and money. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Like many other people, I have a hard time asking for help. The other day, I was trying to work on something for our website: it was a process link to go out to the United Postal Service and get the Zip Plus 4 thing.
Continue Reading "When You’re Stuck – Hire Help"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Ever been tempted to give up on some problem? Think it might be impossible to solve? Consider learning to think like Bill Gates. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I recently watched a documentary about Bill Gates, and the interviewer was asking about… Bill was trying to eradicate polio on the planet, and he had gotten vaccination and kind of gotten it narrowed down to some part of northern Africa (if I remember correctly), but insurgents and rebels and all kinds of things were trying to stop this immunization (which I don’t understand at all, but that’s how it goes, right?).
Continue Reading "Think Like Bill Gates"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Never seems like there’s enough time for Quality Improvement. The urgent trumps the important. Here’s what I’ve done:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but everybody keeps talking about, “We have to make time for Quality Improvement and Six Sigma.” I hate to tell you this: There ain’t no time. Right? There’s just not going to be ever enough time, and they’re not going to dedicate a thousand people to go do this with the right number of Black Belts and Green Belts and Yellow Belts.
Continue Reading "No Time for Quality Improvement?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros.
People often worry about how they are going to get their leadership on board with using control charts. It’s easy. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I was on a presentation and I was watching Zoom and I was looking at the chat window to see what people were asking, and somebody said, “Well, how do I get my leadership team on board with using control charts?” I have a simple answer for that: Start using them. Right?
“The moment you start using control charts, your leadership team will say, “Oh, what’s that for, and what are these lines for?”
Continue Reading "Getting Leadership Onboard with Control Charts"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
Ever seen a line chart with a trend line that implies there was great improvement? Probably not. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“If you’re listening to anything in the news, they always talk about “fake news,” right? Fake news: somebody made stuff up. But in my experience, when I’m wandering around [seeing] all of these presentations and poster presentations at trade shows and stuff, I keep seeing all these line charts with trend lines in them. “Oh look! We have a trend line! It’s reducing whatever it is,” right?
Continue Reading "Line Charts with Trend Lines are often Fake News"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
Words like “variable” and “attribute” confuse new students of quality improvement. But they need to know that to choose the right control chart using a decision tree don’t they? Not if you automate chart selection for them. Here’s how I did it:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I got started back in 1990, and that’s when I learned about control charts. Then I started trying to teach people about control charts… guess what? You start talking about ‘variable’ and ‘attribute’ and ‘sample sizes’ and you can watch everybody’s eyes slowly glaze over; it’s just fascinating to watch.
Continue Reading "Automating Decision Trees to Collapse The Control Chart Learning Curve"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Ever seen a puff of smoke rising from some debris? What did you do about it? The same is true in businesses; a small error in production can be put out quickly at the beginning. Become a volunteer firefighter in your company. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“A few years back I was at the American Society for Quality Audit Conference down in Memphis, Tennessee. We were staying at the Peabody Hotel where they have the famous duck walk at night, where the ducks come out and get into the pond.
Continue Reading "Stomp Out Fires When You See Them"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
Some people think working long hours and putting in a lot of overtime is the red badge of courage. They are wrong. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I first hired my first employee Adrienne she’d been working for Arthur Andersen, which was a big accounting firm, and she was used to working long hours like that was the “red badge of courage.” She said, “If you need me to work nights or weekends, I can do whatever that is. I can do whatever it takes.”
Continue Reading "Surprising My First Employee"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean.
Any time you get the urge to completely demolish your existing systems and try to create a new one from scratch, hit the pause button. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Many years ago, they had a whole push towards “re-engineering.” I remember it was about 1990, Michael Hammer was doing all the re-engineering stuff and it was sort of like, “If you just blew stuff up and started over again, you would end up with a much better something-or-other.” Let me tell you, over three quarters of those re-engineering efforts failed miserably, and some of them killed companies.
Continue Reading "Reengineering Doesn’t Work – Use SSOI"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights.
