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Latest "Improvement Insights" Posts
I’ve been in quality improvement for 30 years. Why aren’t things getting any better?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I started in quality back in 1989 or 90, so I’ve been at this for 30-odd years. The other morning I was sitting there and I was just kind of depressed. I thought, “Why aren’t things any better?” Right? It still seems like there’s things that are missing, things that don’t work. You can’t get the right order at your fast food restaurant, if you order something at a restaurant sometimes it isn’t what you ordered, it wasn’t cooked properly… oh my gosh.
Continue Reading "Why Aren’t Things Getting Any Better?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
Have you ever spent a lot of money for something and then not used it because it was too complex or time consuming? The same thing is true of Six Sigma SPC software. Here’s why:
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but I think every teenage boy has a vision of the perfect car for them to ride around in. Back when I was a kid there were Corvettes and Camaros and Dodge Chargers and everything else, but I really liked the Jaguar XKE. Once I graduated from college and got out on my own I bought myself a 1968 XKE roadster… ragtop, because that was the car I always wanted.
Continue Reading "It Doesn’t Matter How Much You Spend for Six Sigma SPC Software"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Ever noticed that when someone takes a knee-jerk reaction to solving a problem that it often causes more problems than it solves? Here’s why:
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I was in college there was a pool hall in the basement of the student union at the University of Arizona. We used to go down there and shoot pool sometimes for hours, killing time between classes. (I don’t know why I had them booked them so far apart…)
“But if you’ve ever played pool, you know when you break the rack, balls just go every which way.
Continue Reading "Second, Third and Fourth Order Consequences"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
COVID Vaccine Appointment websites are poorly designed. They force millions of people to hack their way through page after page only to discover there are no appointments. What could they do instead, and how can you adopt these Lean principles to your website?
“Well, hi, I’m Jay Arthur, the author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Now, I’m an old IT guy, so I’ve been doing this for 60 odd years, ever since high school. But one of the things that irritates me is just poor design. And so, I recently was able to start getting involved with trying to find a COVID vaccine appointment, as I’m over 65 years old here in Colorado.
Continue Reading "Lean approach to COVID Vaccine appointment websites"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Lean.
Sometimes the language of Six Sigma is off-putting. I have found one way to get people’s attention is to use plain English to describe their product or service.
“Your product or service suffers from three key problems: It’s either Lazy, Crappy or Whacky.
“Lazy: Your product takes long breaks, goes out to lunch, spends the night on the town, comes in in the morning a little bit hungover… it’s not your people, it’s your product. If you watch your product, your people are busy but your product is hanging out, taking its time, sitting around having a cup of coffee.
Continue Reading "Is Your Product or Service Lazy, Crappy or Whacky?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Manufacturing, Service.
Most people are terrified of “statistical” anything. Do you think SPC is too complex? You may not like the alternative.
“Whenever I talk to people about Statistical Process Control, first the word “statistical” scares the living crap out of them. But they say, “Well, you know, uh… I’m not that good with math and formulas,” and I say, “Well, you don’t have to know math and formulas. We’ve got software that’ll do all that for you. What you have to do is know what the chart tells you about what you should do about your process. They’re all a little surprised.
Continue Reading "Think SPC is Too Complex?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma, Statistics.
The pandemic has given us terms like “herd immunity.” Wouldn’t it be great if we could develop herd immunity to defects? Here’s how:
Agile Process Innovation E-Book
“You know, with the pandemic they keep talking about wanting to achieve herd immunity: Herd immunity so that the virus has no place to go. Wouldn’t that be cool?
“But then I started thinking about “Wouldn’t it be great if we could develop herd immunity to defects, mistakes, errors, waste and rework?” What if everybody was immune to that? What if we had different…? We do have vaccines; I mean, we have procedures, methods, tools and everything else to help people achieve a totally “no rework, no waste, no nada” kind of environment.
Continue Reading "Herd Immunity to Defects"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights.
ASQ Membership is mainly manufacturing which is only 13% of US employment. How can we start helping the underserved?
Download my “Agile Process Innovation” E-Book
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I was looking at one of ASQ’s media kit things and I was kind of surprised (but not really) when I looked at it and noticed that about 80 percent of the membership is manufacturing but only 13 percent was healthcare or other service-related things.
“The funny thing about that is that’s not how America is employed, right? 80% of America works in service industries and only 13 percent work in manufacturing.
Continue Reading "ASQ Is Missing Out on a Huge Market for Quality"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean, Manufacturing, Six Sigma.
Six Sigma students are often confused by terminology. Variable and attribute data are often confusing. Calling it measured or counted doesn’t help that much. Here’s a way to explain it that almost everyone can understand quickly.
“Early on when I was teaching Quality Improvement, people kind of struggled with the whole idea of variable and attribute data, and telling them that it was measured and counted didn’t seem to help a lot.
“As a programmer, the way I think about it is: If it has a decimal point, it has to be measured, right? If it’s an integer, it’s most likely counted, right?
Continue Reading "An Easy Way to Tell if Data is Variable or Attribute"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Statistics.
Do you spend too much time chasing why one number is too high or another is too low? Are these kinds of wild goose chases wasting time while the real problems go wanting? The XmR chart is the answer to your dreams.
“Dr. Donald Wheeler calls the XmR chart (or Individuals and Moving Range chart) “the Swiss Army knife of control charts.” You can use it for all kinds of things.
“I believe if every company in America started using XmR charts to track all of their key process indicators, I don’t care if it’s financial results or defects or patient length of stay or I don’t care what it is.
Continue Reading "Start Using XmR Charts for All of Your KPIs"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Statistics.
