I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. Customers call us wanting to know all of the background about the hows, whys and formulas of a chart. I think they are afraid someone will challenge or ridicule their analysis. Here’s what I think.
A typical company suffers from 33% waste and rework.
Eliminate the waste and rework with Lean Six Sigma and it will be great for the Earth.
Based on certification exams, some ASQ Division members lack skills in Quality Tools. If ASQ members are lacking skills with quality tools, how much can we expect of everyone else?
I keep seeing a lot of control charts that use quarterly data. That means it could take five years to get 20 data points for a control chart.
How often should you measure?
Continue Reading "How Often Should You Take Measurements for Control Charts?"
Does Lean Six Sigma seem like an April Fool’s joke?
Why doesn’t it seem to work sometimes?
You don’t have to be Irish or lucky to be successful. You can make your own luck using Lean Six Sigma.
Continue Reading "St. Patrick’s Day – Luck of the Lean Six Sigma"
Does Daylight Savings Time save us anything, or is it costing lives?
Continue Reading "Daylight Savings Time – Six Sigma Project"
In the book, The Case Against Education: why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money, author Bryan Caplan argues that, beyond reading, writing and basic ‘rithmatic, “most of what people learn in high school and college is unnecessary and quickly forgotten.”
I would argue that the same is true of Six Sigma; most of what people learn is unnecessary and quickly forgotten.
Peter Coy’s book review in Bloomberg BusinessWeek (January 22, 2018), states that many students struggle with algebra and drop out. City University of New York colleges are “experimenting with alternatives to conventional math because it’s a ‘killing field’ for many students,” says Chancellor James Milliken.
No matter what you do or what you say, there’s a hidden “metamessage” back to yourself.
What metamessages have you told yourself about Lean Six Sigma?
Continue Reading "What are You Secretly Telling Yourself About Lean Six Sigma?"
The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety (Feb 2018) has an article entitled “Temporal Trends in Fall Rates with the Implementation of a Multifaceted Fall Prevention Program.” Ouch!
I believe the story could have been told easily with quality improvement tools, so here’s how I’d go about it. First, there are a number of tables (i.e., spreadsheets of performance data) like the one below.
The first year, 2003, had only 200 falls because they started measuring in July. The first full year of measurement was 2004.
It would be easy to turn these into control charts, but the authors chose a boxplot with a trend line of predicted falls.
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