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Improvement Insights Blog
Latest "Six Sigma" Posts
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.
Almost 100 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to achieve both the goal of “zero harm” as well as IHI’s goal of cutting healthcare waste by 50% by 2025.
https://www.qimacros.com/pdf/Zero-Harm-Trillion-Dollar-Prescription.pdf
If you saw a feature demonstrated in the webinar that might have been added to QI Macros after the version you’re using (for instance, the Templates Wizard, the Fixed Limit indicator or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version. Send an email to support@qimacros.com and we can help to generate a quote to upgrade all the users at your organization or by just guiding you through the purchasing process.
Continue Reading "2/15/22 Healthcare Zero Harm / Trillion Dollar Prescription Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Healthcare, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma, Webinar.
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.
Over 50 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to achieve both the goal of “zero harm” as well as IHI’s goal of cutting healthcare waste by 50% by 2025.
https://www.qimacros.com/pdf/Zero-Harm-Trillion-Dollar-Prescription.pdf
If you saw a feature demonstrated in the webinar that might have been added to QI Macros after the version you’re using (for instance, the Templates Wizard, the Fixed Limit indicator or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version. Send an email to support@qimacros.com and we can help to generate a quote to upgrade all the users at your organization or by just guiding you through the purchasing process.
Continue Reading "1/18/22 Healthcare Zero Harm / Trillion Dollar Prescription Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Healthcare, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma, Webinar.
Jack Welch made Six Sigma big. Now it’s fading. How can we bring the sparkle back to Six Sigma?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I got started in my business back in the late 90s, Jack Welch was the CEO to copy. When he got dipped in Six Sigma, guess what? Every other CEO wanted to get dipped in Six Sigma too. This is what I call the Jack Welch Effect.
“Since then, Jack retired and [CEO] went over to [Jeff] Immelt and some other people, and now GE has fallen into some disarray, (not necessarily because of Six Sigma, I think because they let go of some of that), but other forces in the world were pushing them.
Continue Reading "The Jack Welch Effect"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
The nightly news reports unemployment statistics, not employment statistics. There’s a lesson here for Six Sigma.
“Have you ever noticed that when the nightly news comes on they always report unemployment rates, not employment rates? “The unemployment rate is five or six percent,” they don’t say “94 or 95 percent of America is employed.” No, they focus on the problem: the problem is the unemployment rate.
“Well, this holds true also in all things Quality related. Once when I was first being trained they said, “Once you get above 80 percent compliance, what you want to do is focus on the 20 percent non-compliance,” so you want to focus on the defects, the mistakes, the errors, the waste, the rework.
Continue Reading "Unemployment Rate Lessons for Six Sigma"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
Medical doctors (M.D.) help people heal. In Lean Six Sigma, we help companies heal. Be a Process Doctor(P.D.).
“Medical doctors diagnose and then treat patients. I think of myself as a Process Doctor: a P.D.; not an M.D., a P.D. I work with companies and I try and figure out why their systems are not working the way they ought to and remove blockages to speed things up. You know, get the electrical systems working better. It’s the same idea. So I think you and I are all Process Doctors.
“Now, I think the metaphor about this is great because we’re in the helping profession and we help things get better and stay better; stay healthy, just like a medical doctor.
Continue Reading "Be A Process Doctor"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma, Statistics.
Over 70 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to achieve both the goal of “zero harm” as well as IHI’s goal of cutting healthcare waste by 50% by 2025.
https://www.qimacros.com/pdf/Zero-Harm-Trillion-Dollar-Prescription.pdf
If you saw a feature demonstrated in the webinar that might have been added to QI Macros after the version you’re using (for instance, the Templates Wizard, the Fixed Limit indicator or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version. Send an email to support@qimacros.com and we can help to generate a quote to upgrade all the users at your organization or by just guiding you through the purchasing process.
Continue Reading "12/14/21 Healthcare Zero Harm / Trillion Dollar Prescription Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Healthcare, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma, Webinar.
My apple tree had hundreds of apples this year. I invited people to pick some and leave some. Soon, all of the low-hanging fruit was picked, but there were still hundreds of apples in the tree. Maybe you need a fruit picker to get to the rest of the fruit in your company.
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“We have an apple tree in our front yard (I think it’s Jonathan apples), and this year in an unusual fit of luck, we got a giant crop. I bet we had a thousand apples on that tree.
Continue Reading "My Apple Tree Reminded Me About Low-Hanging Fruit"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
