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I got an email from the hospital where my friend Annie worked saying that they wanted to arrange a video call. It seemed unusual only because Annie and I have known each other for a long time, and if she needed anything she’d usually just call, send a text or corner me in a coffee shop. I haven’t been in a coffee shop very often lately, and I hadn’t heard from Annie, so I assumed things were going okay.
I connected to the video call and was greeted with not one attendee, but two. Annie was clearly joining from home, and an older woman with grey hair joined the call from the an office at the hospital.
Continue Reading "I ♥ u charts…"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros Monthly Newsletters.
Recessions are a great time to improve quality. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Now [at first in] the pandemic, everybody projected that this was going to be one of the sharpest recessions in history, and then bounce right back. I think the ongoing concern about Coronavirus and everything else is actually going to slow that down a little bit.
“Well, one of the things I know from going through lots of recessions so far is that is the perfect time to take a step back from your business. When you take a step back from your business you can start to look at it and [think], “How can we make it faster, better, cheaper?
Continue Reading "Recessions Are Good For Quality"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Measure failures not success. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Recently one of our users called up and asked me about showing percent compliance. You know, present success (in this case it was neonatal intubations – this is for healthcare). But the goal obviously is to get to 100% first-time success at intubating a preemie, right? So that would be a good thing.
“Now what most people do is they try and focus on the success side of this, so if you’re down here, you want to get up that-a-way, right?
Continue Reading "Measure Success or Failures"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
You don’t need to know Six Sigma Formulas or decision trees to make improvement. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Agile Process Innovation; Hacking Lean and Six Sigma for Results.”
“Back when I got started in Quality (and maybe many of you), we had to learn formulas to calculate things for control charts and whatever. I spent five days in a control chart class learning how to calculate the formulas for every control chart manually. Now, that did not really teach me anything about the distributions underlying them, it taught me how to calculate them manually. What they didn’t tell us in that class is software can do that for you.
Continue Reading "You Don’t Need Formulas or Decision Trees"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
You don’t practice medicine the way they did 100 years ago.
Why are you implementing Quality Improvement strategies from 100 years ago?
21st Century Quality Improvement needs to be accelerated; fast, responsive and effective. QI Macros for Excel is the easiest to learn, the easiest to use, and the most affordable SPC software to implement across your entire organization.
Watch this short video to see how easy it is to accelerate your Quality Improvement:
Download a FREE 30 day trial at the link below and see for yourself how easy it is to use this powerful, affordable Quality Improvement tool:
https://www.qimacros.com/trial/30-day/
Continue Reading "QI Macros for Healthcare"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, QI Macros.
This was a webinar Jay presented to ASQ Chicago on 8/12/20: “Agile Lean Six Sigma – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.”
(In addition to the recorded webinar, there is a bonus featuring more on a topic Jay was discussing during the warmup and technical troubleshooting period just prior to the start of the webinar. Enjoy!)
Continue Reading "ASQ Chicago webinar, 8/12/20"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Manufacturing, QI Macros, Webinar.
Over 80 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to use some of the useful features of QI Macros, as well as some of the new features introduced in recent releases of the software.
Some attendees were familiar with the software and already use it, some had only begun to use it; all were interested in learning new ways that QI Macros can help them with their Agile Lean Six Sigma and Quality Improvement efforts. (You can hear him answering questions and comments typed in by webinar attendees.)
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.
Continue Reading "8/11/20 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
Yankee Spirit (50% reduction in delay, defects and deviation) is easy to achieve. It’s imperative. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“When I first got started in Quality Improvement, our training folks talked about Yankee Spirit as a method of setting a goal. What’s Yankee Spirit? Well, Yankee Spirit is simply a 50% reduction in delay, defects and deviation.
“Well, that just sounds like we’re just taking a dartboard throwing a thing at it, but it was years later that I realized that this is actually scientifically doable. As I started to look at it, Pareto’s rule says 20% of what you do produces 80% of the waste, rework, lost profit, patient harm… whatever you want to call it.
Continue Reading "Yankee Spirit Goal Setting"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
I think it was Will Rogers who once said, “A half truth is like a half brick – it carries better.” Being a Freelance Quality Improvement Specialist, I’ve had to overcome more than my share of half truths in my career. An example of one of the most frequent half truths I encounter happened just this month.
While consulting with a plant that produced industrial cardboard, I asked them to send over their data. They submitted the data they were tracking: each tab in the spreadsheet had almost a dozen metrics, and each metric had almost 6,000 data points… some dating back over 4 years ago.
Continue Reading "“Weather” you can have too much data…"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros Monthly Newsletters.
If you’re a registered NAHQ Next 2020 attendee, you can view Jay Arthur’s showcase until October 31, 2020.
1. Click on the link below.
https://www.webcastregister.live/nahq2020/welcome
2. Click on the NAHQ Next top banner to log in. It will take you to the page below. Log in with your name and email address:
3. Once you’re logged in, visit the On-Demand Sessions and scroll to the very bottom to view Jay’s session, “Zero Harm and the Trillion Dollar Prescription.”
Continue Reading "NAHQ NEXT 2020 HQ Showcase – Jay Arthur"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Healthcare, Jay Arthur Blog, QI Macros.
