Solutions Masquerading as Root Causes
Does Your Root Cause Analysis Fail The Last Why Because It Presupposes A Solution?
Improvement Insights Blog
Posts tagged "Six Sigma"
Making Process Improvements Stick
The Nov-Dec 2018 HBR reports that Lean, Six Sigma and Agile “always work well initially, but often the gains fade quickly.”
- 21% of improvement projects failed to yield any improvements
- Only one-third of improvements continued to yield results after two years.
What’s needed to sustain improvements?
- Consistent measurement and monitoring (i.e., control charts)
- Leadership support and coaching
- Avoid initiative fatigue caused by jumping from one improvement initiative to another.
Start monitoring your improvement projects using QI Macros control charts.
Download a free trial at https://www.qimacros.com.
11/1/18 QI Macros Webinar
Over 50 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 brand new features introduced just last month in the October 2018 version 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 “Find Tool” search feature or the automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Have Your Processes Turned Into Frankenprocesses?
Here’s how to deal with the creature you’ve created.
Continue Reading "Have Your Processes Turned Into Frankenprocesses?"
10/9/18 QI Macros Webinar
Over 90 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 brand new features introduced in the October 2018 version 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 “Find Tool” search feature or the automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
9/13/18 QI Macros Webinar
Almost 100 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating some of the more useful features of QI Macros.
Some of the attendees were familiar with the software and already use it, some had not yet 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 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 automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Electrical Outages Improvement Story
Jeremy Singer-Vine publishes a Data Is Plural newsletter about available data sets. I took the U.S. & Canada power outage data from 2018 and used it with QI Macros Data Mining Wizard to create an improvement project.
I used a g Chart of time between power outages. Averaging a little over 3 days between outages.
Then, the Data Mining Wizard found the most common cause of outages to be weather. But look at number two: operations. That’s something that could be fixed. Vandalism could also be prevented.
Next, where are outages most likely to occur:
And what month? Readiness months: March-July.
8/14/18 QI Macros Webinar
Another great webinar where Jay Arthur shows some of the capabilities of QI Macros to a group of folks who signed up and attended.
Some were familiar with the software and already use it, and some had not yet begun to use it; all were interested in learning new ways that QI Macros can help them with their Quality Improvement efforts. (You can hear him answering questions 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 automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Hunter Pro-C Controller Problem
My water bill recently doubled. Turns out it’s a design flaw in my Hunter Pro-C controller.
A while back, I set some of my zones to zero minutes.
But, if I accidentally hit the minus sign one more time, the controller goes to SIX HOURS:
It was a royal hassle, but I managed to submit an improvement suggestion to Hunter:
There should be no run times below ZERO! Duh!
I had Denver Water come out to show me how to read the meter.
- Meter reader basically said: “Meter’s correct. Fix your controller” and left.
What if they spent 5 minutes helping homeowners check their controller to find the problem?
How To Create a Quality Improvement Poster
I go to many improvement conferences. Most of the improvement posters are long on text but short on quality tools.
If you’re going to submit an improvement story, use the tools of quality. Here’s how:
https://www.qimacros.com/pdf/How-To-Develop-A-Kick-Butt-Improvement-Poster.pdf
Continue Reading "How To Create a Quality Improvement Poster"
