Maximize speed, quality, productivity and profits with QI Macros and Excel!
When I first got into quality improvement, our consultants often spoke of finding the "low hanging" fruit just waiting to be picked. Two years later and thousands of staff hours later, we still hadn't found any low hanging fruit.
What Was the Problem?
If there really is low hanging fruit, it's usually visible everywhere from the factory floor or nursing unit to the management conference room. When it's that visible, anyone can pick it with a little common sense and a bit of trial and error.
That's why there is no visible low hanging fruit. Somebody has already picked it! And this is what stops most leaders from even considering the tools of breakthrough improvement…they can't see any more fruit to be picked. And, because they can’t see it, they come to believe that their problems are unsolvable.
But in company after company, my own included, I have found orchards filled with low-hanging INVISIBLE fruit. You just can't see it with the naked eye. You can, however, discern it through the magnifying lens of Excel PivotTables and charts. They make the seemingly invisible, visible. They are the microscope, the MRI, the EKG of business diagnosis.
The Key to Success
Looking back at my improvement journey, I found that a few key tools, used in the right order always delivered breakthrough improvements. Every multi-million dollar project I worked on, and there have been many, began with PivotTables to mine the data. Then control charts, Pareto charts and fishbone diagrams to analyze the data.
In every company I've ever worked with, I've found millions of dollars just waiting to be retrieved from the cauldrons of delay, defects and deviation. Turn the magnifying and illuminating tools of QI Macros and Excel on your most difficult operational problems and you'll quickly discover ways to make amazing improvements..
The secret of all data-based improvement methods is to be like a crime scene investigator: let the facts paint a picture and lead you step-by-step to the cause of your problems with speed, quality, or costs. Let the forensic evidence lead you to the root cause and solution.
Most companies are choking on the amount of data they collect. Most of this is transformed into a series of mind-numbingly identical graphs that hide the bad and accentuate the good so that everyone can go on feeling good about their performance.
The Goal of This Book
The goal is to use QI Macros and Excel to build a business case for improvement that workers, managers and leaders can understand quickly and easily. To do so means moving beyond the old problem solving methods of common sense, trial and error and gut feel. Learn to quantify common sense and turn it into actionable intelligence. This book will move you from hopeful problem solving to competent competence in data analysis and performance improvement.Learn proven techniques for identifying and analyzing data that will lead to immediate results. This practical guide focuses on using Excel to drive improvement—no need to rely on expensive training in Six Sigma or other improvement methodologies.
Free video training and a 90-day trial version of QI Macros for Excel are included. This valuable package provides the tools you need to eliminate the three silent killers of productivity: delay, defects, and deviation. You’ll make and sustain breakthrough improvements that will catapult your business ahead of the competition. Learn more
Jay Arthur, The KnowWare Man, teaches individuals and organizations how to solve problems involving delay, defects, and deviation in one day using Excel and QI Macros.
Breakthrough Improvement with
QI Macros and Excel®
Finding the Invisible Low-Hanging Fruit
By Jay Arthur
ISBN: 0-07-182283-6