Home »
Blog
Latest Posts
A recent report from NAHQ (National Association of Healthcare Quality) found that three-quarters of hospitals had a quality department. But to achieve hassle-free healthcare and zero harm, it will take more than a department to achieve the results desired.
“The National Association for Healthcare Quality just released a report on Quality professionals in health care, and it turns out that in a lot of the situations, about three-quarters of the people responding reported that in their hospital or wherever, that Quality was a department, and in about a quarter [of the responses] Quality was individuals working on stuff.
“Let me be clear about this: Quality is not a department.
Continue Reading "Quality Is Not a Department"
Posted by Jay Arthur in healthcare, Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
Some people get confused about what ought to be and what is, especially in Lean Six Sigma. 21st Century Quality requires us to work on what is, not on what ought to be.
“I was reading Psychology Today and the editor’s introduction kind of caught my attention. She was talking about what they call “The Moralistic Fallacy.” This fallacy is committed when a truth that disturbs people is deemed false. I see quite a bit of this actually in Quality Improvement. It’s the difference between “What Ought To Be” versus “What Is.”
“When we talk about Quality, “Leadership should be on board with Quality…” Well, they are on board with Quality.
Continue Reading "What Ought To Be vs What Is"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
More than 40 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 or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "*Latest webinar: 11/6/19 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
Several attendees told me they had ripped out their line charts and started using Control Charts for their KPIs. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“We were out at the National Association for Healthcare Quality conference; I was speaking and we were exhibiting there. After I spoke, I had a couple people come up to me who said they’d seen me at the previous year’s convention talking about how to improve things and how line [charts] and bar charts can be harming patients and they said, “You know, I went back to my hospital and we ripped out all of our line charts and we put in control charts for all of our key process indicators.
Continue Reading "Control Charts for KPIs"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, healthcare, Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Answer: Almost always.
- When everything is presented in a bar chart, everything looks the same. And before long, everyone forgets what they’re looking at. Dan Roam
Bar charts always remind me of a Jack-O-Lantern with bad teeth.
Bar charts are one of the most misused charts. The most common mistake is using bar charts for time-series data (i.e., dates):
Bar charts are best used for categories—types of defects, objects, or whatever. Even so, the bars are often in a random order which makes distinguishing the important from the unimportant pretty difficult. Simply sorting the bars into a descending order makes them easier to analyze.
Continue Reading "When are bar charts dangerous?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
No matter how well you design something using DFSS, users will find ways to use it or break it in ways you can’t imagine!
“In Six Sigma we have all these tools for designing for Six Sigma, so we have Quality Function Deployment and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis and all this other stuff; PPAP forms in automotive to help you design an entire sub-assembly or whatever it is… but what are these things designed to do?
“Well, they’re designed to help you come up with something that’ll come out at least a four signal level, maybe a four and a half signal level, but one of the things I’ve learned from software is “No design survives contact with the end user.” Somehow, they find ways to break stuff that you hadn’t even thought of, right?
Continue Reading "No Design Survives Contact with the End User"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, Six Sigma.
I love people who fight the good fight of quality improvement. Problem solving isn’t sexy, but it’s vital to corporate health. Hugs!
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur. If you’ve been watching my Improvement Insight videos, you’re probably going, “Gee, Jay, you’re sharing all this stuff… What’s that all about?”
“Well, it turns out if you don’t know it by now… I love people who do Quality Improvement. They’re out chasing the big ugly things that are causing too much hassle in America and trying to eliminate them and eliminate waste and eliminate all the stuff that goes into landfills and into sewers and all kinds of stuff like this.
Continue Reading "I Love Improvers"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, Six Sigma.
More than 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 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 “Find Tool” search feature or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "10/15/19 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
Register for the upcoming FREE QI Macros Live Webinar, happening Tuesday, December 17th, 2019 at 1:00 p.m. MST.
Learn more about it in the video below, and register at THIS link.
What: FREE QI Macros – Lean Six Sigma SPC Software for Excel Webinar.
When: Tuesday, December 17th, 2019 at 1:00 p.m. MST
Where: Join online from wherever you are.
How: Register for the webinar HERE.
Continue Reading "*Next Free QI Macros Live Webinar: 12/17/19 at 1:00 p.m. MST"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
There are a number of fears that make people hesitant to share data and or let you make improvements. Here’s why.
“Not everybody is in love with this whole idea of improvement. There are people who, when you come to them and say, “I need your data about such-and-such,” they don’t want you looking at their data because they don’t want to look stupid. If they’re the manager of that organization and they’ve had all this data and they can’t find what I call the “invisible low-hanging fruit,” they think that they’re stupid or something. No, they just don’t know how to analyze the data.
Continue Reading "Not Everyone Likes Quality Improvement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, Six Sigma.
