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This article discusses the need for data analysts in healthcare: http://www.himss.org/library/healthcare-needs-data-analysts-who-are-problem-solvers The QI Macros Data Mining Wizard makes it easy to crunch the data about medical mistakes and errors, denied claims, patient falls and whatever else you can find. Learn more here: https://www.qimacros.com/data-mining-analysis-excel/data-mining-wizard/
Continue Reading "HIMSS says Healthcare Needs Data Analysts Who Are Problem Solvers"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Ever notice that most online order forms ask what kind of credit card you are using? This field is unnecessary. Amex cards begin with a “3”; Visa with a “4”, Mastercard with a “5” or “2”; Discover cards begin with a “6”. You can get this information from the card number. So asking for type […]
Continue Reading "Unnecessary Online Credit Card Field"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, QI Macros.
My wife and I were on a cruise recently. The day before checkout the cruise director recommended that we put one of our shoes we planned to wear to the airport inside the lockbox in our room. Obviously too many people leave valuables behind. What are you doing to mistake-proof your customer’s experience?
Continue Reading "Mistake-Proofing Checkout"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, Service, Six Sigma.
I’m here at the IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers) conference in Pittsburgh. One professor had been teaching students how to use Excel to create control charts, but he was beginning to feel like that was a waste of classroom time (duh!). I beat him up a little for teaching DIY Excel stuff to […]
Continue Reading "Are We Teaching Students the Unnecessary Things?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in healthcare, Lean, Manufacturing, Service, Six Sigma, Statistics.
May-June 2017 HBR discusses the results of a 10-year study of what makes CEOs great. Of the four traits, number 4, Delivering Reliably, was found to be the most powerful of the four essential behaviors. Reliable CEOs were 15 times more likely to succeed. I have found that one of the most effective ways to […]
Continue Reading "Top Leaders Deliver Reliably"
Posted by Jay Arthur in healthcare, Lean, Manufacturing, Service, Six Sigma.
This year, I tallied the quality tools used in poster presentations by presenting teams. Once again, quality tools were in short supply. Only one control chart, Pareto and histogram? Two fishbones? Mainly line and bar charts (72%) the dumbest charts available for performance improvement. Shouldn’t American Society for Quality set a higher standard?
Continue Reading "Quality Tool Usage at ASQ World 2017"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros, Six Sigma.
At the Shingo Conference in Atlanta this week, Professor George Easton presented findings from a study of two company’s Six Sigma projects. He split them in many ways, but the simplest view uses operations management metrics: quality, cost, delivery, flexibility and innovation. Here are Pareto charts of the two companies. Both focus on quality, but […]
Continue Reading "Focus of Lean Six Sigma Projects"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
The March-April 2017 issue of HBR has a survey of 1770 managers in 14 countries. When asked to identify the top 3 skills needed, the managers identified two that are important to quality: 31% of managers said Data Analysis and Interpretation 20% said Quality Management and Standards QI Macros New Data Mining Wizard can dramatically […]
Continue Reading "Will Automation Steal Your Job? Skills to Beat AI"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
I have found that an XmR chart is the easiest way to display attribute data. Simply convert the numerator/denominator into a ratio and plot the ratio. defects per day could be a c chart, but an XmR chart works just as well defects/samplesize could be np, p or u chart, but XmR chart works just as […]
Continue Reading "Use XmR Charts instead of c, np, p and u Charts"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros, Six Sigma, Statistics.
Customer asked me what seemed like a strange question: What specification limits do I need to get a Cp greater than one? Usually her customer should set specification limits, but her boss wanted to know what they could deliver. Hmmmm! Then I realized that since QI Macros templates (e.g., XmR chart) calculate the average and […]
Continue Reading "What USL/LSL Do I Need for Cp>1?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros, Six Sigma, Statistics.
