Improvement Insights Blog

Our state has begun the slow process of reopening industries. This was good for me because the downtime had shown many businesses their many previously hidden process errors. Clients were eager to fix those errors to control costs… and I was eager to pick up new clients.

One such client was named Korben Steel. Korben was a guitar builder, and Steely Guitars was busy when I toured the shop with Korben.

“Recent events really didn’t have much of an effect on us as far as mask-wearing goes,” he explained through his N95. “There’s always so much dust and lacquer fumes in here that masks have been mandatory since the first day we opened.”

“That’s great,” I replied through the mask he’d provided when I arrived.

“Plus, we’re seeing a little bit of an increase in interest now. People spent a lot of time at home playing music in the past few months, and many of them want a better guitar to continue to do so.” He pointed at racks of different shaped guitars in various states of construction. “Our first model was the ‘Bodie,’ but we introduced the ‘Peg’ the year after we opened, the ‘Rikki’ the year after that, then last year we came out with this one: the ‘Charlemagne,'” he said, holding up an intricately curved hollowbody.

“That’s beautiful,” I exclaimed.

He handed the guitar to one of his workers and motioned me to follow him to the office. Once inside and out of the din of the shop, he sat down behind a desk and turned on his computer.

“Here’s some defect numbers I’ve kept track of. I’ve broken it down by guitar component – neck, fretboard, body, paint and electronics – and what stage of the build caused the defect. I’ve just emailed this to you as well.” he said. “I just don’t know how or where to start. It just seems like we need to improve everything at once.”

I opened my notebook and opened the file he sent:

“This is fantastic,” I remarked. “There’s several ways to look at this. Let’s start with some Pareto charts.”

“What are Pareto charts?” Korben asked.

“Well, it’s kind of like a combination of a bar graph and a line chart. It helps to make sense of data just like this so you can identify the problem that will have the biggest impact once it’s solved,” I explained.

Korben nodded, and I continued. “First, I’ll highlight all the guitar components and the total of defects by component.”

I highlighted the two columns of data and selected Pareto Chart from the QI Macros menu.

“So it looks like a third of your defects are happening to the guitar body, about 25% are defects in the paint and finish, and a little less than 25% are happening to the neck,” I summarized.

Korben looked confused. “That seems like pretzel logic. I’m not sure what that tells us.”

I held up my hand. “Hang on, we’re not done. Let’s do the same analysis, but this time let’s look at the manufacturing steps and the total of defects happening in each step.”

“Ah, I got it,” Korben nodded. “Do it again.”

I highlighted the different manufacturing steps and the totals for each…

…and once again selected Pareto chart from the QI Macros menu.

“So when we look at this chart, it seems like both the Sealing / Painting step and the Milling step are each causing about 20% of your defects,” I remarked. “Or rather, the first is responsible for about 21%, and the second is just about…”

“Hey, nineteen. I get it!” Korben concluded. “So how else could we look at the data?”

“I’m glad you asked,” I replied, highlighting the data by component and manufacturing step.

Once again I selected Pareto chart from the QI Macros menu, and it generated a Pareto chart for each component and which manufacturing step caused defects. I enlarged the screen so the Pareto charts for Body and Paint / Finish were featured.

“So if we look at improving the Sealing / Painting step as well as the Milling step, we’ll be addressing the #1 cause of body defects and the #1 cause of paint and finish defects… which, if you recall from the first Pareto chart, are the two components that account for more than 50% of your defects.”

“Wow, that’s rad!” Korben replied. “I never learned about any of this stuff at my old school, but to be honest, most of my time was spent in wood shop or trying to get this girl named Josie to go out with me. I’m glad you paid attention in statistics class.”

I closed the notebook. “Actually, most of this stuff I learned later. It helps that I have great software. There’s a lot work to do in figuring out where the problem is and how to address it, but let me do some more number crunching. We can do a video call tomorrow and go into those details.”

Korben stood up. “Let’s make it Friday instead. I’ve got an appointment with Doctor Wu tomorrow.”

I nodded and opened the door to the parking lot. “Friday it is, then. Don’t lose my number!”

If you’re interested in learning more about Pareto charts, click HERE and HERE and HERE to learn more. You can even click HERE to view a video where Jay Arthur demonstrates the difference between drawing Pareto charts by hand vs. using QI Macros and the huge amount of time you save.