Improvement Insights Blog
Are You Using Your Data?
Companies have mountains of data. Are you using yours?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I want to ask you: Are you using the data that you have available, or is it dying in some database hidden in some corner of the information systems? There’s a lot of great information in there that could drive tremendous improvements, but nobody’s paying attention or they don’t have enough time to go look at it. Companies collect tsunamis of data, I mean mountains of data, truckloads of data… and then it just sits somewhere and does nothing.
“What I’d like you to do is go on a ‘raw data diet’ and go out and start farming some of these Information Systems you have: purchasing, payments, invoicing, operations… right? In healthcare, medical records; go dig up the data and do a little bit of analysis. The Improvement Project Wizard in QI Macros will help make that super simple.
“Let’s use the data we have to start making breakthrough improvements, and do it again and again and again and again until you retire.
“That’s my Improvement Insight for this week. Let’s go out and improve something this week, not next week, not a week from now, not a month from now… this week.”
