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Over 90 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 brand new features introduced in the October 2018 version 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 Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "10/9/18 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
Almost 100 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating some of the more useful features of QI Macros.
Some of the attendees were familiar with the software and already use it, some had not yet 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 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 automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "9/13/18 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
Jeremy Singer-Vine publishes a Data Is Plural newsletter about available data sets. I took the U.S. & Canada power outage data from 2018 and used it with QI Macros Data Mining Wizard to create an improvement project.
I used a g Chart of time between power outages. Averaging a little over 3 days between outages.
Then, the Data Mining Wizard found the most common cause of outages to be weather. But look at number two: operations. That’s something that could be fixed. Vandalism could also be prevented.
Next, where are outages most likely to occur:
And what month? Readiness months: March-July.
Continue Reading "Electrical Outages Improvement Story"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Jay Arthur Blog, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Another great webinar where Jay Arthur shows some of the capabilities of QI Macros to a group of folks who signed up and attended.
Some were familiar with the software and already use it, and some had not yet begun to use it; all were interested in learning new ways that QI Macros can help them with their Quality Improvement efforts. (You can hear him answering questions 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 automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "8/14/18 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
“Our evolutionary instincts sometimes lead us to see patterns when there are none there. People have been doing this all the time – finding patterns in random noise.” – Tomaso Poggio
People just need a way to separate the Signal from the Noise.
Here are some insights from the book by Nate Silver.
Continue Reading "Signal versus Noise"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Six Sigma.
People often get stuck before the “Analyze” phase of DMAIC because of ugly data.
You can’t analyze data until it is in the right format for analysis.
In this data about medications that might affect patient falls, we have to:
- Transpose the data
- Use Excel’s Text-to-column feature to split the meds into separate cells
- Use QI Macros UnStack Columns tool to get all of the meds into a single column
- Use QI Macros Data Mining Wizard to create a PivotTable and Pareto chart of medications involved in patient falls
You can watch the video below:
Continue Reading "It’s Hard to Do Data Analysis on Ugly Data… Part 2"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights.
Nobody wants to read your spreadsheet! No matter how hard you try to make it pretty, create great labels or whatever, the only person who can read your spreadsheet is a CFO or Excel spreadsheet geek. And the Excel geek is going to tell you 10 ways to make it prettier.
The purpose of data is to provide insights for action, not just report past performance.
How Do I Know That Most Excel Users Try to Make Their Spreadsheets Readable By People?
According to Renu Davi, Sr. Program Manager for Excel, Microsoft tracks how people use Excel. The vast majority of the 650 million users use it for lists and reports.
Continue Reading "Nobody Wants to Read Your Spreadsheet!"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, QI Macros, Six Sigma.