Improvement Insights – Lean Six Sigma Moneybelt

Improvement Insights Blog

Latest "Improvement Insights" Posts

90% of People Work In Service Industries

90% of People Work In Service Industries. and 90% of people in manufacturing work in the service side of the business. So why are we teaching everyone every tool they might need on a factory floor?

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“It used to be that I’d get lots of requests over time for more exotic tools that are in the ‘long tail’ of tools that you might use in Six Sigma.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Harder is Easier

People seem to think Six Sigma and SPC are hard. They aren’t anymore. That’s why harder is easier.

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“I was reading Eric Ries’ new book “Incorruptible,” and in there he has this concept: He says ‘Harder is easier.’ What? How can harder be easier?

“Well, I think you’ve all had that experience where it may have taken you a little bit longer to learn how to do things the right way, and then that made it easier forever, right?

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

If You Can Type, You Can Do SPC

You don’t have to be a statistician or Six Sigma Belt to do SPC. If you can type numbers into an Excel spreadsheet, you can do SPC.

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“If you can type, you can do SPC. That’s right, Statistical Process Control. I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“I find so many people are afraid; like they have to know formulas, they have to be a statistician, they have to do something mystical, lots of training and in-depth whatever, threatening with how they feel about their own thing about math and statistics and everything else.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Control Chart Rules

Statistical textbooks disagree on what constitutes Control Chart Rule 2 – Zone A: 2 of 3 points above/below 2 sigma. Which one is right?

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“Got a call from a customer this week. He was all upset because of control chart rule two, which is about having points above two sigma or below two sigma (two out of three).

“Well, guess what? Some people in their books say those two points have to be on the same side of the center line.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Old Habits Die Hard

Old habits die hard. Especially in Six Sigma. Which ones are you hanging on to?

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“The other day I was in with my employee Phil and he had to send a text to a customer or something, or read a text from a customer. I noticed as he was typing, he was just skating on the keyboard and then doing things. And I thought, “Wow, that’s different.”

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Why Start With Run Charts?

In the last century, we trained people on run charts to prepare them for control charts. Why are we still doing it? What does it cost us?

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“In the last century, calculating the center lines and control limits and everything for control charts was difficult. And so to make it simple, we started off with simply doing a center line, an average or median to get people used to the idea of calculating something.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Kleenex Box Hack Using TRIZ

When your Kleenex box tissues don’t pop up, what do you do? Use TRIZ.

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“I don’t know about you, but some things sort of bother me, like sometimes the Kleenex gets stuck down in there, you know. You could try and run your hand down in there to pull something out, but that screws up all the plastic in here.

“But I was thinking about TRIZ, and there’s 40-some-odd different rules for coming up with better ways to do something.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

AI and Six Sigma

I’ve been attending ASQ Lean Six Sigma conferences and attending sessions on AI. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Let’s talk about AI for a minute. I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified,” “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“I’ve been to a lot of conferences. I’ve gone to a lot of presentations on AI, and they all say, “Here’s what AI is,” but I haven’t seen any real good case studies and examples of what people are using it for.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

QI Macros Saves Lives

I was stunned when a QI Macros user at the IHI conference told me: “QI Macros saves lives.” I love these stories.

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“I was at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement conference and one of the attendees, one of our users, came up and said, “QI Macros is doing really good work in the world. QI Macros is saving lives.” And that kind of stunned me, right?

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Discover Excel’s Data Analysis Toolpak

People ask me if QI Macros can generate random samples or do sampling and I say no. Excel’s Data Analysis Toolpak can already do that. Discover how:

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“People call in sometimes and say, ‘Do you have a tool in QI Macros to do random samples of data?’ I say, ‘No, because that’s already built into Excel. I try not to do anything Excel really does naturally.’ Most people are unaware that there’s a Data Analysis Tool Pack and you can add that into Excel and you can do things like create sample data with plus or minus so many standard deviations.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.