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John, a senior executive who went to Japan, told this story of using the “Weapon of Quality” to help out a cabinet making business:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“I’ve been telling you my story about John, who was a senior executive at a lumber and wood company. It was interesting to me just listening to him talk.
“Once he retired, he was just sitting around and one of his friends who ran a cabinet making business gave him a call and said, “Can you help me out?
Continue Reading "Cabinet Making Quality Story"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
John, a senior executive with a large lumber company, went to Japan with 30 other leaders for 30 days. They struggled to connect what they were seeing in Japanese manufacturing plants until one day toward the end of the trip. Here’s what happened:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“This summer my wife and I took a river cruise that we booked for 2021 (but of course, that didn’t happen). They had these community tables where you’d sit around for lunch. One day we’re sitting with another couple of couples and somehow we got on the subject of “What do you do?”
Continue Reading "When Did Your Light Switch Turn On?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Ever noticed that some people want to blame customers, suppliers or coworkers for problems? They’re looking in the wrong place.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but have you ever noticed there are certain people and they want to blame their supplier or their customer or their boss or their subordinates or their friends or their family or their co-workers? Right? They’re always pointing at somebody else. Let me share with you that if you’re the only one at the scene of the crime of all of these things, it’s not them… it’s you, all right?
Continue Reading "Who is to Blame for Quality Problems?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
We used to need a pay phone to make a phone call; now we use cell phones everywhere. Websites were difficult to build; not they’re not. So, why does everyone think Lean Six Sigma has to be learned the same way it was taught in the last century?
“Have you ever noticed that things are getting easier? A lot of things are getting easier.
“You know, we used to have land lines, now we have cell phones we can take with us everywhere that do all kinds of things like take pictures and do text memos, and we can talk to people face to face.
Continue Reading "Ever Noticed that Things are Getting Easier?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
With almost every business I buy from, the level of apathy among the workers is astounding. Every once in a while, I have a great experience and I realize it doesn’t take much to provide a great customer experience.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but it seems like a lot of places where I go to do business or buy something, everybody’s kind of grumpy. You know, they’re just not very interested in being able to help me. They’re slow. They’re error prone.
Continue Reading "Have We Become Mediocristan?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
People often think Six Sigma is serious. There’s a better approach.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“You know, it’s curious: a lot of people seem to want to make Six Sigma serious. There’s no easier way to kill an improvement group than to make everything serious, right? Let’s start having fun!
“Let’s start looking at data, figuring out how to solve problems, and have fun doing it. I think it could be fun. I have a lot of fun doing it, right?
“So if you think it’s too serious… you’re veering off track.
Continue Reading "Do You Think Six Sigma Should Be Serious?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
In my 30+ years in quality improvement, I finally got to use basic statistics to save millions of dollars. And it was easy. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I recently had a chance to help a food company that had frozen meats of various kinds – you know, poultry and so on – and they’d had a chemical spill. Well, what the USDA wanted them to do was prove that it had not affected their food and so somehow I got called in to help with that.
Continue Reading "My First Statistics Project"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Joseph Juran felt that the American Society for Quality focused too heavily on statistics and not enough on quality as a management discipline.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Again, I was looking through my old Quality Progress [issues] about Juran, and in here he said he was very dissatisfied with the statistical orientation of the American Society for Quality. He thought there was too much emphasis on that. He did think one of the biggest barriers to anything is just plain old resistance to change, and an interesting thing in this article [was that] people thought that the whole part of Total Quality Management… they thought that Deming was really “Mr.
Continue Reading "Juran vs ASQ Focus on Statistics"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
In 2004, Joseph Juran thought the U.S. was falling behind in quality. Here’s what he had to say:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“I was again looking at this article about Juran, and one of the things he said in here is he felt that Japan was the quality leader and they’re bringing along South Korea, China and other places. America only has the lead in a few Industries. He says:
“We need to get off the dime. Breaking the impasse is not going to happen easily.
Continue Reading "Joseph Juran – Let’s Get Off the Dime!"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Purchasing departments are sluggish and error-prone. Joseph Juran used the tools of quality to simplify, streamline and optimize Lend-Lease purchasing during WWII. You can too.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I was wandering through my old collection of Quality Progress magazines. This one’s from 2004, it was about a hundred years of Juran. Now, he was born in Romania in 1904 and immigrated to the Minneapolis region at about 12 years of age. I was reading through this, and one of the things in here struck me: during the war, he used his statistical skills and engineering to improve purchasing, budgeting and paperwork gridlock for Lend-Lease.
Continue Reading "Juran – Purchasing Improvement for Lend-Lease"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
