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Latest "Improvement Insights" Posts
There’s a lot of acronyms in mental health. Here’s one for business. Do You Have APDF?
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“You know, we’ve heard people talk about ADD or ADHD… all these little acronyms for sickness. I think too many companies have APDF.
“APDF, which stands for Analysis Paralysis Decision Fatigue… Analysis Paralysis Decision Fatigue. They hesitate to look at their data and do anything, and then they get tired of trying to make decisions and they don’t make any progress.
“Does your company have APDF? I wish it was a better acronym, but Analysis Paralysis Decision Fatigue.
Continue Reading "Do You Have APDF?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Struggling to get a good Cp and Cpk? It might be your data. Here’s why:
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“We had a guy call in the other day and he was trying to determine the capability of his process. Unfortunately, he’d taken [measurements of] everything from his startup to his shutdown scrap and ran that as a capability study, and he wasn’t capable. I said, “Well, there you go…” But if you run a control chart of that, you can see the wiggly startup and the wiggly shutdown and then there’s this nice stable process in the middle.
Continue Reading "Capability Analysis Issues"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Are you still using last century tools in the 21st Century?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“When I was a kid growing up in in the 60s, my mom had this old wringer washing machine. Back in the day, there was a washing machine where you washed all your clothes and there was a wringer on top. You would take the clothes out and you’d feed it in the wringer, which would squish all the water out of it. There weren’t any electric dryers… I’m sorry. She would wring her washing and then she would go out and hang it on a clothes line where it would dry in the Tucson sun, and then she’d bring them in fold them and whatever.
Continue Reading "Mom’s Wringer Washing Machine"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Harvard Business Review (Jan 2025) argues for a renaissance, a rebirth of process management and quality improvement. Here’s why:
You might want to order reprints of these articles and forward them to your leadership. (HBR Reprint S25011)
Download my free eBook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“In the most recent issue of Harvard Business Review (I think this is January 2025), shockingly enough, what did I discover? An article about Process Management! Oh my gosh!
“The closing argument in here from these folks is:
“It’s time for senior management to put process back on their radar screens and begin to sort out how to make it better in their departments.”
Continue Reading "Process Management Rises from the Ashes"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
Don’t try and invent new data. There’s a lot of data out there you can use right now, today, to make an improvement. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“All too often, I see people try to follow DMAIC: “Well, we’re going to Define, and then we’ve got to go find some Measurements and spin up some measurements…”
“I’m telling you that every company in this world is awash in data about how things work. There’s tons of data out there, okay? Go find data that exists about a problem that you have, and use the data that’s already there to solve [that problem] and improve that process.
Continue Reading "You Already Have All The Data You Need"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Much of Six Sigma is focused on quantitative data (numbers). But what about qualitative data (text)? How can you use it to improve?
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“You know, most of Lean and Six Sigma is focused on quantitative data: numbers, things you can count, right? But there are qualitative data that we need to analyze. You need a little different toolkit for some of those things.
“For example, if you have a call center and reps are typing in comments from customers, that’s all words, right? How do we analyze words?
Continue Reading "Qualitative Data Analysis"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Some people lord their knowledge of Six Sigma and statistics over those who don’t have their depth of knowledge and that’s bad for the planet. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“One of the things I see out there in the world is people want to lord their knowledge of Lean and Six Sigma and statistics and whatever over those people who were unwashed and uneducated. That’s bad, right?
“We want to be an invitation; we want to get everybody doing it, right? Those people that do that, I call them ‘Stat Bastards’ because… what are they doing?
Continue Reading "Create a Safe Space for Lean Six Sigma"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Control charts have been around for 100 years. Why isn’t everyone using them?
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I was at the American Society for Quality World Conference on Quality and Improvement and some guy came up to me and started wanting to argue with me about how you can’t use control charts for non-normal data. He was ranting about that… and by the way, Donald Wheeler has already answered that question: Yes you can; shut up. All right?
“But, you know, control charts have been around for 100 years.
Continue Reading "Control Charts are 100 years old"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
A restaurant refused to add two people to a reservation. What did our daughter Tina say? What can you learn from this?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Our daughter Tina… one of our granddaughters graduated from college at DU and Tina had scheduled a lunch at a local restaurant, but she needed to add two people. She’d [made the reservation] online; she called in and said, “I’d like to add two people.” They said, “We can’t do that.” She said “What?” “We can’t do that because you made it online so we can’t adjust it here.”
Continue Reading "You’re Dead to Me"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
In college, I spent four years studying Systems Engineering. The methods and tools of quality improvement are what I use instead. Here’s why:
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I went to college I studied systems engineering, which is the mathematical optimization of systems, operations research (things of that nature), which is for solving very complicated problems like transportation or whatever. It wasn’t until I got into Quality Improvement, where I found a simplified set of tools that I could use in everyday life, that I really started to figure out how best to start to simplify, streamline and optimize systems: Better, faster, cheaper; free, perfect and now.
Continue Reading "You Can Use the Methods and Tools of Quality Improvement Anywhere"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
