Home »
Blog » Improvement Insights » Page 3
Improvement Insights Blog
Latest "Improvement Insights" Posts
The U.S. phone system was engineered to handle one day’s maximum traffic: Mother’s Day. What’s yours?
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“In 1973, I graduated from college and went to work for the phone company in Denver, Colorado Mountain Bell at the time, as a programmer. We did lots of different types of projects, and at one point I ended up working on a thing called the Trunk Forecasting System.
“Now, trunk lines are how you connect each major city with other cities and so on.
Continue Reading "Are You Ready for Your Mother’s Day?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
After WWII, Deming had to turn to Japan to spread the gospel of quality. I often feel empathy and sympathy for his struggles to bring quality improvement to the world.
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I have sympathy for W. Edwards Deming. He learned Quality Improvement at Western Electric with Shewhart back in the ‘20s and ‘30s. And then all of those tools were used in World War II. But after World War II, he was sort of a pariah.
Continue Reading "Sympathy for Deming"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
The steps of 5S include things that we can do in our everyday lives with our workplaces, our house, our neighborhood. When you do that, I think it makes the world a better place for everyone.
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Many, many years ago, a friend of mine and I went to Hong Kong because I’d read the book “Tai-Pan,” and I really wanted to see Hong Kong back before it became part of China.
Continue Reading "5S Your Environment and Not Just Your Work Area"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
One of the biggest impediments to quality improvement could be the “Hollow Easter Bunnies” in your organization. Here’s how to spot them and what to do about it.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“When you were a kid, did you get an Easter bunny and you were all excited because it was “chocolate chocolate chocolate”? Then you bite into it and you discover it’s hollow, right? It’s an external skin of chocolate but it’s not a chocolate Easter bunny, it’s a hollow Easter bunny.
“I was reading this book called “The Friction Project” and they were talking about how it was difficult to reduce friction in organizations.
Continue Reading "Watch Out for Hollow Easter Bunnies"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
I’ve got a new term for you: Clownplexity. Here’s what I mean:
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I heard an interesting word just recently: Clownplexity. That’s when something’s so complicated, it’s funny. And I thought, “You know, there’s many times where I sense that roaming around in the halls of Quality Improvement.” So, if something seems so complex it’s funny, that’s clownplexity.
“That’s my Improvement Insight: A new word to use. Let’s go out and improve something this week.”
Continue Reading "Clownplexity"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Computer programming used to be done on hardware boards with wires. Now it’s much easier. Six Sigma used to be hard. Now it’s easy too. Here’s why:
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I was a kid, my dad was the manager of a company and they had to program their own computers. He had a hard board and you plugged wires in it to get it to do things like add, subtract, multiply, divide, calculate taxes on sales of stuff. It was old IBM 401 or so… I don’t know what it was, but you would then slide that into the computer, snap it in and then run your reports.
Continue Reading "Programming Used to Be Hard Wired"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Everyone talks about low-hanging fruit, but only a few find it. Here’s why:
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I find that a lot of people are afraid to use Excel pivot tables to summarize data. Every company has raw data about mistakes and errors and defects and whatever it is, but it’s all individual events. People are afraid to learn how to use pivot tables to summarize that.
“I’m telling you what, that’s where the ‘invisible low-hanging fruit’ lives. Everybody talks about ‘low hanging fruit,’ but this is where the ‘invisible low hanging fruit’ lives.
Continue Reading "Use Excel PivotTables to Find the Invisible Low-hanging Fruit"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Companies always nag you to buy the extended warranty for everything from teapots to computers. Is it worth it? Not if you know the Weibull (bathtub) curve.
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but if you bought anything electronic, they always try and sell you a maintenance agreement on it, even if it’s a $27 electric teapot. Right? It’s like, WHAT?
“If you know anything about the Weibull curve, it’s called a bathtub curve.
Continue Reading "Weibull (Bathtub) Curve and Extended Warranty"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Too many people are using unsupported, home-grown tools to improve quality. Or using none at all. That’s a problem. Here’s why:
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“In the old days, pharmacists used to grind up and mix chemicals by hand to make prescriptions, right? And graphic artists used to hand draw everything, right? And opticians used to grind lenses by hand to make glasses. So all those people… all those jobs are still needed, but they don’t do them the way they did 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 years ago, right?
Continue Reading "Are You Using the Available Tools of Quality 2025?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Technology has given us the ability to automate tasks that used to be performed manually, and allows one person to perform the work of many. I saw an example of this on a recent trip.
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].
“You know, when I was growing up, the big band that came up were the Beatles, and they were also known as the Fab Four. And the Fab Four were kind of the structure of most bands, all right?
Continue Reading "The Fab Four and a One-Man Band"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
