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Latest "Improvement Insights" Posts
Ever had a light bulb burn out and wish you had another one? You can with light bulb kanban. And there’s other opportunities to Lean your life.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“In my bedroom, I have a little reading light over the bed so that I can read books at night. It helps me sleep. But every so often one of those burns out. The thing that I’ve learned is I could use a little Kanban. I could have a light bulb ready right next to my bed in the stand there, so that if that one burns out, I can just pull it out, plug in a new one.
Continue Reading "Light Bulb Kanban"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
Ever seen a heart monitor at a hospital? Control charts perform the same function with almost every aspect of your business.
“If you’ve ever been to a hospital, you may have noticed somebody hooked up to a heart monitor, and it’s going [gestures]. Right? So that monitors the heart rate of that patient, and you can tell if it’s getting crazy or it’s starting to trend down, which means you need a rapid response team to come in and make sure they’re not dying.
“So that’s the idea of a heart monitor, but that’s what a control chart is. It’s like a heart monitor for a hospital (or any other business).
Continue Reading "Control Charts are Like Heart Monitors for Your Business"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
The postal service in my neighborhood is a hit-or-miss affair. And it started with a change in leadership. If you’re waiting on leadership to embrace quality, think again.
“I don’t know how the postal service is in your neighborhood, but some days it doesn’t come at all, some days we get mail on Sunday, sometimes the postal workers are not wearing a postal shirt and it’s like, “Who the hell’s walking up to my house to drop off the mail?”
“They recently changed the Postmaster General. He’s really proud that he’s cutting costs, but he’s killing his service.
Continue Reading "The Postal Service is Kaput"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Ever noticed that if you start someone on one path, they tend to stay on it even if it was only a starter path? How do you get people started in quality improvement and SPC?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Have you ever noticed that if you start somebody on one path they will stay on that path? If you start people on another path they’ll stay on that path, right? Because it cost them a certain amount of time and energy to learn how to be on that path.
Continue Reading "Start People on the Right Path"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Ever watched the ocean? Waves just keep coming back again and again, rearranging the coastline. You can too!
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“My wife and I like to go out to Maui to take vacations because it’s just restful, and we spend time on Ka’anapali Beach. We’ve been there different times of year, and it’s very interesting because at one point in time the waves move the sand southward and they pile up by Black Rock. Then other times of year it moves the sand along the beach to the north and a lot of things, rocks and things get exposed over by Black Rock.
Continue Reading "Be Like the Ocean’s Waves"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
The unexamined process grows more sluggish and error-prone. What process have you overlooked for a while?
“One of my insights over the years is that the unexamined process becomes more sluggish and more error-prone. It just slows down starts getting buggy. And so the unexamined process is sluggish and error prone.
“I believe that what we have to do is re-attend to those processes. If you haven’t looked at it in a while, go back and look at it, because it’s getting slower and dumber and more error-prone.
“That’s my Improvement Insight for this week. Let’s go out and improve something this week.”
Continue Reading "The Unexamined Process"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Got an email from a QI Macros customer who read Lean Six Sigma Demystified and applied it at his hotel in Acapulco. Here’s what he learned and how it applies to healthcare too.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Recently I got an email from a gentleman who had read my book “Lean Six Sigma Demystified.” He was director of training at a hotel down in Acapulco. He started using what I was recommending in there to reduce wait times to check in, to reduce the cycle time to clean a room.
Continue Reading "Lean Six Sigma Can Be Used In Any Business"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Some people think humans will always make mistakes and there’s nothing we can do about it. I disagree. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“Back in 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a book called ‘To Err is Human’ which showed that healthcare kills about a hundred thousand people a year unnecessarily. Since then, we’ve gotten better at measuring that, and it’s probably three to five times that much, give or take a few hundred thousand… But my thing about this was it presupposes that humans will make mistakes and that’s not preventable; not preventable.
Continue Reading "To Err is Human?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Few people take the time to learn how to use even basic formulas in Excel. I even found data to prove it. How much more effective could you be if you learn a little bit more about Excel?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Many years ago I went to an Excelapalooza conference. I know, ‘Excelapalooza’ sounds funky, doesn’t it? But it was interesting.
“We had one of the leaders of the Excel development team there and she was talking about all the new features and everything else that they’re plugging in, but she gave me some startling statistics.
Continue Reading "Do You Have A Love-Hate Relationship with Excel?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Excel, Improvement Insights.
I didn’t know I couldn’t see that well until 5th grade. I didn’t know I couldn’t see how businesses worked until I learned three key tools.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I grew up in Tucson, Arizona and went to Peter E. Howell elementary, for those of you who might have gone there. I remember in classrooms from first grade on, they sorted us in alphabetical order. Well, my first [letter] is A, so I was always right in the front row. That continued all the way through second grade, third grade, fourth grade…
“And then in fifth grade they said, “No, you need to randomize how you see everybody,” so I ended up in the back of the classroom.
Continue Reading "5th Grade Vision Problems and Six Sigma"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
