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When processes aren’t working, people try adding to the process rather than subtracting. Doesn’t work. Here’s why:
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I saw a phrase the other day that I liked, and I think you might get it. They called it “Addition Sickness”; Addition Sickness. What does that mean? Well, you end up adding more policies, procedures, rules, whatevers, workarounds, inspections… whatever it is. You know, Deming hated adding inspection; [he thought] that was stupid, right?
“But we tend to add things to a process to try and counteract whatever is going wrong.
Continue Reading "Have You Got Addition Sickness?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
I’ve been working in quality improvement for 35 years. Why isn’t anything any better?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I’ve been at this for over 30 years (Quality Improvement), and I have to ask myself why isn’t anything any better? Why isn’t Quality pervasive? I think it’s because we made it too complex and time-consuming and too hard to do… that’s just me.
“But I have this Groundhog Day experience, right? I feel like Bill Murray. I wake up every morning and it says “same old same old.”
Continue Reading "Quality Groundhog Day"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
One of our users said she had some “troublesome data.” Do you have troublesome data? Here’s what to do about it.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I was at the American Society for Quality Lean Six Sigma Conference and one of our users came up and we were talking. I said “I’d be happy to do a webinar for your people.” She said, “Well, we have some troublesome data. We could really use some help with our troublesome data.”
“One of the things I know is that very often, doing improvement isn’t hard, but getting the data that’s out there into some sort of useful format is often crazy and takes a little effort.
Continue Reading "Troublesome Data"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Ever wonder why quality doesn’t get any better? Might the law of least effort.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“You know, as I look around, there’s this thing called “The Law of Least Effort,” which means humans (animals… whatever) will do the easiest thing possible. That’s why in Boston, the cows all walked certain paths and when it came time to… put in [roads for] cars and stuff, they paved the cow path because the cows knew where the [most level] ground was. Of course, that makes Boston almost impassible if you’ve ever been there.
Continue Reading "The Law of Least Effort"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Detective shows usually have two detectives: one who leaps to arrest an obvious suspect and one who continues investigate the evidence. Which one are you?
“If you’ve ever watched detective shows, there’s always one detective that wants to leap to a solution and arrest the wrong person and just get him off the off the books, right? Then the other detective [says], “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa… wait… wait a minute. We haven’t looked at all the evidence.”
“I see the same thing in Quality Improvement. Every time a team comes together, they all think they know what the right answer is.
Continue Reading "Detective Number Two"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Trendlines are often fake news. How can you separate fact from fiction? It’s easy.
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“One of the things that really irritates me about Excel is it’ll add a trend line to any data, but it does not add a “goodness-of-fit” metric automatically. It’s called “R squared,” and R squared should be like .8 or 80% fit in general.
“I’ve seen lots of charts and lots of posters at lots of improvement conferences where the goodness of fit metric is less than 50%. What?! So it’s not really an improvement.
Continue Reading "If It Don’t Fit You Must Forget"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
There’s often more than one way to get an answer with statistics.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“The other week we had somebody call in and say, “Can you do XYZ stat?” Well, by that name I didn’t understand what they were talking about, but then I looked up XYZ stat and it was our ABC stat in the QI Macros. Right?
“There’s more than one way to do things in statistics. There’s all kinds of things, all right? I just found out about something called Dixon’s Q and Grubbs’ Outlier Test for small samples… okay.
Continue Reading "More than One Way to Ken a Stat"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
In Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain describes the essence of a chef’s station, which could apply to any lean cell design.
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I was reading Anthony Bourdain’s book Kitchen Confidential, which is about the high-end cooking business out there, but I found a passage that I think applies to Lean Cell Design. I’ll read that to you:
‘As a cook, your station, and its condition, its state of readiness, is an extension of your nervous system – it is profoundly upsetting if some other cook or, God forbid, a waiter – disturbs your precisely and carefully laid-out system.
Continue Reading "Lean Kitchen Confidential"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
DMAIC suggests that we need to Define and Measure something. Doing it manually won’t work long term. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I have an Apple iPhone and I carry it along and it has a little Health app in it. At the end of the day I can open it up and see how many steps I did that day: 3,000, 5,000, 8,000… whatever it is. It’ll tell me if it was above or below what I’ve done for the last weeks or so.
Continue Reading "Automate Measurements to Sustain Improvement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Is it possible to learn anything quickly? To go from Zero to Hero in just a few hours? Yes, I believe so. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I may have told this story before, but it bears repeating again. About eight years ago I was in Hawaii and I found out there was a free ukulele class next door taught by a guy named Jason: Jason Jerome [with] Lahaina Music. Now, Lahaina Music just burnt down [in the 2023 wildfires] but Jason is still teaching classes up and down West Maui.
Continue Reading "Zero to Hero"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
