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Should you implement Six Sigma top down or middle out? HBR says:
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“If you know anything about Six Sigma, everybody’s always talking about “top-down” and… you know… blah blah blah blah blah… But there was a very interesting article in a recent issue of Harvard Business Review and it found some interesting things: “Only 12% of major change efforts produce lasting results…” … produce lasting results. I’ve seen a lot of data here and there, but most Six Sigma programs do not survive more than about three years.
Continue Reading "Middle Out, not Top Down"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
What can two landscaping guys teach us about customer service?
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Last year I needed some yard work done and one of my tech support guys, Nick, said, “Oh, I’ve got a guy for you.” He gave me Doggo’s number, and I called up Doggo. Doggo showed up that afternoon. The thing I wanted him to do was take out a bunch of buffalo grass and put in rock; I’m trying to get rid of all the green stuff so we don’t use as much water.
Continue Reading "Doggo and Jose on Customer Service"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Are You Using Stone Age or Space Age Charts for Quality Improvement?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I go to all these conferences and I see all these poster presentations and what do I see: Line and bar charts. Those are from the Stone Age. That’s from the birth of Microsoft Excel back in the 80s. Those are Stone Age charts.
“Control charts have been around for almost 100 years, but they are Space Age charts. So are you going to stick with Stone Age charts or you going to move up into Space Age charts?
Continue Reading "Are You Using Stone Age or Space Age Charts?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Are you just using Excel for spreadsheets or line and bar charts?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Most of the people I see out there are using Excel kind of like as a paperweight or something. Nobody wants to read your spreadsheet but people keep inventing spreadsheets. They use merge and center to center titles and stuff like that, and they type all their numbers in here. You can do that on Google Sheets. If that’s all you want to do, use Google Sheets.
“But Excel is a power tool.
Continue Reading "Are You Using Excel as a Paperweight?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
There’s IQ, EQ and QI. Do You Have QI (Quality Intelligence)?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Back when I was a kid, there was a lot of talk about IQ: Intelligence Quotient. Little tests and things to determine if you were this or that or the other thing. MENSAs were way up there, right? And then recently, along came EQ: Emotional Intelligence. How good are you with people?
“I want you to think that maybe another acronym for QI is not just “Quality Improvement,” but “Quality Intelligence.”
Continue Reading "Do You Have QI (Quality Intelligence)?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Many people consider QI Macros to be the most intuitive Six Sigma Software. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I left the phone company in 1995; I started doing some Quality Improvement consulting work and I needed some tools to be able to do what I needed to do. Back then I had a Macintosh Power Mac and Excel was running on that. Excel at that time had Excel for Macros and I know how to program, so I used that code to create some things like a Pareto chart.
Continue Reading "Is Your Six Sigma Software Intuitive?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
In any process, what’s more important? Steps in the process or the delays between steps?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified,” “Agile Process Innovation” and QI Macros [software].
“Most of you have probably seen this: They would have you hold up your hand, right? This is like a process, and you can see the steps in the process {pointing at fingers}.
“But most of the delay is in the space in between {pointing between fingers}. It’s not… it’s not in here {pointing at fingers}, right? You can’t really speed up a thumb, but you can reduce the gaps between the fingers so that everything happens more quickly.
Continue Reading "The Space Between Your Fingers"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
There’s a service side to manufacturing. Are you optimizing it?
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Most of American Society for Quality (‘Control’, originally…) was focused on manufacturing from after the war and ongoing. However, I want you to think about this: In most manufacturing plants, there’s not a lot of people on the floor anymore, and the floor has been pretty well optimized or you’re not in business, right? But there’s this huge sort of backroom service function: sales, marketing, invoicing, scheduling, all that kind of stuff. That’s all service.
Continue Reading "LSS for the Service Side of Manufacturing"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
I graduated from UofA in 1973 with a B.S. in Systems Engineering. Here’s my journey through TQM, Lean Six Sigma, QI Macros and beyond.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I got hired out of out of college by Mountain Bell back in 1973 and I worked for them for many, many years. I spent three years on a rotation out to Bell Labs in New Jersey. I learned a lot of stuff about UNIX and came back.
“In my real college career I was studying Systems Engineering [and] Operations Research, which is the mathematical optimization of systems.
Continue Reading "Jay’s Quality Journey (5 min)"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Have you noticed that most people spend their time trying to place blame rather than fix the problem?
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Recently, it seems like whenever there’s a problem, there’s a bunch of “Blame Storming” going on. A Boeing executive has to go in front of Senate councils and explain why there was a problem when they don’t quite know what all the issues were, right? “Blame Storming.”
“And then there are people who throw blame all the time, and I found a word that I think works: “Blamethrowers.”
Continue Reading "Blamethrowers and Blame Storming"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
