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Latest "Improvement Insights" Posts
People make 30,000 decisions a day! Too many choices makes decisions even more difficult. Knowing too much about Lean Six Sigma can hinder your success at problem solving. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“You know, you probably have experienced this, but we all make something like 30,000 decisions a day… a day! Oh my gosh, right? My friend Bob Wendover wrote a book called “Beating Burnout,” how top thinkers overcome overwhelm. He talks about what he calls “decision fatigue,” when you start making poor choices because your brain is overloaded due to the overwhelming demands of modern life.
Continue Reading "Is Decision Fatigue Hindering Your Improvement Projects?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
I found a discussion on MyASQ’s Website about Cpk formulas. Why is anyone talking about how to calculate formulas by hand? It’s a waste of time. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“This morning I was out on the myASQ website, and there was a question about Cp and Cpk and Ppk formulas and stuff like that. And there was, you know, “Well, standard deviation” and “Why do we have to do R Bar over D2?” or whatever it was, you know. The answers were like, “Well, you know, standard deviation is pretty close to whatever…”
“I was [thinking], “What is the question here?
Continue Reading "Why Are We Still Talking about Cp/Cpk and Pp/Ppk Formulas?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, QI Macros, Six Sigma, Statistics.
Absence blindness means that you can’t see what isn’t there. The tools of quality can help you see the invisible so that you can do something about it. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“There’s a concept called “absence blindness,” and basically what that says is you can’t see what isn’t there. That’s why it’s kind of difficult to see things that are working well, because they just work well, but a defect or some sort of complication or issue raises this ugly head and you can see that one.
Continue Reading "Seeing the Invisible"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Six Sigma.
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.
