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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.
Jay presented this webinar to University of Illinois Chicago Director of Nursing Practice (DNP) faculty on 9/8/2022.
Continue Reading "Three Tools To Solve 90% of Healthcare Problems"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Healthcare, Jay Arthur Blog.
This was a webinar Jay presented to the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers, Dallas – Fort Worth: “Agile Lean Six Sigma – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.”
If you’re interested in learning more about QI Macros for Excel (the software Jay wrote and developed), click HERE and view a demo video. You may also sign up for a free 30 day trial of the software by filling out the form on that page next to the video, or by signing up at THIS link.
If you’re interested in learning more about Jay’s ideas on Agile Lean Six Sigma, you can download a free brief summary of Jay’s ideas in his “Agile Lean Six Sigma Manifesto,” available at THIS link.
Continue Reading "IISE of DFW webinar, 4/27/22"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
In school, they always made you search for the one right answer. In real life, things are rarely that simple. There are often many right answers. Here’s how to choose the best among those:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but in school – first grade all the way through college – it seemed like they were preaching that there was always one right answer to a question. You had to get that one right answer to be able to get a hundred percent on your test (unless it was an essay thing, and then that was a different thing).
Continue Reading "The Myth of the One Right Answer"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Thanks for stopping by our booth at the 2021 ANCC National Magnet Conference. Click below to see a quick demo of QI Macros.
Continue Reading "QI Macros 2021 ANCC National Magnet Conference"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
Today, we celebrated with a staff lunch and a cake to mark Adrienne’s 20th anniversary of working here at KnowWare. Congratulations, Adrienne! Thanks for your many years of hard work!

Continue Reading "Congratulations, Adrienne, on 20 years with QI Macros!"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
Do you and your team ever get stuck trying to figure out how to fix the root cause of problems? There’s a methodology for that. It’s called TRIZ – the Theory of Innovative Problem Solving. Here’s how it works.
Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of Lean Six Sigma Demystified,Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals and QI Macros [software].
You know, when I worked with teams I found sometimes they were very good at figuring out [and] getting to the root cause, but then they struggled with How can we fix that? It’s like they get stuck in their old ways of thinking about how things work.
Continue Reading "TRIZ for Innovative Countermeasures"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
If you had a countermeasure that was 95 percent effective at preventing catastrophic failure of your company or business, how long would you wait to implement it?
(The best resource I’ve found for locating vaccine appointments is https://www.vaccinespotter.org/).
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Let me ask you: if you had a countermeasure that was 95% effective at preventing the catastrophic failure of your business and your company, how long would you wait to implement that?
“Back in 2014 right before Thanksgiving (the day before Thanksgiving) I came down with the flu and I was sick as a dog for 10 days.
Continue Reading "95 Percent Effective Against Catastrophic Failure"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
My childhood doctor did it all. Now I almost never see a doctor. Are You Doing Black or Green Belt work, or “No Belt” work?
“When I was growing up as a kid, our family doctor, Dr. Pierce (and what an unfortunate name)… anyway, Dr. Pierce was actually a MASH 4077 kind of a doctor, right? He was he was in Korea [where] they were doing meatball surgery. But back in the 50s, he’d come in and take your temperature, check your pulse, and he would give you the shots and anything else that was there: write the prescriptions out long hand and rip them off a pad and hand them to you.
Continue Reading "Are You Doing Black Belt Work or No Belt Work?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.