Jay Arthur Blog

Improvement Insights Blog

Latest "Jay Arthur Blog" Posts

The Myth of the One Right Answer

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).

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.

QI Macros 2021 ANCC National Magnet Conference

Thanks for stopping by our booth at the 2021 ANCC National Magnet Conference. Click below to see a quick demo of QI Macros.



Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.

Congratulations, Adrienne, on 20 years with QI Macros!

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!

adrienne 20 year anniversary

Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.

TRIZ for Innovative Countermeasures

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.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.

95 Percent Effective Against Catastrophic Failure

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.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.

Are You Doing Black Belt Work or No Belt Work?

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.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.

ASQ Philadelphia Section 12/16/20 Web Meeting

Jay Arthur was the featured speaker for the 12/16/20 ASQ Philadelphia Section Web Meeting. His topic was “Turning Data Into Dollars with Microsoft Excel: Big Profits from Small Data.” You may view the video of Jay’s webinar below:



If you’re interested in learning more about QI Macros for Excel (the software Jay wrote and developed), click HERE and view the demo video in the yellow box. 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.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Data Mining, Jay Arthur Blog.

Ask Jay – What Kind of Chart Should I Use?

People still seem to be confused about what kind of Quality Improvement chart to use. Here’s the short and simple answer:



Posted by Jay Arthur in Ask Jay, Jay Arthur Blog.

NAHQ NEXT 2020 HQ Showcase – Jay Arthur

If you’re a registered NAHQ Next 2020 attendee, you can view Jay Arthur’s showcase until October 31, 2020.

1. Click on the link below.

https://www.webcastregister.live/nahq2020/welcome

 

2. Click on the NAHQ Next top banner to log in. It will take you to the page below. Log in with your name and email address:

nahq

 

3. Once you’re logged in, visit the On-Demand Sessions and scroll to the very bottom to view Jay’s session, “Zero Harm and the Trillion Dollar Prescription.”

nahq

Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Healthcare, Jay Arthur Blog, QI Macros.

COVID-19 Cases by Type of Facility

The New York Times published a list of cases by facility. I tweaked it to get Pareto Charts of the biggest problems. Nursing homes and rehab facilities were 64% of the total, then prisons and food processing (e.g., beef, pork, poultry, etc.).

cases by type of facility

facility related cases by state

Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Jay Arthur Blog, QI Macros.