Home »
Blog » Lean » Page 16
Improvement Insights Blog
Latest "Lean" Posts
DMAIC is similar to software’s Waterfall methodology that has been replaced by Agile.
We can do the same thing with DMAIC. Here’s how.
Join my Agile Quality Improvement Movement. Sign up to receive Weekly Agile Six Sigma emails right in your inbox! Click HERE to subscribe.
Continue Reading "DMAIC from Waterfall to Agile"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.

The cover of the May-June 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review highlights “Agile” as the future of business. This is the way business is going to stay competitive in the future. Speed is the killer app!
Lean Six Sigma can no longer cling to its old-fashioned way of doing things: weeks of training, months for improvement teams. Here’s why:
Join my Agile Quality Improvement Movement. Sign up to receive Weekly Agile Six Sigma emails right in your inbox! Click HERE to subscribe.
Continue Reading "Agile Lean Six Sigma"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Last week, our grandson graduated from Colorado College and our granddaughter graduated from Rock Canyon High School.
Jake’s graduating class of 500 went single file to the podium to receive their diploma.
Rachel’s graduating class of 500 came from four directions simultaneously. Four name callers, four people handing out diplomas.
Which one do you think went faster?
Continue Reading "Lean Graduation Ceremonies"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, QI Macros, Service.
Do you know people who only dabble in Lean Six Sigma? They get in, get certified and get out?
You can use the tools of quality everywhere in your life and work for the rest of your life.
Why stop?
Join my Agile Quality Improvement Movement
Continue Reading "Going In and Out of Lean Six Sigma?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Are we in the quality community letting our past dictate our future? Is our bias stopping us from seeing the possibilities?
Join the Agile Quality Improvement Movement
Continue Reading "Confirmation Bias In Lean Six Sigma Implementation"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
At ASQ World, Craig Plain gave a fun presentation on Cartoons for Quality.
One of the exercises used a standard work procedure for drawing a pig. Try it yourself
Standard Work Procedure Pig Cartoon Instructions
Here’s mine:

While I’m not normally fond of using games for training, I thought it was interesting how none of us drew exactly the same pig.
Continue Reading "Pig Cartoon – Standard Work"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, Six Sigma.
I’m here at ASQ World in Seattle, 2018. As usual, I went through the team presentations to look for quality tool usage. The results are dismal. Mainly line and pie charts.

To paraphrase Steve Jobs, watching people do Six Sigma projects with plain line, bar and pie charts is like watching a man kick a whale across the beach with his bare feet.
Get QI Macros and start using the tools of Quality. Join my Quality Improvement Movement.
Continue Reading "Shortage of Quality Tools at ASQ"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
In Win Bigly, Scott Adams describes confirmation bias as the human tendency to irrationally believe new information that supports your existing world view even when it doesn’t. Leaders, managers and team members all think they know the solution to a given problem, even when they don’t. Here’s how confirmation bias can screw up your improvement project.
Join the Agile Lean Six Sigma Movement.
Continue Reading "Confirmation Bias in Lean Six Sigma"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
The editor of Harvard Business Review says that “corporate survival today requires the capacity for rapid change.” Isn’t it time to embrace an Agile approach to Lean Six Sigma to “speed its evolution and better serve customers’ needs?”
Join the Agile Quality Improvement Movement!
Continue Reading "Quality Improvement Movement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.