Lean Blog by Jay Arthur

PSA Test – a Public Health Disaster

Dr. Richard J. Albin, creator of the PSA test for prostate cancer, says that the devastating consequences treatments including surgery and radiation therapy caused:

5,000 deaths soon after surgery
up to 70,000 serious complications
50% had persistent blood in their semen
up to 300,000 suffered impotence, incontinence or both.

He now calls the widespread use of the PSA test a “Public Health Disaster.” As a result of these findings, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will recommend that healthy men no longer receive PSA testing.

Unnecessary tests and treatments of all kinds are estimated to cost $250 Billion in the U.S.

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Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, Service, Six Sigma.

Toyota’s Global Data Mining

Last week, Toyota unveiled it’s multimillion dollar system for gather repair reports, complaints and safety concerns from dealerships, internet sites and other sources into one system and mine that data for problems beyond the doors of the factory. The WSJ reported that EVP Shinichi Sasaki said that Toyota had succumbed to ‘Big Company Disease’.

It happens. Big or small, companies shift their focus to bottom-line benefits or growth and drop the ball on quality. But, as I’ve predicted for awhile, Toyota’s quality culture is repairing itself and resuming the quest for quality; now on a global basis.

What are you doing to monitor your quality on a global basis?

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Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, Manufacturing, Six Sigma.