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“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and the QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but right now, I’m staying home because of the directives around COVID-19. I know there’s a lot of people out there who have been displaced and are out of work, and now might be a good time to learn a new skill. I can tell you: being able to do some data analysis that results in problem solving is a skill that every, every, every business wants.
Continue Reading "Learn Data Analysis for Problem Solving"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Data Mining, Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Lean, Manufacturing, QI Macros, Service, Six Sigma.
A district level manager was hopping mad about something. I decided to see if I could use pacing and leading to calm her down and get back to solving the problem to meet her needs.
Continue Reading "Building Rapport with Improvement Teams – Step 3"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Lean, Manufacturing, QI Macros, Service, Six Sigma.
My boss sent me to talk to a cranky manager about a software project he wanted to do. Here’s how I used non-verbal rapport to connect with him in 30-60 seconds.
Continue Reading "Building Rapport with Improvement Teams – Step 2"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Lean, Manufacturing, QI Macros, Service, Six Sigma.
I was tasked with training the leadership team of U S West, the president and his vice presidents. Here’s how I started to build rapport with the leadership team and every team afterwards.
Continue Reading "Building Rapport with Improvement Teams – Step 1"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Lean, Manufacturing, Service, Six Sigma.
The July-August, 2018 Inc. magazine has an article (pg. 22) about manufacturing vs supply chain service jobs. From 1999-2015:
- Manufacturing jobs declined from 12.5 million to 8.2. Supply chain jobs increased from 13.4 million to 20.0.
- Manufacturing salaries climbed only slightly from $54,800 to 59,800 while supply chain jobs rose from $72,600 to $85,200.
With increasing manufacturing automation, more jobs are being created around supporting production than actual production. Something to think about.
Continue Reading "Shift from Manufacturing to Supply Chain"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, Manufacturing.
ASQ World 2018, there were a lot of sessions about “Industry 4.0” and the transformation required by quality improvement professionals (Quality 4.0).
Wikipedia describes Industry 4.0 as: “the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies.”
If I can read the writing on the wall, this means that more manufacturing jobs will be automated out of existence, including quality improvement. In the next few years, AI will embody the quality improvement disciplines, and automate detection and autocorrection of performance problems. No human required.
But manufacturing is only 11% of U.S. employment. 80% is service industries. While quality in manufacturing is still important, the rise of service quality improvement is desperately needed in everything from healthcare to fast food.
Continue Reading "Quality 4.0 – Blog entry regarding the current trend of automation and data exchange"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog, Manufacturing, Service, Six Sigma.
QI Macros exhibited at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) conference in Boston. Some attendees thought that “All You Need Is Lean.” Others thought you need Lean and Six Sigma.
Lean will help you simplify and streamline your operations, and then you’ll need Six Sigma to optimize the process.
Continue Reading "All You Need Is Lean"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Manufacturing, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
I’m here at the IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers) conference in Pittsburgh.
One professor had been teaching students how to use Excel to create control charts, but he was beginning to feel like that was a waste of classroom time (duh!).
I beat him up a little for teaching DIY Excel stuff to students. If the professor does it, they think that’s how it’s done. With QI Macros he can get them right into analysis.
I feel the same way at ASA (American Statistical Association) when they use “R” to do statistics. Sure it’s free, but should statisticians be programming in “R” or just using software to achieve the same result.
Continue Reading "Are We Teaching Students the Unnecessary Things?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Lean, Manufacturing, Service, Six Sigma, Statistics.
May-June 2017 HBR discusses the results of a 10-year study of what makes CEOs great.
Of the four traits, number 4, Delivering Reliably, was found to be the most powerful of the four essential behaviors. Reliable CEOs were 15 times more likely to succeed.
I have found that one of the most effective ways to deliver reliably is to use Lean Six Sigma to simplify, streamline and optimize performance.
Continue Reading "Top Leaders Deliver Reliably"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Lean, Manufacturing, Service, Six Sigma.