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Improvement Insights Blog

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Don’t Create Fake Data

Use real data, not fake!



“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“I was at a Quality conference and I attended a presentation by a well-known statistician. He was going to demonstrate some things, but he didn’t have any data. He used Minitab to develop some nice normally distributed random data and then to draw charts with that data. I thought, “Oh my God, what did you just do? You just told everybody in this room they can create fake data! They can create fake data that looks real.” Fake data that looks real.

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

Our Quality Gurus Are Gone

The quality gurus of the last century are gone. Who will take their place?



“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“One of our longtime sponsors and supporters Jim Harrington passed away recently at the age of 95. I saw him every year at the American Society for Quality conference. He will be missed, but all of our gurus are gone: Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Crosby… everybody is gone. We’re going to need some new gurus, including you. We’re going to need new people to champion Quality in this century.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

8/13/24 Healthcare Data Analytics Webinar

Over 90 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to implement Healthcare Data Analytics to save time, save money, and (most importantly) save lives.



You can view a short two-page illustrated guide to the Zero Harm – Trillion Dollar Prescription by clicking HERE.

If you’d like to see a short demo video to see how our software is used in healthcare organizations like yours, click this DEMO link.

If you’ve never used QI Macros and would like to try it out for free, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial at THIS link.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.

Have You Got Addition Sickness?

When processes aren’t working, people try adding to the process rather than subtracting. Doesn’t work. Here’s why:



“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“I saw a phrase the other day that I liked, and I think you might get it. They called it “Addition Sickness”; Addition Sickness. What does that mean? Well, you end up adding more policies, procedures, rules, whatevers, workarounds, inspections… whatever it is. You know, Deming hated adding inspection; [he thought] that was stupid, right?

“But we tend to add things to a process to try and counteract whatever is going wrong.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

8/6/24 QI Macros webinar

Over 40 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating some of the software’s most frequently used tools and answering questions asked by attendees.  If you saw a feature demonstrated in the webinar that might have been added to QI Macros after the version you’re using (for instance, the Improvement Project Wizard or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version. Send an email to support@qimacros.com and we can help, for instance in generating a quote to upgrade all the users at your organization or just guiding you through the purchasing process.

Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros, Webinar.

Quality Groundhog Day

I’ve been working in quality improvement for 35 years. Why isn’t anything any better?



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“I’ve been at this for over 30 years (Quality Improvement), and I have to ask myself why isn’t anything any better? Why isn’t Quality pervasive? I think it’s because we made it too complex and time-consuming and too hard to do… that’s just me.

“But I have this Groundhog Day experience, right? I feel like Bill Murray. I wake up every morning and it says “same old same old.”

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Troublesome Data

One of our users said she had some “troublesome data.” Do you have troublesome data? Here’s what to do about it.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“I was at the American Society for Quality Lean Six Sigma Conference and one of our users came up and we were talking. I said “I’d be happy to do a webinar for your people.” She said, “Well, we have some troublesome data. We could really use some help with our troublesome data.”

“One of the things I know is that very often, doing improvement isn’t hard, but getting the data that’s out there into some sort of useful format is often crazy and takes a little effort.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

7/23/24 Healthcare Data Analytics Webinar

Over 90 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to implement Healthcare Data Analytics to save time, save money, and (most importantly) save lives.



You can view a short two-page illustrated guide to the Zero Harm – Trillion Dollar Prescription by clicking HERE.

If you’d like to see a short demo video to see how our software is used in healthcare organizations like yours, click this DEMO link.

If you’ve never used QI Macros and would like to try it out for free, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial at THIS link.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.

The Law of Least Effort

Ever wonder why quality doesn’t get any better? Might the law of least effort.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“You know, as I look around, there’s this thing called “The Law of Least Effort,” which means humans (animals… whatever) will do the easiest thing possible. That’s why in Boston, the cows all walked certain paths and when it came time to… put in [roads for] cars and stuff, they paved the cow path because the cows knew where the [most level] ground was. Of course, that makes Boston almost impassible if you’ve ever been there.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Detective Number Two

Detective shows usually have two detectives: one who leaps to arrest an obvious suspect and one who continues investigate the evidence. Which one are you?



“If you’ve ever watched detective shows, there’s always one detective that wants to leap to a solution and arrest the wrong person and just get him off the off the books, right? Then the other detective [says], “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa… wait… wait a minute. We haven’t looked at all the evidence.”

“I see the same thing in Quality Improvement. Every time a team comes together, they all think they know what the right answer is.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.