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Even before COVID-19, I gave my staff digital thermometers, oximeters and blood pressure cuffs to help them monitor their health. You can too. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you but when I was a kid growing up and my mom needed to take my temperature we used something called a thermometer. This is actually the original box that it was in, but that’s no longer necessary right? Now we have these kind of tools which you can just buy at your local store. Once you press it and turn it on you just scan it across your head and it’ll read your temperature.
Continue Reading "Tools to Monitor Your Own Health"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights.
Humans, by nature, have a fear of looking bad (FOLB). And we have a fear of looking stupid (FOLS). These are slowing COVID-19 response and quality improvement. Here’s why:
Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“You’ve all probably all heard some of these acronyms that are running around like FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. Well, I wanted to introduce you to a couple more that I’d like you to consider. FOLB: Fear Of Looking Bad.
“Now when I’ve gone out to work with companies in consulting roles, some of these managers think, “I’m supposed to be in charge of fixing everything.
Continue Reading "FOLB – Fear of Looking Bad"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Lean, Manufacturing, Six Sigma.
Over 120 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to use some of the useful features of QI Macros, as well as some of the new features introduced in recent releases of the software.
Some attendees were familiar with the software and already use it, some had only begun to use it; all were interested in learning new ways that QI Macros can help them with their Agile Lean Six Sigma and Quality Improvement efforts. (You can hear him answering questions and comments typed in by webinar 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 Templates Wizard, the Fixed Limit indicator or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "5/14/20 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t keep doing things the same old way. The status quo isn’t working for us anymore. We have to stop projecting the past (the way we’ve always done it) into the future. The future doesn’t have to be an endless rerun of the past.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Agile Process Innovation”and QI Macros [software]. Here’s my Improvement Insight for this week: Stop projecting your past into your future.
“Way too many people do this, right? We start thinking, “Well, we’ve always done it that way so we have to always do it that way.”
Continue Reading "Stop Projecting the Past Into the Future"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Like a lot of you, I’ve gotten really good at some things I wasn’t very good at a couple of months ago. From a personal perspective, my cooking has gotten much better (thanks to online cooks I found such as Chef John). From a business standpoint, I’ve gone from meeting clients face-to-face to becoming good at conducting most of my business via online video meetings with clients. The online video meeting has its ups and downs, but it sure is nice to be able to meet with someone on the other side of the country without having to spend time traveling.
Continue Reading "The lines on the road…"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros Monthly Newsletters.
The busiest day of the year for long distance calling is Mother’s Day. The recent COVID-19 pandemic revealed the inability of our systems to handle the load. Is your business ready for Mother’s Day?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and the QI Macros [software].
“When I worked in the phone company they were very proud of the fact that they had engineered the entire switching system to handle one day out of the year. That one day out of the year was Mother’s Day, because everybody called their mother on Mother’s Day. If we didn’t have ways of switching and routing things and [finding] an empty trunk line… If I was going to call my mom in Tucson from Denver, guess what?
Continue Reading "Are Your Systems Ready for Mother’s Day?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Control charts offer a promising way to analyze COVID-19 Data. Learn where to get the data, how to mine it and how to chart it in this video.
Continue Reading "Create a COVID-19 Control Chart Using QI Macros"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Ask Jay, Data Mining, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
People over age 55 account for 92% of COVID-19 Deaths (data from CDC). Sweden is using similar data to leave the country open for most citizens while asking seniors to stay at home. How do we reopen the economy? Self-quarantine seniors; let everyone else get back to work.
Here’s the 2019-2020 Influenza (i.e., Flu) deaths. Again, seniors are 83.5% of deaths. The flu death rate is about 1 per 1,000. COVID-19 death rate is 1-2 per 100, perhaps lower in people under the age of 55 and higher for those over age 55.
Countermeasure: Self-quarantining seniors will help flatten the curve and prevent overwhelming healthcare.
Continue Reading "U.S. Deaths by Age Group as of 4/24/2020"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Jay Arthur Blog, QI Macros.
We know that Lean can collapse cycle time by 75% or more. Here’s what that means for COVID-19:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“If you’ve ever done any Lean projects, you know pretty much if the process is this long {gestures}, with Value Stream Mapping and Spaghetti Diagramming, you can collapse that by maybe 75%, 80%, 90%. You can actually reduce the cycle time for almost anything and do it easily.
“One of the things that is creating optimism for me is that a few years ago I worked with an aerospace manufacturing company, and typically to get a Request For Proposal through, it was 1.9 years for any new part.
Continue Reading "Lean Response to COVID-19"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Lean.
Since 90% of deaths are among those over 60, perhaps the best countermeasure is to require those of us over 60 (me for example) to stay home. Most of us are retired anyway. Let others go back to work.
Approximately 51% of Colorado hospitalizations involve people 60-80+, 75% of people over 50. Another reason to ask seniors like myself to stay at home even as the economy reopens. This will help reduce the load on hospitals.
Continue Reading "Colorado Deaths by Age Group"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros, Six Sigma.
