How Is Your Business Like a Banana?
Shigeo Shingo used this metaphor often. Find out why.
Improvement Insights Blog
Latest Posts
Hospital Costs a “Hungry Tapeworm on U.S. Economy” says Warren Buffett
I have been thinking for some time that someone would come along, start buying up hospitals and forcing them to adopt the Lean principles of Amazon and Six Sigma to achieve the “science and evidence” that Don Berwick has been challenging the IHI to adopt.
Warren Buffet has the money, but usually invests in “well-run” companies, not ones in trouble. An estimated half of all hospitals are in financial trouble (often because of the lack of Lean Six Sigma).
Bezos and Amazon have the operational efficiency needed in virtually all healthcare environments.
Dimon has a big bank.
They are all worried about the quality of healthcare and the rising costs.
Continue Reading "Hospital Costs a “Hungry Tapeworm on U.S. Economy” says Warren Buffett"
Using Lean to Do Your Taxes
I started using TurboTax to do my taxes years ago. I used to gather up my 1099s and W-2 and everything else and spend a whole day doing my taxes. Your taxes may not be as complicated as mine, but think of these forms as “work in process” (WIP). I was doing them in a big batch just before the filing deadline.
Then I started using a Lean approach. Whenever a W-9 or 1099 arrives in the mailbox, I input it into the software. By mid-March when the business taxes are finished, everything is in and my taxes are ready to file.
Are You Wasting Time in Six Sigma?
Are you wasting time in Six Sigma on unnecessary steps?
Here’s how to kick start your improvement efforts.
Your Friend, The QI Macros Website Search Box…
If you’ve used QI Macros for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly run across something you had questions about. Let us clue you in to a secret weapon: The QI Macros search box.
Located on the top right corner of every page of the QI Macros website, this can come in handy if you’ve got questions
- Show Process Change: If you’ve got a chart of your process before and after you changed a process that affected the results, how do you show that? Input “show process change” into the QI Macros search box and one of the results will be this video.
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Six Sigma Triage
People sometimes hesitate to tackle the Big Hairy Audacious Problems (BHAP) using Six Sigma. They start with something trivial. Trivial problems have limited data. The BHAP problems have better, more detailed data.
Tackle the Worst First!
More Six Sigma Project Mistakes
If you’re not getting the results you want from Six Sigma, there might be a problem in the development of your projects.
Here are some of the mistakes I see in Six Sigma projects.
Collapsing the Six Sigma Learning Curve
I believe we are teaching people things they don’t need to know to solve problems they don’t have to impress people they don’t like.
You don’t have to know everything about statistics to do Six Sigma projects. What you need to know adheres to the 4/50 Rule: 4% of the knowledge will deliver over 50% of the results.
And if you automate the formulas and decision trees using QI Macros, you can collapse the learning curve in such a way that “No Belts” can go from zero to hero in a matter of hours. Here’s how:
Show-Do-Know – The Secret to Accelerated Learning
Remember how you learned things when you were a kid? That’s not how anyone teaches Lean Six Sigma, but it could be.
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Six Sigma Green Belt Project Problem
One of our QI Macros users sent me a Greenbelt Project to review. The team did a great job of using the tools and connecting the dots. There was only one small problem…
