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In a recent blog post, Minitab asked: “Have you ever found yourself switching back and forth between a Microsoft Excel file and Minitab Statistical Software just to complete a single analysis?”
Comparing Minitab to Excel (without QI Macros) is a bit like comparing a calculator to an abacus.
If you have the QI Macros add-in for Excel, you don’t have to switch. You can do everything in Excel.
Creating Graphs with Raw Data Easily
The blogger says: “Just try creating a Pareto Chart in Excel…I dare you!”
I’ll take that dare. If you have a column of defects (below), just click on the title for the column and choose the QI Macros Pareto Chart.
Continue Reading "Minitab and Excel: Which Should I Use and When?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros.
When I went through Taco Bell’s drive through window this weekend and paid for my order, the cashier asked me if I wanted any sauce. “Mild, please,” I said.
Then she took the order from the next car in line, who I suspect asked for hot sauce.
When my order was ready, she grabbed some sauce and handed me the bag. Normally I would check, but I was in a hurry. Surprise, surprise, when I got home, I had hot, not mild sauce.
Usually Taco Bell cashiers wait until the order is ready to ask what kind of sauce I want, which is a great way to avoid the kind of mistake caused by the process above.
Continue Reading "Mistake-Proofing Taco Bell"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
Dr. Richard Wiseman wrote a book called The Luck Factor that describes his research into what lucky people do that unlucky people do not do. I’d recommend it. Here’s the essence:
- Lucky people create, notice, and act on chance opportunities–synchronicity.
- Create a network of lucky people
- Be open to new experiences
- Have a relaxed attitude that everything will work out.
- Lucky people make better decisions by listening to their gut feel and intuition.
- Listen to your gut feel and act on it
- Boost your intuition
- Lucky people expect the future to be so bright that they’ll have to wear shades.
- Expect good luck to continue into the future
- Lucky people persist in the pursuit of their goals long after unlucky people quit.
Continue Reading "How to Increase Your Luck"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
Sumo wrestlers are geniuses at gaining weight. Here, according to Mary Roach, contributing editor of Health Magazine is how they do it:
- Skip Breakfast – it slows your metabolism
- Exercise on an empty stomach – it slows your metabolism even more
- Take a nap after you eat – your body has to store the food instead of use it
- Eat bigger meals late in the day – your body has to store more food
So if you want to become a genius at weight management, do the opposite:
- Eat a hearty breakfast – the body needs fuel to boost metabolism
- Eat a light dinner – the body won’t have any food to store while you sleep
- Evaluate the short- and long-term effects of any food before you eat it.
Continue Reading "Sumo Secrets to Obesity"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
Have you noticed that in most cities, every time there are lots of umbrellas, it’s raining?
From this analysis, the obvious way to make it rain is to be sure that everyone has an umbrella, preferably a black one, since that seems to be the kind that’s most visible during big storms.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Continue Reading "Confused about causation and correlation (from Seth Godin’s blog)"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
My wife ordered a set of monogrammed bath robes for our daughter and son-in-law from RedEnvelope. When they arrived, she checked them (unnecessaryinspection)…no monograms.
So she called (rework) and they told her to keep the two unmonogrammed ones (waste) and they would send two monogrammed ones.
A couple of days later, we did get two monogrammed bath robes (rework). The next day we got two more and the day after that we got two more (waste and rework). When we called (rework), they said, don’t return them because they’ve been monogrammed already.
So now, we have eight robes for the price of two.
Continue Reading "Why Retailers Lose Money"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, Service, Six Sigma.
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.
Continue Reading "PSA Test – a Public Health Disaster"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, Service, Six Sigma.
Last weekend, a United Airlines computer glitch delayed and cancelled flights. Even the redundant backup system didn’t work properly.
In a world increasingly dependent on computers and software, IT has been steadfastly resistant to the methods of Six Sigma. While Agile (Lean) programming methods have accelerated software development, mistakes, errors, hitches and glitches continue to plague worldwide productivity. Hardly a day goes by that my PC doesn’t try to install an “upgrade” to some piece of software: Windows, Java, etc.
Sadly, most software escapes rather than releases. Maybe it’s time to start using Six Sigma to optimize delivered software.
Continue Reading "No Fly Zone"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Jay Arthur Blog.
Seth Godin’s blog brought this data to my attention: http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html.
There’s lots of ways to display it, but I thought it would be fun to look at as Pareto charts.
Deaths from nuclear power are small compared to the power produced. Coal and oil are still the heavy hitters in the mortality department.
Continue Reading "Deaths by Power Source Data"
Posted by Jay Arthur in QI Macros.
The March 2011 Wired magazine article identifies a new trend in manufacturing: insourcing. An MFG.com survey found that 19% of companies had brought all or part of their manufacturing back to North America. US manufacturing added 136,000 jobs in 2010, the first increase since 1997.
While many small to medium sized businesses moved their manufacturing to China in the early part of the last decade, many are finding benefits from moving production back to the USA:
- Rising labor costs in China are making the USA more cost competitive. China wages more than doubled between 2002-2008.
- Sheer distance “remains an intractable problem.”
Continue Reading "Insourcing Manufacturing"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Six Sigma.
