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Posts tagged "Measurement"
Most companies are drowning in data, so you don’t need to Define and Measure anything new. Take DM out of DMAIC to accelerate results. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“In the whole Six Sigma world, the DMAIC process, one of the things I’ve noticed is every company I’ve ever gone to… ever… has so much data they’re just… they’re drowning in their own data, and they don’t know how to analyze what they’ve got. And yet in DMAIC, we teach people to Define and then figure out something to Measure.
Continue Reading "Take DM Out Of DMAIC"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Measure failures not success. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Recently one of our users called up and asked me about showing percent compliance. You know, present success (in this case it was neonatal intubations – this is for healthcare). But the goal obviously is to get to 100% first-time success at intubating a preemie, right? So that would be a good thing.
“Now what most people do is they try and focus on the success side of this, so if you’re down here, you want to get up that-a-way, right?
Continue Reading "Measure Success or Failures"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
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.
The September/October 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review asks this question. The answer is obvious, but some people will read this the wrong way. Here’s why:
“This is a September / October 2019 edition of the Harvard Business Review. You can see here it says, “Are Metrics Undermining Your Business?”
“Now the essence of the article is “Bad metrics drive bad behavior.” Well, I think we all know that, but I think too often people who hate metrics will just look at that and say, “There’s proof! See? Measurements are ruining our business. We’ve got to go back to gut feel, common sense and trial-and-error.”
Continue Reading "Are Metrics Harming Your Business?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
I keep seeing a lot of control charts that use quarterly data. That means it could take five years to get 20 data points for a control chart.
How often should you measure?
Continue Reading "How Often Should You Take Measurements for Control Charts?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Recently at a conference, I saw a noted Six Sigma practitioner use Minitab to generate data for analysis.
In that moment it struck me: colleges have been training students to manufacture “real-looking” data for class assignments. All you have to do is enter some parameters and out pops data that varies with whatever distribution you assign it.
Isn’t this what got us into trouble in this economy: creating data that justified our behavior and inflated results?
I’d like you to consider that seemingly innocuous behaviors like this can lead to catastrophic results: market crashes, inflated bonuses and general stupidity.
If teachers want to generate data for students, that’s probably a good idea.
Continue Reading "Making Up Data"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Six Sigma.
