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Posts tagged "Pareto Chart"
Too many companies use management by spreadsheet which just doesn’t work anymore. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I think far too many companies do management by spreadsheet or leadership by spreadsheet: They look at spreadsheets and they think, “Why’s this number up? Why’s this number down?” Blah blah blah blah blah… They don’t really understand that it’s all in statistical process control and you should stop talking about it. Right? Stop chasing Wild Goose chases, all right?
“So what do we want to do? We want to go from this ‘hindsight spreadsheet mentality,’ where they have heat maps and they think, “Well, this one’s too high, this one’s too low, this one’s below our target…” Right?
Continue Reading "Management by Spreadsheet"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Too many teams try to use every tool in the Six Sigma toolkit. It’s counterproductive. Here’s why:
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“For a number of years, I’ve been a fan of Tim Ferriss, the author of “The Four Hour Workweek.” In “The 4-Hour Chef,” he spends a whole chapter talking about how he takes a process, breaks it all down and makes it simple and easy to learn. One of the things that I found in there (and I’ll just read this, because it makes it a little easier for me), he says, “Do as little as needed, not as much as possible.”
Continue Reading "Do as Little as Needed, Not as Much as Possible"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
A statistician using a bar chart is like a surgeon using a butter knife. Here’s why:
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“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I was recently perusing the American Statistical Association’s magazine, and they had some posters that were done by kids in K through 12. This one was an analysis of what kind of charts and graphs are used in poster presentations at statistical conferences. They found that more often than not, the winners had bar charts, and that bar charts were very popular because of their simplicity.
Continue Reading "Statisticians Using Bar Charts"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
John, a senior executive with a large lumber company, went to Japan with 30 other leaders for 30 days. Everywhere they went, in every corner of the company, they found one quality tool over and over again.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“I started telling you a little bit about my new friend John who worked for the big lumber company and went on that trip to Japan. He said, “Everywhere I went, Pareto charts, Pareto charts, Pareto charts, Pareto charts, Pareto charts, Pareto charts, Pareto charts.”
Continue Reading "Pareto Charts Everywhere"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Absence blindness means that you can’t see what isn’t there. The tools of quality can help you see the invisible so that you can do something about it. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“There’s a concept called “absence blindness,” and basically what that says is you can’t see what isn’t there. That’s why it’s kind of difficult to see things that are working well, because they just work well, but a defect or some sort of complication or issue raises this ugly head and you can see that one.
Continue Reading "Seeing the Invisible"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Six Sigma.
I didn’t know I couldn’t see that well until 5th grade. I didn’t know I couldn’t see how businesses worked until I learned three key tools.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I grew up in Tucson, Arizona and went to Peter E. Howell elementary, for those of you who might have gone there. I remember in classrooms from first grade on, they sorted us in alphabetical order. Well, my first [letter] is A, so I was always right in the front row. That continued all the way through second grade, third grade, fourth grade…
“And then in fifth grade they said, “No, you need to randomize how you see everybody,” so I ended up in the back of the classroom.
Continue Reading "5th Grade Vision Problems and Six Sigma"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Someone recently asked: “What kind of data should I use for control charts and Pareto charts.” The answer is simple. Here it is:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I got a call from someone last week who was talking about how they’ve been a longtime user of QI Macros, and then how educated they were… and then they asked me, “Uh, Jay… I’m not quite sure how to set up… what kind of data should I use for a control chart, and what kind of data should I use for a Pareto chart?”
Continue Reading "What Kind of Data Should I Use?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Did your quality instructors teach you to gather a team and brainstorm a problem to solve? That’s terribly bad advice. Use data to pinpoint the problem. Then, and only then do you know who should be on the root cause analysis.
I don’t know about you, but when I first got my quality training they said, “Get a team together and brainstorm a problem to solve and then go start trying to find the data, define the data, measure the data,” or something else. Now that’s the dumbest damn advice I ever got in quality training. I’ve looked at a lot of different training packages over the years and they still have all that same stupid stuff in there.
Continue Reading "Brainstorming is a Terrible Way to Start a Team"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, QI Macros.
We’re all familiar with Pareto’s rule: 20% of causes produce 80% of the results. But are you familiar with Arthur’s 4-50 rule? Typically, 4% of any process – one step out of 35 – is the cause of more than 50% of waste, rework and lost profit.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Now I’ve probably talked to you about this before, but we’re all familiar with Pareto’s rule that 20% of what you do produces 80% of the mistakes, errors, waste, rework, lost profit. 20% of your customers produce 80% of your revenue.
Continue Reading "Arthur’s 4-50 Rule – The Secret to Breakthrough Improvement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma, Statistics.
People still seem to be confused about what kind of Quality Improvement chart to use. Here’s the short and simple answer:
Continue Reading "Ask Jay – What Kind of Chart Should I Use?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Ask Jay, Jay Arthur Blog.
