QI Macros

Improvement Insights Blog

Posts tagged "QI Macros"

Are You Too Comfortable Fixing Stuff That Shouldn’t Be Broken?

Seems like everywhere I shop, employees are more comfortable fixing stuff than fixing the process. Does this sound familiar?

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“Have you ever gone somewhere and watched how the business works and [thought], “Why? Why do they do it that way? That’s sort of silly. Why don’t they do it a faster, better, simpler, cheaper way?” But people seem to be more attracted to spending their time continuing to fix things that are broken.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Five Limitations of Six Sigma

Six Sigma can go wrong. An article I read suggested at least five limitations of Six Sigma.

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“I was reading an article that was published talking about the limitations of Six Sigma. It had a bunch, but here’s five that I thought stood out for me.

  1. High failure rate. That’s right. A lot of these implementations don’t work, and it puts a bad color on Six Sigma.
  2. The high cost of implementation.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Yellow Belts or Green and Black Belts

Six Sigma dogma says you need Green and Black Belts, but you might be a lot better off with Yellow Belts. Here’s why:

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“You know, there seems to be a lot of discussion in Six Sigma about whether you need Green Belts or Black Belts or Yellow Belts. I believe the correct answer is Yellow Belts.

“I just spoke with a company, a worldwide manufacturing company, and they train people.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

I Wish I’d Known About QI Macros When Doing My Project

People come up to us at improvement conferences and say: I wish I’d known about QI Macros when I was doing my Green Belt, Black Belt or DNP project. It would have saved a lot of time. It can save you time too.

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“Every year we exhibit at conferences and we’re demonstrating the QI Macros, and lots of people tell me, “Oh, I wish I’d known about this when I took my Green Belt training,” or my Black Belt training or my Director of Nursing Practice training or whatever it is.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Automate Lean Six Sigma Training

Want to speed up Lean Six Sigma training? Automate the hard stuff that confuses everyone. Here’s how:

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

When I think back, I spent five days in a control chart class learning how to do hand calculations for control chart limits. You know, with QI Macros, I could have gotten that done in a couple hours and started analyzing some real data. Before that, I’d taken ‘Team Leader Training,’ which was 5 days.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

What’s a Lean Six Sigma Project Worth?

A study in Texas found that Lean Six Sigma projects save an average of $150,000 per project. How can you hack Lean Six Sigma to get those kinds of results? It’s easier than you think.

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

I recently found an article online where in Texas, they’ve done an analysis of Lean and Six Sigma projects. They found that, on average, Lean and Six Sigma projects saved $150,000 a project. Now, obviously, there were some high ones and some low ones, but $150,000 a project.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Lean Six Sigma Vanity Metrics

Companies often implement Lean Six Sigma metrics that have nothing to do with success. Here’s why:

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

I was mentioning Eric Ries’ book ‘The Lean Startup,’ and he talks about the problems with vanity metrics. Vanity metrics, as opposed to actionable metrics, right? You can measure things that make you feel good but don’t really do you any good.

“In Lean and Six Sigma that’s like ‘number of people trained,’ ‘number of teams started.’

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

*Latest webinar: 3/12/26 QI Macros webinar

Over 40 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating some of the software’s most frequently used tools and answering questions asked by 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 Improvement Project Wizard or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.

Send an email to support@qimacros.com and we can help, for instance in generating a quote to upgrade all the users at your organization or just guiding you through the purchasing process.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.

How to Save $5,000 with QI Macros

There are at least four ways to save $5,000 quickly with QI Macros, not including all of the improvements you can make. Here’s how:

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation – Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software]. I want to give you some ideas about how you could save $5,000 for your company.

“First off, if you’re using Minitab, they increased their price to $1,850 a year. Over a three-year period, that’s over $5,500. Right now, you could buy QI Macros for under $400 and save $5,000.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Simple It UP – Don’t Dumb It Down

People often accuse me of trying to take Six Sigma and dumb it down. No. I’m trying to Simple It UP. Here’s why:

Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.



Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.

“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

People often accuse me of trying to ‘dumb down’ Six Sigma. I’m not; I’m trying to ‘simple it up.’ Huge difference. ‘Dumbing it down’ pretends that people are dumb. ‘Simpling it up’ means I’m trying to make it so that everyone can access it.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.