QI Macros

Improvement Insights Blog

Posts tagged "QI Macros"

Learn to Ask for Help!

Even with QI Macros, people sometimes try to do things the hard way without thinking there might be an easier way. One user waited until the ASQ WCQI convention to ask for help. We could have saved her a lot of time if she had emailed or chatted months ago.



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

“I was out at the American Society for Quality conference this last week and one of our groups of users came up and one of the women said, “Well, I update these 91 control charts every week and it takes me like a day and a half, and isn’t there an easier way?”

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.

5/25/23 Healthcare Data Analytics Webinar

Over 110 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to implement Healthcare Data Analytics to save time, save money, and (most importantly) save lives.



You can view a short two-page illustrated guide to the Zero Harm – Trillion Dollar Prescription by clicking HERE.

If you’d like to see a short demo video to see how our software is used in healthcare organizations like yours, click this DEMO link.

If you’ve never used QI Macros and would like to try it out for free, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial at THIS link.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Data Mining, Healthcare, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma, Webinar.

Are You Using the Tools of Quality?

Most people are still using Excel line, bar and pie charts instead of the tools of quality. How can you expect to achieve Zero Defects or Zero Harm without control charts, Pareto charts, histograms and fishbones?



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

“I keep going to these conferences and looking at all these improvement posters, and people have these line charts with trend lines. Those trend lines are like fake news. They’re not true. You can’t tell if it means there was an improvement one way or the other.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.

5/16/23 QI Macros webinar

Over 70 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.

What Kind of Statistical Horse Are You?

Shunryū Suzuki said there are four kinds of horses: excellent, good, poor and bad horses. When it comes to statistics, the bad horse may be the best horse. Here’s why:



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

Shunryū Suzuki said there are four kinds of horses: Excellent ones, good ones, poor ones and bad ones. Now everybody wants to be the excellent horse or the good horse, but nobody wants to be the dead-last, bad horse. He suggests that the bad horse has to work extra hard to learn how to run, to learn how to do things, right?

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.

Kodachrome and Quality Charts

The gold standard of photography when I was growing up was Kodachrome, but you had to carefully compose your shot to get the best photos. Then you had to wait to get it developed only to discover that most of your photos were poor. Digital cameras changed all that. The same applies to Six Sigma Charts. Here’s why:



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

Paul Simon wrote a song about Kodachrome; when I was a kid, originally it was black and white film, but then we got Kodachrome color film that you could make really beautiful slides and everything with.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.

To P or Not to P

Most Six Sigma statistics rely on p values. But statisticians have been raising alarm about the problems with p values. Here’s what’s going on:



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

“I get these emails about different courses that are being offered (I think one on Coursera) but it was one on statistics and it was “To P or Not to P That is the Question.”

“Have you been watching anything in the statistics world? Statisticians think that P values can be misleading and potentially dangerous.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.

4/11/23 QI Macros webinar

Over 30 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.

Does QI Macros® Compete with Minitab?

People often ask if QI Macros is in competition with Minitab. No, I tell them. We are both in competition with a common enemy. Here’s why:



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

“I was at the American Society for Quality Lean Six Sigma conference, and my booth for QI Macros was right next to Minitab. You know, people are always asking me, “Jay, do you guys compete with Minitab?” I say, “No, we compete with ignorance and apathy.”

“Number one, people don’t know how these tools could help them, whether it’s me or Minitab.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.

PDCA PDSA DMAIC Whatever!

Some people use PDCA, some use PDSA, some use DMAIC. It doesn’t matter what alphabet system you use. Here’s why:



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

“When I started out (this was back in the 90s), it was Total Quality Management; the process was PDCA. Then later it was PDSA, and then it became DMAIC, and I’m sure there’s some new iteration of that that’s going to come out at some time.

“Don’t let these words freak you out: it’s just that it’s pretty much all the same process, pretty much all the same tools in the same order, right?

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.