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Most people are still using line and bar charts to measure performance. Line and bar charts, especially ones with trendlines harm your customers and your company. They harm patients and hospitals. 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 For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Are line and bar charts harming your company, your hospital, your whatever (your country, even)? Line charts are really good for tracking overall trends like reduction in infant mortality, increase in world literacy rates, but [they’re] not very good for detecting what’s going on in your company.
Continue Reading "Are Line and Bar Charts Harming Your Customers and Company?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
All too often I hear people say: “It’s just human error.” No it’s not. 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 For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I was talking to somebody the other day, and we were talking about things in general, and they said, “Well, you know, it’s just human error.” And I said, no, stop. There’s no such thing as human error.
“Now, I know that’s a limiting sort of thought, but I believe that systems let people make mistakes.
Continue Reading "Human Error and System Design"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
There’s an invisible cost associated with poor quality: no customers. In healthcare, it’s called LWBS. Here’s what that stands for, and what it could mean for your business:
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].
“One of the things nobody thinks about is the invisible cost of Quality: no customers.
“I’ve been seeing dermatologists (I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where it’s always sunny),I’ve been seeing a dermatologist for many years, and I was seeing the doctor for a while, and then I got punted down to a PA, who I really liked.
Continue Reading "The Invisible Cost of Quality in Healthcare"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Over 80 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.
Books that Jay may have mentioned in the video:
You can view a short two-page illustrated guide to the Zero Harm – Trillion Dollar Prescription by clicking HERE.
Continue Reading "5/20/25 Healthcare Data Analytics Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Data Mining, Excel, Healthcare, Lean, QI Macros, Webinar.
Register for the upcoming FREE QI Macros Live Webinar, happening Thursday, June 11th, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. MDT.
Learn how to automate Lean Six Sigma and Quality Improvement. Learn more in the video below, and register at THIS link.
What: FREE QI Macros – Lean Six Sigma SPC Software for Excel Webinar.
When: Thursday, June 11th, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. MDT.
Where: Join online from wherever you are.
How: Register for the webinar HERE.
Continue Reading "*Next Free QI Macros Live Webinar: Thursday, June 11th, 2026"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
If you’re doing Quality Improvement, you should always be in a learning mode. If you create a safe space for people to learn (and to fail), you’re creating conditions where Quality Improvement can grow and thrive.
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“One of the barriers I find to getting people involved in Quality Improvement is they have this fear that somebody will ridicule whatever they’ve decided to try to do and make fun of their knowledge of statistics or whatever it is.
Continue Reading "Psychological Safety in Quality Improvement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Tuesday, June 9th, 2026
Here’s what I’ve learned from 25 years of working with healthcare–three key charts will help diagnose mistakes and errors, waste and rework in healthcare. Just as there is no one-size-fits-all treatment for each patient’s illness, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment for the issues that each hospital faces. Diagnosis and treatment must be done hospital-by-hospital, and the most effective diagnoses are made by first running tests and trusting what the data is telling you. Once you understand the 4-50 rule and its implications, you’ll see how easy this process will be.
Join me, Jay Arthur, author of Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals, to learn how to use healthcare data to save time, save money, and (most importantly) save lives.
Continue Reading "*Next Free Healthcare Data Analytics Live Webinar:"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Data Mining, Healthcare, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma, Webinar.
After WWII, Deming had to turn to Japan to spread the gospel of quality. I often feel empathy and sympathy for his struggles to bring quality improvement to the world.
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I have sympathy for W. Edwards Deming. He learned Quality Improvement at Western Electric with Shewhart back in the ‘20s and ‘30s. And then all of those tools were used in World War II. But after World War II, he was sort of a pariah.
Continue Reading "Sympathy for Deming"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
The steps of 5S include things that we can do in our everyday lives with our workplaces, our house, our neighborhood. When you do that, I think it makes the world a better place for everyone.
Download my free ebook, Agile Process Innovation-Hacking Lean Six Sigma for Results.
“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Many, many years ago, a friend of mine and I went to Hong Kong because I’d read the book “Tai-Pan,” and I really wanted to see Hong Kong back before it became part of China.
Continue Reading "5S Your Environment and Not Just Your Work Area"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
One of the biggest impediments to quality improvement could be the “Hollow Easter Bunnies” in your organization. Here’s how to spot them and what to do about it.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“When you were a kid, did you get an Easter bunny and you were all excited because it was “chocolate chocolate chocolate”? Then you bite into it and you discover it’s hollow, right? It’s an external skin of chocolate but it’s not a chocolate Easter bunny, it’s a hollow Easter bunny.
“I was reading this book called “The Friction Project” and they were talking about how it was difficult to reduce friction in organizations.
Continue Reading "Watch Out for Hollow Easter Bunnies"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
