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Improvement Insights Blog
Posts tagged "Quality Tools"
QI Macros exhibited at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) conference in Orlando this week. There were over 500 improvement posters. Like prior years, I used a checksheet to collect data about the tools used. Once again, the results are disappointing. Quality tools–control charts, Pareto charts, and Fishbone diagrams–are still a small percentage of tools used, unchanged since I started collecting data in 2015. Bar and line charts still dominate posters; I call them Dumb and Dumber charts.
The quest for Zero Harm using high-reliability methods and tools (i.e., Lean Six Sigma, control charts, Pareto charts, histograms, etc.) is gaining momentum.
Continue Reading "IHI Quality Tool Usage in Poster Presentations"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Almost 150 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to use some of the useful features of QI Macros, as well as some of the new features introduced in the October 2018 version of the software.
Some attendees were familiar with the software and already use it, some had only begun to use it; all were interested in learning new ways that QI Macros can help them with their Agile Lean Six Sigma and Quality Improvement efforts. (You can hear him answering questions and comments typed in by webinar 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 “Find Tool” search feature or the automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "12/6/18 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
Over 50 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to use some of the useful features of QI Macros, as well as some of the brand new features introduced just last month in the October 2018 version of the software.
Some attendees were familiar with the software and already use it, some had only begun to use it; all were interested in learning new ways that QI Macros can help them with their Agile Lean Six Sigma and Quality Improvement efforts. (You can hear him answering questions and comments typed in by webinar 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 “Find Tool” search feature or the automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "11/1/18 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
Over 90 people signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to use some of the useful features of QI Macros, as well as some of the brand new features introduced in the October 2018 version of the software.
Some attendees were familiar with the software and already use it, some had only begun to use it; all were interested in learning new ways that QI Macros can help them with their Agile Lean Six Sigma and Quality Improvement efforts. (You can hear him answering questions and comments typed in by webinar 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 “Find Tool” search feature or the automated Value Stream Map), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "10/9/18 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
I’m here at ASQ World in Seattle, 2018. As usual, I went through the team presentations to look for quality tool usage. The results are dismal. Mainly line and pie charts.
To paraphrase Steve Jobs, watching people do Six Sigma projects with plain line, bar and pie charts is like watching a man kick a whale across the beach with his bare feet.
Get QI Macros and start using the tools of Quality. Join my Quality Improvement Movement.
Continue Reading "Shortage of Quality Tools at ASQ"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
The editor of Harvard Business Review says that “corporate survival today requires the capacity for rapid change.” Isn’t it time to embrace an Agile approach to Lean Six Sigma to “speed its evolution and better serve customers’ needs?”
Join the Agile Quality Improvement Movement!
Continue Reading "Quality Improvement Movement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
Based on certification exams, some ASQ Division members lack skills in Quality Tools. If ASQ members are lacking skills with quality tools, how much can we expect of everyone else?
Continue Reading "Quality Tools – Skill Shortage"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
At this years American Society for Quality World Conference in Milwaukee, winning teams improvement projects were displayed in posters in the exhibit hall. As I did at IHI in December, I took a stroke tally of the types of tools used. Like IHI, the vast majority of tools were line and bar charts, which are the dumbest charts on the planet. Only a few teams out of 36 used control charts, Pareto charts, histograms or fishbones.
Shouldn’t quality improvement stories should be told with tools of quality, not simple line and bar charts? Shouldn’t we be using charts that went to college and took statistics?
Continue Reading "ASQ 2016 Quality Tool Usage in Poster Presentations"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Manufacturing, QI Macros, Service, Six Sigma.
In his speech Sunday at IHI, Don Berwick called for everyone to “recommit to improvement science” (step 5 in ERA 3 of healthcare transformation).
He sounded annoyed with the lack of use of Lean Six Sigma tools and methodologies.
I understand his frustration. I was there in 2006 when he asked everyone to “pledge allegiance to science and evidence.”
Over the years, I’ve done a stroke tally of the quality tools used in IHI poster presentations.
I gave each poster one checkmark for each type of tool used.
Sadly, even with all of the emphasis on control charts, Pareto charts and other tools of quality, they are used rarely in poster presentations.
Continue Reading "IHI 2015 Poster Use of Quality Tools"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
