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Posts tagged "Six Sigma"
Ever wondered why it’s so hard to propagate improvements from one group to the next? Here’s why and what to do about it:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I was recently at one of the IHI presentations at their conference and they mentioned… “How long does it take for medicine to adopt a new practice?” On average it’s 17 years… 17 years. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? I think penicillin was 25 years, and some of the other things… but 17 years?
“They say, “Well, you know, we haven’t peer reviewed that, so we have to peer review it so we can confirm that your hypothesis is correct and that we can actually…” Right?
Continue Reading "How to Ensure the Adoption of Countermeasures"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
In school, they always made you search for the one right answer. In real life, things are rarely that simple. There are often many right answers. Here’s how to choose the best among those:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but in school – first grade all the way through college – it seemed like they were preaching that there was always one right answer to a question. You had to get that one right answer to be able to get a hundred percent on your test (unless it was an essay thing, and then that was a different thing).
Continue Reading "The Myth of the One Right Answer"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Some people think working long hours and putting in a lot of overtime is the red badge of courage. They are wrong. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I first hired my first employee Adrienne she’d been working for Arthur Andersen, which was a big accounting firm, and she was used to working long hours like that was the “red badge of courage.” She said, “If you need me to work nights or weekends, I can do whatever that is. I can do whatever it takes.”
Continue Reading "Surprising My First Employee"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean.
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. 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 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.
Continue Reading "1/11/22 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
Jack Welch made Six Sigma big. Now it’s fading. How can we bring the sparkle back to Six Sigma?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I got started in my business back in the late 90s, Jack Welch was the CEO to copy. When he got dipped in Six Sigma, guess what? Every other CEO wanted to get dipped in Six Sigma too. This is what I call the Jack Welch Effect.
“Since then, Jack retired and [CEO] went over to [Jeff] Immelt and some other people, and now GE has fallen into some disarray, (not necessarily because of Six Sigma, I think because they let go of some of that), but other forces in the world were pushing them.
Continue Reading "The Jack Welch Effect"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
The nightly news reports unemployment statistics, not employment statistics. There’s a lesson here for Six Sigma.
“Have you ever noticed that when the nightly news comes on they always report unemployment rates, not employment rates? “The unemployment rate is five or six percent,” they don’t say “94 or 95 percent of America is employed.” No, they focus on the problem: the problem is the unemployment rate.
“Well, this holds true also in all things Quality related. Once when I was first being trained they said, “Once you get above 80 percent compliance, what you want to do is focus on the 20 percent non-compliance,” so you want to focus on the defects, the mistakes, the errors, the waste, the rework.
Continue Reading "Unemployment Rate Lessons for Six Sigma"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
My apple tree had hundreds of apples this year. I invited people to pick some and leave some. Soon, all of the low-hanging fruit was picked, but there were still hundreds of apples in the three. Maybe you need a fruit picker to get to the rest of the fruit in your company.
“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“We have an apple tree in our front yard (I think it’s Jonathan apples), and this year in an unusual fit of luck, we got a giant crop. I bet we had a thousand apples on that tree.
Continue Reading "My Apple Tree Reminded Me About Low-Hanging Fruit"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Over 100 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.
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 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.
Continue Reading "12/7/21 QI Macros Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
People are error prone. If you want to lock in improvements, use your existing technology to mistake-proof the change. Here’s how:
“I was working with one group of folks in a hospital, and they were complaining about the fact that the doctors were doing these electronic medical records, but they couldn’t get them to complete all the forms and all the fields that were needed to be able to bill the insurance company for the services provided. I was listening to them talk, and they were talking about how they were going to try and train the doctors to do all these things and do all this stuff, and I said, “Wait.
Continue Reading "Use Technology to Lock In Quality Improvements"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros.
Consultants and trainers keep trying to save money on Six Sigma software while charging a small fortune for training. Without tools to to the job, all of this training is wasted and improvement projects will fail to sustain results. Are you trying to save a few dollars on software or maximize the results from Six Sigma?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I’ve been eternally frustrated over the last 20-something years because Six Sigma trainers and [others] will go out and train companies, spend weeks training people in a company, but then not give them the software to do the job.
Continue Reading "Trying to Save Money on Software Can Kill Your Six Sigma Results"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
