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Posts tagged "Six Sigma"
People trained in Six Sigma want to take an advanced tool and apply it to a problem. They spend a lot of time looking for a problem where they can use the tool. That’s the wrong approach. What should you do instead?
“I’ve been detecting sort of an interesting pattern, at least recently. There’s all these people being trained as Green Belts and Black Belts, and when they’re done with all that training they have all these tools and then they decide they’re going to take one of those tools – maybe it’s Attribute Agreement Analysis or Design Of Experiments or something more complicated – and then they go out and they look for a problem to solve using that tool.
Continue Reading "Tools Looking for Problems to Solve"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
Have you ever noticed that no one wants to admit the problems in their life or work? It’s time to start airing our dirty laundry and here’s why:
“You know, I grew up in Tucson, Arizona and I think Tuesday was wash day. We had this washing machine that sat out on the back porch because it never got cold enough to freeze the hoses for the thing. It was a roller washing machine, so you had a big tub about the size of a keg of beer and it would do the wash, but then there was a set of rollers on top.
Continue Reading "Airing Your Dirty Laundry"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Healthcare, Improvement Insights, Manufacturing.
Over 60 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, the Fixed Limit indicator or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "10/12/21 QI Macros webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
At an Agile Lean Six Sigma workshop I did for ASQ Phoenix, one participant asked me if I’d applied Six Sigma to Bitcoin. While I haven’t, my insightful answer surprised me and the participant.
“Last week I was doing a presentation, a nightly webinar on Agile Lean and Six Sigma for the ASQ section in Phoenix, and if your section wants me to do a one hour whatever for your section meeting I’m happy to do it. But anyway, in this section meeting we broke out into some work rooms and one gentleman asked me, “Well,” he asked. “Have you ever worked with Bitcoin?”
Continue Reading "Bucks or Bitcoin?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights.
All too often, improvement teams fail to question the default approach to doing business. They come up with countermeasures that simply parrot the status quo. I recently saw a TED talk on creativity. The presenter said: Doubt the Default. Sage advice. Here’s why:
“I saw an interesting TED talk this weekend. The professor was talking about creativity, and he used a phrase that I kind of liked. It’s “doubt the default.” Doubt the default. So whatever you’re doing right now is the default; doubt the default.
“Steve Jobs said “Hmm… you know, I don’t like these little tape cassette recorders.
Continue Reading "Doubt the Default Solution"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, QI Macros.
You don’t have to fix everything, just the one thing out of 25 that causes over half the waste, rework and lost profit.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I’ve talked to you about Pareto’s rule before, but I continue to come back to this time and time again: 20% of what you’re doing is producing 80% of the waste, rework, lost profit, [lost] productivity, patient harm… whatever it is. But within that 20% that Pareto rule still applies, which means that only 4% of what you’re doing is producing over half the mistakes and errors.
Continue Reading "Drill Down to the 4-50 Rule to Get Results"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Data Mining, Improvement Insights, QI Macros.
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. 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, the Fixed Limit indicator or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version.
Continue Reading "9/14/21 QI Macros webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Excel, QI Macros, Webinar.
Do you use data to discover problems and innovative solutions? Or do you use data to confirm what you already believe and think you know? This is called confirmation bias.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“So in Quality Improvement we’re asked to pledge allegiance to science and evidence. A lot of people do that, but very often they get trapped because they like data that supports what they believe about how things work, and they don’t like data that contradicts what they believe. Does this make sense?
“So are you one of those people who selectively goes out and says, “Hey, this data supports me.
Continue Reading "Do You Use Data Selectively?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights.
More time, money, people and training are poor, unsustainable countermeasures. Improvements should save money, time and people. Good countermeasures require more creativity.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I recently mentioned a tool called TRIZ for doing analysis and coming up with countermeasures. One of the things I keep seeing is people think, “Well, if I only had more time or more money or more people or if we did a better job of training we’d fix all this stuff.” That’s dumb, okay? TRIZ suggests that you’re not being very creative.
Continue Reading "Time, Money, People and Training Are Bad Countermeasures"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean.
Do you and your team ever get stuck trying to figure out how to fix the root cause of problems? There’s a methodology for that. It’s called TRIZ – the Theory of Innovative Problem Solving. Here’s how it works.
Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of Lean Six Sigma Demystified,Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals and QI Macros [software].
You know, when I worked with teams I found sometimes they were very good at figuring out [and] getting to the root cause, but then they struggled with How can we fix that? It’s like they get stuck in their old ways of thinking about how things work.
Continue Reading "TRIZ for Innovative Countermeasures"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
