Six Sigma Tagged Improvement Insights

Improvement Insights Blog

Posts tagged "Six Sigma"

The Quality Hero’s Journey

Most movies follow a standard arc of discovery and transformation.

The Quality Hero’s Journey follows a similar arc. Here’s how:

Just for fun, watch Kurt Vonnegut’s presentation of the Hero’s Journey.

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

Forgetting The Control Phase?

Are you making one of the most common mistakes in Six Sigma? Are you forgetting the control phase?

If you do forget to implement a control plan and control charts to monitor and corrective actions, you might just as well have not wasted everyone’s time.



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

Going In and Out of Lean Six Sigma?

Do you know people who only dabble in Lean Six Sigma? They get in, get certified and get out?

You can use the tools of quality everywhere in your life and work for the rest of your life.

Why stop?

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

Shortage of Quality Tools at ASQ

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.

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Posted by Jay Arthur in Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.

Quality Improvement Movement

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?”

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Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.

How Often Should You Take Measurements for Control Charts?

I keep seeing a lot of control charts that use quarterly data. That means it could take five years to get 20 data points for a control chart.

How often should you measure?

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

Run Charts Are Unnecessary

I’ve noticed a trend: people are still teaching run charts as a precursor to control charts.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.

Daylight Savings Time – Six Sigma Project

Does Daylight Savings Time save us anything, or is it costing lives?

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

Insights from ASQ Phoenix – 2018

Here are my takeaways from the ASQ conference in Phoenix.

Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Manufacturing, Six Sigma.

Six Sigma Formulas Cause Math Phobias

In the book, The Case Against Education: why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money, author Bryan Caplan argues that, beyond reading, writing and basic ‘rithmatic, “most of what people learn in high school and college is unnecessary and quickly forgotten.”

I would argue that the same is true of Six Sigma; most of what people learn is unnecessary and quickly forgotten.

Peter Coy’s book review in Bloomberg BusinessWeek (January 22, 2018), states that many students struggle with algebra and drop out. City University of New York colleges are “experimenting with alternatives to conventional math because it’s a ‘killing field’ for many students,” says Chancellor James Milliken.

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