Improvement Insights Blog
The High Cost of Not Buying Six Sigma Software
Trainers often use trial versions of QI Macros to train their students. That comes with a huge cost. Here’s Why:
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“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I have found that a lot of training companies and universities and [others], when they teach Lean and Six Sigma they want to use our 30-day trial to train people. I have to ask you a question: Maybe you think you’re saving money, or you’re saving the patient money, or [saving] the student money, or you’re saving something, or you’re keeping your cost lower so you don’t look like an more expensive training [option] so you get more business… I don’t know what it is, but what’s the cost of NOT buying that software for that student?
“That student, then, after they’re trained, goes off and what do they have to do? They either have to convince their leadership to pay for the software, or they just revert back to Excel line and bar charts and don’t make any improvements. Very often, I hear people talk about ‘one and done’: people go to training, do one project and they’re done. Well, that’s not good.
“So what’s the cost of not buying QI Macros or [other] software to assist your Green Belts and Black Belts and Master Black Belts to solve problems, to do analysis, to find and prevent the things that are costing you money, time, patient lives, these things? What’s the cost of NOT buying the tools people need to solve problems? I think it’s enormous: Trillions of dollars… trillions.
“You know, I believe truly when I was back at the phone company… if I’d have had QI Macros when I was doing this, I might have prevented our company from being bought and going almost into bankruptcy, because I could have solved a lot of the problems that were threatening the company and the bottom line.
“So that’s my Improvement Insight: What’s the cost of NOT doing what you need to do: Not training people, not buying software, not attacking the problems that are really big? It’s massive.
“Let’s go out and improve something this week.”
