Improvement Insights Blog
The Space Between Your Fingers
In any process, what’s more important? Steps in the process or the delays between steps?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified,” “Agile Process Innovation” and QI Macros [software].
“Most of you have probably seen this: They would have you hold up your hand, right? This is like a process, and you can see the steps in the process {pointing at fingers}.
“But most of the delay is in the space in between {pointing between fingers}. It’s not… it’s not in here {pointing at fingers}, right? You can’t really speed up a thumb, but you can reduce the gaps between the fingers so that everything happens more quickly. It’s a simple example, but sometimes simple examples are very handy.
“That’s my Improvement Insight. Let’s go out and improve how we present these ideas to people, and maybe they will get it more easily.”
