Content by Davis Balestracci
A Statistician’s Favorite Answer: ‘It Depends,’ Part 1 When should I use what chart?
Mon, 03/14/2011 - 05:30
Quality improvement people sure love those tools. A particular favorite, of course, is the control chart, of which, I think, seven are usually taught. Two questions I’m always asked are, “Which chart do I use for which situation?” and “When and…
Uh-oh… Time for the (Dreaded?) Third Quarter Review Meeting What do you get from tracking trends?
Thu, 11/18/2010 - 08:01
You know what the third-quarter review meeting means: a packet will be handed out  with bar graphs and, no doubt, trend lines on each of about a zillion “key performance indicators” that show: • This month vs. last month vs. 12 months ago (…
Time to Lose the 10-Minute Overview Stop the self-sabotage and help executives understand simple variation
Tue, 09/28/2010 - 05:30
I attended a talk in 2006 given by a world leader in quality that contained a bar graph summary ranking 21 U.S. counties from best to worst (see figure 1). The counties were ranked from 1 to 21 for 10 different indicators, and these ranks were…
Are You Becoming a ‘Qualicrat?’ Beware of letting data and analysis muscle out embedded quality improvement
Wed, 09/22/2010 - 06:00
During my recent travels, I have noticed an increasing tendency toward formalizing organizational quality improvement (QI) efforts into a separate silo. Even more disturbing is an increasing (and excruciating) formality. Expressions such as “saving…
Given Two Numbers, Only One Can Be Larger The not-so-random case of nonrandom randomness
Tue, 05/25/2010 - 06:00
Customer satisfaction data resulting in various quality indexes abound. The airline industry is particularly watched. The April 10 Quality Digest Daily had an article with the title "Study: Airline Performance Improves" and the subtitle "Better on-…
A Quality Professional’s Holiday Wish List, Second Edition Take your pick, and happy wishes in the year to come!
Wed, 12/16/2009 - 06:00
Almost everyone celebrates something during the winter solstice—Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.—which inevitably includes gift exchanging. Following are some suggestions that run the gamut from technical to personal growth to just plain…
Is the Pareto Principle Coming Home to Roost? 20 percent of quality pros could be doing 80 percent of the work. The rest? Well...
Wed, 12/09/2009 - 05:30
The economy has become a convenient excuse on which to pin the blame for everything—especially job losses. Well, in the case of quality positions, yes… and no. A sobering thought: Will the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule) inevitably apply to…
The Fuel of Quality What’s it going to take?
Tue, 09/08/2009 - 03:30
Remember my previous article on the quality pyramid where the very top element emphasizes the concept of “process?” One of the most powerful points to get across in any quality improvement effort is that your current processes are perfectly…
Eight Reasons Major Change Initiatives Fail Insights from John P. Kotter’s book, <em>Leading Change</em>
Thu, 08/20/2009 - 05:00
Why do major change initiatives fail? It seems obvious: major change will not happen easily for a long list of reasons. However, if you feel your organization is overmanaged and underled with tendencies toward an inwardly focused culture,…
Deming Is Dead… Long Live Deming The man is dead, but his teaching continues... often, unfortunately, inaccurately.
Wed, 08/12/2009 - 05:00
W. Edwards Deming has been dead for almost 16 years. In my opinion, he and Joseph Juran were the true quality giants of the 20th century. No one seems to talk about Deming much any more except to relate stories from the past and pine for the “good…