Content by Jay Arthur—The KnowWare Man
The Ambiguous Control Chart Trend RuleTrend rules are helpful in service industries but you need to know which one to use
Tue, 09/21/2021 - 12:03
There are many control chart rules to detect special causes (i.e., out-of-control conditions). Although most of these rules are clear, the one that seems to befuddle most people is the rule about trends. Is it six points (including the first point…
Problem Solving With Manufacturing DataHere’s a simple way to use Excel PivotTables to dig into your data
Mon, 01/25/2021 - 12:03
There are two ways to increase profits: increase sales or reduce costs. Although most data analysis seeks to find more ways to sell more stuff to more people, addressing preventable problems is an often overlooked opportunity. Preventable problems…
Examining Colorado’s Covid-19 Outbreak Using Control ChartsWhat helps us understand what’s going on, in a useful, actionable way?
Wed, 05/06/2020 - 12:02
Story update 5/6/2020: The charts and some data have been updated to reflect the data available on the date this article was published. During the Covid-19 stay-at-home order in Colorado, I've become increasingly frustrated by Covid-19 charts. Most…
Who Invented the Pareto Chart?Vilfredo Pareto, Joseph Juran, and Kaoru Ishikawa are all contenders
Mon, 06/03/2019 - 12:03
When I first learned quality improvement back in 1989 at Florida Power and Light, the consultants who trained us taught a very specific way to draw a Pareto chart. They’d been trained in Japan, the place where quality improvement first took root…
Visualizing Delay, Waste, and Nonvalue-Added WorkUsing a time value map
Wed, 06/18/2014 - 17:18
When looking at any existing process, people often have a hard time visualizing the enormous amount of delay, waste, and nonvalue-added work involved. That’s where a time value map comes in; it makes the invisible waste visible. A time value map …
The Four-Hour Black BeltIf we want quality methods to spread, we should simplify and streamline the learning process
Thu, 02/27/2014 - 14:37
Let’s face it: Everyone isn’t cut out to be a belted Six Sigma guru, but everyone should know how to use key tools in the right order to solve the problems facing businesses. And they can’t wait months or years to get results; the marketplace moves…
Why Healthcare Isn’t Getting BetterDespite years of lean Six Sigma training, we aren’t seeing results
Thu, 11/29/2012 - 09:17
The United States spends $2.5 trillion for healthcare. Healthcare spending is expected to reach $4.5 trillion by the end of the decade. With Obamacare becoming a reality, we need to find a way cut the cost of healthcare to help pay for these…
Why Six Sigma Isn’t StickyWe need to make it less scary
Tue, 09/25/2012 - 12:17
I went into my local Barnes & Noble looking for a book and decided to check if they carried my book, Lean Six Sigma Demystified. There were four rows of business books on management, leadership, sales, and so on. The “quality” section,…
Dumb It Down or Simple It Up?Time to lose the Six Sigma jargon
Tue, 05/29/2012 - 11:22
At the ASQ World Conference held in Anaheim last week, I ran into my old friend Jack Revelle, author of many SPC books and videos. He said clients were constantly asking him to take Six Sigma and “dumb it down.” Surprisingly, despite everything the…
How You Gonna Stop ’Em?You don’t have to be good to start, but you do have to start to be good
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 11:47
Yogi Berra once said, “If people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?” I have found the same is true of statistical process control (SPC). As the author of the QI Macros SPC Software for Excel, I get emails every…