Fri, 05/18/2012 - 16:48
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“I’m shocked... shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”
—Casablanca’s Captain Renault, as he’s closing down Rick’s Cafe... while being handed his gambling winnings
I saw an abstract of a recent talk by several “experts” who have been very active selling (expensive) improvement initiatives during the last 5–10 years. They do this via lots of training, tools, “sharing best practices,” and exhorting people with, “If they can do it, you can do it.” Meanwhile they are creating a massive subculture of qualicrats.
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Skip to Analyze, Improve and Control
Most companies already have too much data, so skip the Define and Measure phases of DMAIC, go right to Analyze, Improve and Control. If you can't find data for the problem you want to solve, skip that problem and start with data about problem you can solve. Too many teams try to define new measures and try to collect them, delaying problem solving and results.
There's more than enough data laying around about defects and deviation to drive improvement teams for years. Start there. Draw a control chart. Narrow your focus with a couple of pareto charts or histograms. Determine the root causes and fix the 4% that's causing 50% of the mistakes, errors, defects and lost profit. Repeat until you run out of things to fix, then start identifying better measurements.
With existing data, analysis of control charts and pareto charts can be done in a day or two. Then gather a SWAT team of experts to do root cause analysis. Then project manage the implementation of countermeasures and measure results. Properly focused, improvements can happen in a day or two. Improperly focused they wander around for months with no results.
It's not hard:
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