Tag Archives: variation

How to Create a Control Chart for Seasonal or Trending Data

Lynda Finn, President of Statistical Insight, has written an article on how to create a control chart for seasonal or trending data (where there is an underlying structural variation in the data). Essentially you need to account for the structural … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Science, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

6 Leadership Competencies

At the recent Annual W. Edwards Deming Institute Annual conference (this year held in Madison, Wisconsin) Peter Scholtes gave an excellent speech on the 6 Leadership Competencies from his book: The Leader’s Handbook. Those competencies are: The ability to think … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Epidemic of Diagnoses

What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses by Dr. Welch, Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Woloshin: For most Americans, the biggest health threat is not avian flu, West Nile or mad cow disease. It’s our health-care system. True, and … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Common Cause Variation

Every system has variation. Common cause variation is the variation due to the current system. Dr. Deming increased his estimate of variation due to the system (common cause variation) to 97% (earlier in his life he cited figures around 80%). … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Quality tools, Theory of Constraints | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Customer Knows Best?

The Customer Knows Best? Better Think Again by Anthony W. Ulwick It’s important to listen to customers – but not follow their words without skepticism. Ask them to design your next product and you’re likely to miss the mark, suggests … Continue reading

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Six Sigma and Process Drift

Quality Quandaries: Six Sigma, Process Drift, Capability Indices, and Feedback Adjustment by George Box and Alberto Luceno. This article is for the more statistically inclined. The Six Sigma specification makes an allowance of 1.5 standard deviations for process drift. Simple … Continue reading

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New Toyota CEO’s Views

The Man Driving Toyota from Business Week: Toyota has grown in the past few years, but [there’s a risk] that a belief that the current status is satisfactory creeps into the minds of employees. That’s what I’m worried about. We … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments