BPI Consulting Newsletter Archive

Returning to the Basics: Variation

Bill — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:02:37 -0600

January 2012

Our first newsletter of the year goes back to the beginning - variation - just where you should begin with statistical process control - ensuring that everyone understands the concept of variation. The control chart approach to quality (with common and special causes) is totally different from the specification approach to quality.

SPC, Downtime, and Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Bill — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:45:33 -0600

December 2011

As 2011 draws to end, we hope that you had a wonderful year both in your personal life and your work life. And, we wish you a Happy New Year and the best of luck in 2012. This marks the end of our 8th year of monthly newsletters for us - this is number 96. We hope you have enjoyed the newsletters over the years and that the information in them has been helpful to you.

Control Charts and America's Favorite Pastime - Baseball

Bill — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:46:53 -0600

November 2011

Balancing People and Process

Bill — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:56:25 -0500

October 2011

This month's newsletter discusses the need to balance people and process in your process improvement efforts. As usual, your comments are welcomed. In this issue:

But You Can't Measure What I Do!

Bill — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:08:47 -0500

September 2011

"But, you can't measure what I do!" Have you heard that one before? Most likely you have if you are involved in process improvement, in using SPC, or getting people to take data and track it over time. Or maybe you heard one of these:

When to Calculate, Lock, and Recalculate Control Limits

Bill — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:59:51 -0500

August 2011

This month's newsletter examines control limits - when to calculate them, when to "lock" them in place, and when to recalculate them. The questions posed in this newsletter are:

KPIs, Control Charts and Linking of Measurements

Bill — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:29:59 -0500

July 2011

This month's newsletter takes a look at Key Process Indicators (KPIs), using control charts to monitor these KPIs, and how to link the KPIs down through the organization to performance measures for those closest to the process. Many organizations have KPIs now - a few (or, too often, many) key metrics that are tracked by leadership to "judge" how the organization is performing.

Anderson-Darling Test for Normality

Bill — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:43:38 -0500

June 2011

Scatter Plot Matrix

Bill — Mon, 30 May 2011 09:03:38 -0500

May 2011

This month's newsletter on the scatter plot matrix expands on two previous newsletters. It includes an interesting set of data that examines the impact of three variables on the taste of cheddar cheese. There are correlations between each of the three variables and the taste of the cheese, but there are also correlations between the three variables. Please feel free to add comments at the end of the newsletter - perhaps on what you see in the data.

Correlation Analysis

Bill — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:25:04 -0500

April 2011