My Upcoming Keynote for the Virtual Shingo Conference on “Measures of Success”

As I talked about in this video, I was supposed to do a half-day workshop on Measures of Success for the annual Shingo Conference in Orlando last month.

Well, we know why that wasn't able to happen.

The Shingo Institute was kind enough to ask me to give a 30-minute virtual keynote talk during their Virtual Conference that's being held on August 4th on the theme of “Embrace Scientific Thinking.” You can learn more and register here (the fee is $750 for the daylong event).

Here is a short video that they asked me to put together about my talk:

If you're a fan of The Simpsons, you might catch my attempt at a Troy McClure reference.

I'll talk about how Lean management is better when we get off the results “roller coaster” — let's stop reacting to every up and down. Let's better understand cause-and-effect in our workplaces as we work to improve scientifically.

I hope you can join us.

Talk Description:

How to Improve Your Lean Management System With Process Behavior Charts

Within the context of Lean management, some think that statistical methods are the exclusive domain of Six Sigma. But that's not really true. A simple, yet powerful method, called Process Behavior Charts can be incredibly helpful in a Lean journey.

Process Behavior Charts (a specific form of “control chart” or “SPC chart”) help Lean leaders understand when the system they are managing has changed in a meaningful way. Instead of reacting to, explaining, or demanding a root-cause analysis for every up and down in a metric, leaders can learn to ignore “noise” in a metric and, instead, focus precious time and energy on understanding “signals.” Process Behavior Charts effectively filter out noise.

These charts can also be used as a means for a statistically-valid, before-and-after comparison to test the effect of countermeasures or improvements put into place. This can avoid faulty cause-and-effect analysis that might confuse a small blip in the metrics after a kaizen event with what one would hope to be a larger, more meaningful, and sustained impact.

In this presentation, Mark Graban, author of the book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, will make the case that all Lean leaders should use control charts. Does Toyota use Six Sigma in manufacturing? They say not, but they do teach every employee the classic “7 quality improvement tools,” which, of course, includes control charts. 

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