Jay Arthur—The KnowWare Man

Author and quality trainer/consultant

Jay Arthur, speaker, trainer, founder of KnowWare International Inc., and developer of QI Macros for Excel, understands how to pinpoint areas for improvement in processes, people, and technology. He uses data to pinpoint broken processes and helps teams understand their communication styles and restore broken connections. Arthur is the author of Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals (McGraw-Hill, 2011), and Lean Six Sigma Demystified (McGraw-Hill, 2010), and QI Macros SPC Software for Excel. He has 30 years experience developing software. Located in Denver, KnowWare International helps service and manufacturing businesses use lean Six Sigma tools to drive dramatic performance improvements.

Tue, 09/21/2021 - 12:03
Big Results from Small Data Analytics Using Excel PivotTables for data mining
Thu, 04/19/2012 - 15:09
There’s a lot of buzz about “data analytics”—mining huge data sets to discover invisible patterns of customer behavior that can be leveraged to maximize sales. But I’ve found that few people know how to mine the hidden improvement projects from…
Improvement Projects for Services Start now, but remember that you’re never done
Tue, 04/10/2012 - 11:16
I am no longer surprised by the number of people who say, “I’m working on my Green Belt/Black Belt certification, but I’m not sure how to apply Six Sigma to [health care, telecom, hotels, food, transportation]—insert your service industry here. They…
Control Charts for Services Service professionals should know their way around p, u, and XmR charts
Tue, 04/03/2012 - 12:28
Although Quality Digest often has in-depth articles about the nuances of control charts, I’ve found that many beginners are at a loss to figure out how to organize their data, especially in service industries such as health care, hotels, and food.…
Do Your Employees Have the Tools to Succeed with Lean Six Sigma? Why ‘No Belts’ need access to an easy, Excel-based software
Mon, 11/07/2011 - 15:09
At a recent health-care conference I had a conversation with Mary, a Six Sigma Black Belt for a 700-bed hospital. She told me that the hospital had only a few copies of Minitab software, which was shared by several people. She was always being…
Six Sigma Should Listen to the Voice of Its Customers The methodology wastefully over-trains, over-promises, and under-delivers
Tue, 10/18/2011 - 08:45
For the last decade, people have come by my booth at the American Society for Quality (ASQ) World Conference on Quality and Improvement and asked: “Isn’t there a better way to implement Six Sigma that doesn’t cost so much or take so long?” Of…
Debunking Six Sigma Folklore Myths It’s about bucks, not belts
Tue, 10/11/2011 - 13:20
Ask almost anyone what is the No. 1 requirement for Six Sigma success, and he will say: top leadership commitment. It’s easy to look at Six Sigma successes like General Electric (GE) under Jack Welch and use them as evidence of the power of…
Six Sigma Tricks of the Trade: Less Tricks, More Trade Begin with a toolbelt, not the toolbox
Thu, 12/10/2009 - 05:00
After a meal at a local Chinese restaurant, my fortune cookie said, “If you keep too busy learning the tricks of the trade, you may never learn the trade.” When I think about how this applies to Six Sigma, it seems obvious that far too much Six…
If Six Sigma Is So Easy, Why Isn’t Everyone Doing It? It's so easy to complicate it!
Thu, 10/22/2009 - 05:00
At the 2009 National Association for Healthcare Quality conference, I gave a speech on lean Six Sigma simplified. At the end of the session, one of the attendees asked, "If Six Sigma is so easy, why isn’t everyone doing it?" My answer: Because…
Lean Six Sigma Can Reduce Health Care Costs In just three basic steps
Thu, 10/08/2009 - 05:30
I n his inauguration speech, President Obama called for improving health care quality and reducing costs. In 2008, U.S. health care costs exceeded $2.4 trillion and are expected to climb to $3.1 trillion by 2012, according to the National…