Steven Ouellette

Steve Ouellette started his career as a metallurgical engineer. It was during this time that his eyes were opened to find that business was not a random series of happenings, but that it could be a knowable enterprise. This continues to fascinate him to this day.

He started consulting in 1996 and has worked in heavy and light industry, service, aerospace, higher education, government, and non-profits. He is the President of The ROI Alliance, LLC. He is the author of Galileo's Telescope, which teaches how to create meaningful metrics and strategic plans, and Data-Driven Leadership, or how to integrate data into management decisions. His author website can be found at steveouellette.com.

Steve has a black belt in aikido, a non-violent martial art, and spent a year in Europe on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship studying the “Evolution, Fabrication, and Social Impact of the European Sword."

Thu, 04/03/2025 - 12:03
Performing a Short-Term MSA Study Gauging your conformance decisions
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 08:23
In the past couple of articles, we have been having fun together testing whether a measurement device is usable for the crazy purpose of determining if we are actually making product in or out of specification. Last month, we performed a…
The Mystery Measurement Theatre Determining sources of variations
Thu, 01/14/2010 - 07:40
If you can’t trust your measurement system, you can’t do anything with the data it generates. Last month, in “ Letting You In On a Little Secret,” we talked about the purpose of measurement system analysis (MSA) and I gave you a neat spreadsheet…
Letting You In On a Little Secret Cause I’m a nice guy, I’m going to give you articles that explain the basics of MSA.
Mon, 11/30/2009 - 05:00
You know how sometimes you think everyone knows a secret that they haven’t let you in on? Well, I had the opposite happen to me the other day. I assumed everyone knew the purpose for measurement system analysis (MSA), a.k.a. gauge repeatability and…
You Might be a Black Belt if… Oh, the perils of mastering Six Sigma
Mon, 10/19/2009 - 05:00
I'm not saying that the following apply to you... really. But, you might be a Black Belt if... You test your co-workers for normality – and find some of them to be non-normal and a little skewed… …and you know you can handle non-normal co-…
Why Doesn’t SPC Work, Part 4 Does this data make my shape look funny?
Mon, 09/21/2009 - 05:00
If you have been following my articles over the last few months, you have seen that even though statistical process control (SPC) charts are very powerful tools for examining a process, it turns out that there are a lot of ways to mess up SPC. This…
Why Doesn’t SPC Work? Part 3 The chart isn't strange, it's just misunderstood.
Wed, 08/19/2009 - 05:00
Over the past couple of articles, we have explored how an incomplete understanding of how SPC limits are calculated can lead to constructing control charts that look strange.  But using some of the things I mentioned, hopefully you can see that…
Why Doesn’t SPC Work? Part 2 To err is human, but to really mess things up you need a statistician.
Tue, 07/21/2009 - 03:00
Have you ever met people who “do” statistical process control (SPC) only to get some screwy-looking control chart, and then text: OMG I H8 SPC! (If you don’t understand that, ask your nine-year-old child or grandchild.) Last month we saw how it…
Why Doesn’t SPC Work? Part 1 To err is human, but to really mess things up you need a statistician…
Mon, 06/22/2009 - 04:00
One of the most useful diagnostic tools for understanding what is going on in a process is the statistical process control chart (SPC).  This is also a frequently misunderstood tool, and these misunderstandings lead to misdirected effort during a…
Last Things First Statistics from end to beginning
Fri, 05/15/2009 - 14:32
A colleague of mine made an interesting point about how we teach and learn experimental design techniques, and I thought I'd explore the subject further. He observed that the order that we teach statistics is almost exactly opposite of how one…
Project Selection for DMAIC Guidelines to help your project succeed
Mon, 04/20/2009 - 09:08
One of the most frequent questions I get from Black Belts and Green Belts I train is about the characteristics of a good Six Sigma project, particularly a first project. Define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) is a procedure that is…