The use of Control Charts

[James Robert Crow <jr1crow@mindspring.com>]

Hello Group:

It is very good to have John McConnell join the discussion group.  I had
the good fortune to attend his session at the 1997 Upsizing conference in
IND.  I will remember John showing us the monthly sales chart for his book
"Better Than a Known Way.  In the first month sales were up.  (This was all
he showed us.)  John asked us, "What would you do?"  After some hesitation
the group said that they would go out and celebrate their success.  We have
a winner.

John the showed us the next month.  Sales were down, and John asked once
again, "What would you do?"  The group preceived that something must be
done to turn around the sales figures and get them headed in the right
direction again.

John next showed us the third month.  Once again sales were down, and John
once again asked, "What would you do?"  To the group this was now a crisis.
 The marketing director must be fired.  Drastic measures must be taken to
stimulate sales.

John then showed us the forth month, and sales were up.  The group heaved
collective sigh of relief.  What we did worked.  He then showed us the
entire year and it showed that what we had been experiencing was randon
variation.  From month to month sales hovered around the center line.

We had been guilty of mistake number 1:  We had been responding to common
cause variation as though it was special cause variation.  We had been
putting the organization through a lot of crisis management unnessarily.

To me this is the primary use of control charts.  To see what kind of
variation is taking place and respond to it accordingly.  This can take a
lot of crisis management out of the organization and set the stage for real
meaningful change.

RC
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