RE: What are we doing here?

["Morris Taylor" <wmt@netcomuk.co.uk>]

I can very well understand the points that Patrick Reid makes.

I have several well-intentioned questions that sometimes help people
breakthrough in their thinking. Out of context they lose a little of their
power. I'll get to them in a moment.

First though, control charts aren't the only thing that will make a
difference.

In some kinds of business it can be challenging to find things that vary and
that you can measure and which will make sufficient of a significant
difference to make it worth while. People can come out with some really
'clever' advice that seems to be just not relevant.

Several things occurred to me as I read your post:
- are your terms of reference, in particular the scope of your permission to
enquire, set wide enough?
- are you thus prevented from looking 'there' where some real tangible
benefits (when considered on a pareto basis) can be derived and delivered?
- what are the perceived benefits of a successful contractual completion on
your part?
- what will success be?

and perhaps more difficult and less easy to understand at a distance:
- what will success be 'like' for you personally?

I appreciate that because of the commercial and current nature of your
project it is unlikely that you can answer these questions in an open forum.
Sometimes our keenness to solve something gets the better of our

Those of you who ever watched John Stapleton on the now defunct morning
program 'The Time and  The Place' may remember a 'come-on' line he used in
his live programme. He delivered it beautifully: An empathic
'place-of-safety' smile. A warm inductive voice: 'Only share what you feel
comfortable about sharing' he would say to some poor soul about to be
dissected on seven million living room carpets. And oops, out would come
something that, later, the person would regret. So I urge caution when you
consider these things privately. Don't tell us... We really want to know but
don't need to!

So my questions are:
- If there were one single thing ~ just one ~ that you could do over this
next week that would make the biggest non-tampering, non-sub-optimising
difference to the team, the project etc, what would that be?
- if you could measure it how would you do so?
- If you were to jump across a chasm would you want to know how wide it was?
- Once you knew how wide it was would a series of small steps get you
across?
- does the taguchi loss function make more sense than a control chart?

some of what I have said may appear either irrelevant, and some or all of
the questions seem downright stupid.

but I'm prepared to take the risk by asking them.

good luck.


Sincere Regards
Morris
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