Red Beads Experiment

["Alan Meekings" <alan@landmarkconsulting.co.uk>]

It's a while since I last ran a Red Beads Experiment myself.  

In fact, my own Red Beads kit currently languishes under a table in my
office at home, pending some future opportunity to dust it off and put it to
good use again.

However, I do have a nagging concern about the Red Beads Experiment that has
bugged me for a while.

My feeling is that the proportion of red beads to white beads is too high to
seem credible to participants and observers who've been told that the
fundamental purpose of the experiment is to produce white beads.

As the experiment currently stands, every time a participant scoops their
paddle into the beads, they're bound to emerge with a disturbingly high
proportion of defective output (so much so that I'm almost tempted to say,
"Come back Six Sigma, all is forgiven" - but perish the thought!!)

Could the fundamental messages Dr Deming sought to convey through this
experiment better be achieved by using a far smaller proportion of red
beads?  

Unfortunately, I've never had sufficient time to explore this issue
properly, let alone conduct any controlled experiment to test potentially
differing outcomes.

Am I alone in my concern?  Has anyone else who's conducted a Red Beads
Experiment ever experienced similar feelings?  Am I perhaps alone in
thinking that the Red Beads Experiment could be updated and improved?

Regards as ever,
 
Alan
 
Email: alan@landmarkconsulting.co.uk
Mobile: 07785 258 741