Re: Red Bead

[WyoCheek@aol.com]

The Red Bead Experiment was used to demonstrate how the system itself can  
produce a variation in defects, and defects there will always be, common and  
special caused, verses Dr. Deming using the Funnel Experiment to  demonstrating 
what happened when management react to the last data point,  creating 
tampering and thus leads eventually to chaos.  Tampering, even while people are doing 
there best and working so hard at it, can  only be caused by people. This 
leads me back to question years ago  when I asked,  "What did Deming mean by a 
system?" I have an audio where  he states clearly the five system elements 
stating, "Managements  job is to optimize the system. But first, management must 
understand  what we mean by a system. People...  equipment...etc"    I cannot 
recall having  seen any agreement as to the operational definition of a system 
whiles  the word is used in DEN.  Maybe I just missed one. It centered  around 
ultimately generating a financial budget of a system as when creating a  
business plan.
 
There are many lessons to be learned when conducting the red bead  
experiment, but I feel many fail to place the RB in its proper,  greater context 
first... the system causes the variation in defects for  known and unknowable 
reasons, not people tampering as in the Funnel Experiment,  causing such variation in 
defects, and all five system elements generically  speaking exist. Both the 
Red Bead and Funnel Experiments  comprise generic, easily quantifiable systems. 
 
In the medical field, it's easy to show many RB verses Funnel  situations 
occurring that impact the system of quality trying to be produced,  and its 
continual improvement. I wonder, is it possible for a funnel  situation  to exist 
within a red bead situation?  Something to  think about maybe?
 
S. Cheek, DDS