Variation

Wow~ I love drawing graphs! It's more solid and tangible comparing to all those business theories and concepts, which I am not quite used to.  But of course, it's challenging to learn something new and so far I enjoy it.

We learned about variation yesterday.  The most interesting part is using the daily example, which is driving back to the campus from home, to talk about common causes and special causes.  The common cause variation is inherent in the process and has only small impact. Whilst the special cause variation has big impact but it is temporary and often avoidable.

I also learned about predictablility.  Things outside the natural limit is not predictable and the most important is we cannot know how worse can things go.  Thus, we have to improve the process so as to minimize the chance for unpredictable things happen.

How to deal with special cause variation? For example, if things become better than expected, it is good only when you know the reason why they happen and keep it and learn from it.  If something go worse than we expect, find out the reason and fix it.

So, the above knowledge is easier when we are dealing with data because we can plot graphs as the first step to learn about the issue.  I am just thinking about some daily example on how can I realize the special cause in the my life and make good use of what I've learnt to minimize variation so as to reduce risks.

Cheers!

: 12 Nov 2009 01:16 |  Tags: Piuss |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem