Decision Making During Turmoil: How Well Are We Prepared?

In order to make profitable decisions, we need good information.  Whether we base our decisions on sales, customer perceptions or the number of widgets we shipped last month, our information comes from some system that collects and measures relevant data for us.

In my Six Sigma Black Belt class we recently discussed the challenges of developing [...]

The Significance of Sigma: Toyota’s Lessons in Corporate Decision Making

With the massive recall due to sudden acceleration problems, Toyota’s reputation for superior quality has suffered a black eye – if not more.  The future will tell how serious this injury is and whether it represents the tip of an ominous iceberg.  Sprinkled amongst the news coverage are hints that Toyota has known about accelerator [...]

Why We Need Good Data

Recently, while working on input for a decision tree, I ran into a scenario that reminded me of the fact that we cannot improve a decision simply by applying a tool or technique. We also need good data.

Here is a hypothetical example: Let us assume we are a contractor who is evaluating a fixed bid [...]

When Data Details Matter

Ted Cuzzillo, the author behind the datadoodle blog, got me thinking about data details today.  When do they matter and when do they distract from what matters?

Being a data analyst means that I love details: the more the better, so I can understand how they form the Big Picture.  Intrinsically, I am drawn to graphs [...]

How to Create a Misleading Quadrant Analysis – by Accident

When we use analysis tools like Tableau software, it becomes very important to keep our bearings about the data we are investigating.  For example, we need to keep in mind that Tableau retrieves and calculates information based only on the data needed to generate the graph.  That statement sounds really, duh, obvious.   But we can [...]