by Al Leigh, Master Black Belt and Rutgers Adjunct Instructor
The internet is a wonderful thing! You can find information on most anything…including Murphy’s Laws. You recall the original Murphy’s Law, right?
“If anything can go wrong, it will.” It was named after Captain Edward Murphy, an engineer working on an Air Force project.
So, with respect to Captain Murphy and all his proponents, here are some extensions and corollaries of Murphy’s Law that we can relate to our Lean & Six Sigma journey:
Team Meetings:
“A meeting is an event where minutes are kept and hours are lost”.
Lesson: The savvy Green Belt or Black Belt always comes into a meeting with an agenda and a time limit. The meeting begins and ends on time. The team will love you for this.
On Process Mapping:
“Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables, the process will do as it darn well pleases”
Lesson: Take the time to understand the ‘real’ process you are trying to improve. If there 20 different opinions on what is really happening, there is no real process. Just a collection of practices. It’s time for some standardization !!
On Data Analysis:
“Always draw the curve you want, then plot the data.”
Lesson: Please, I don’t have to comment on how wrong this is, do I? Use data and facts for good, always. Not to manipulate the system.
On Improved Solutions:
“New processes generate new problems.”
“If you can’t understand it, it’s intuitively obvious.”
“The primary function of the Black Belt(or Green Belt) is to make things difficult for the people actually running the process.”
“A failure will not appear until after final inspection.”
Lesson: a) Always, always do a risk assessment. Figure out before-hand what might go wrong. b) Always run a pilot. It’s easier to upgrade a solution on a small-scale than to discover items overlooked on a global scale. c) Always listen to the people who actually run the process for improvement ideas.
On Lean Thinking:
“Empty what is full. Fill what is empty. And scratch where it itches.”
Lesson: This sounds sort of like a kanban mentality. And its simplicity appeals to me.
The simplest solutions are often the best.
If you have comments on this blog, or other real-world examples of Murphy’s Laws, write me at a.leigh@dceo.rutgers.edu or visit us at sixsigma.rutgers.edu