Previous articles
Process Optimization Overview
Define Phase 2.1
Define Phase 2.2
Measure Phase 3.1
Measure Phase 3.2
Last week we reduced the potential causes for your problem in the measure phase. Until now, your main tool of problem solving was the brainpower of your team. Many people oversee the risk that until now there is no real “proof” that your ideas and suggestions are actually true. You might have experienced something called “group think” in your meetings. At a certain point you might find that not the best idea wins, but the one which has the most supporters — be it out of political reasons or just because the boss likes it or some employees are more vocal and aggressive in their opinions than others.
But instead of trying to change human nature, we will try to circumvent the downsides of brainstorming by applying mathematical methods to prove or disprove the impact of your “few vital X’s”. In order to do so, we are converting our practical theories of our causes/ Xs into scientific hypotheses and then use mathematical analysis tools to prove or disprove our hypotheses. As a side note: in pure scientific theory hypotheses of course cannot be fully proven, but for our sake of argument, we will stick to this easier notation.
Our next step is to collect enough data for each X. This is a very critical moment for a company. Did you actually collect enough historic data? Where is this data stored? In what format are you having the data stored? Did you invest enough time and money over the last years to have a solid data base to work with. Nothing is more frustrating than realising that you have to drop certain Xs or postpone your projects for months to start collecting data because right now you have no database to work with. Or that you logged the wrong data for the last 6 months. I strongly advise that you have a very good understanding for yourself about the existing data before you talk to your outsourcing partner. Data is the fuel your whole project will run on. And their engine will only run as good as the fuel you provide.
Regarding the data you should be able to answer following questions: Is my data accessible? Is it accurate? Do I have the right employees in my team who could support the outsourcing partner to collect and maybe change data? Just imagine your outsourcing partner would need just a subset of a table. Do you have employees on stand-by who can work with your existing databases or write SQL-statements. And if not, are you feeling comfortable enough to give an outsourced partner full access to your servers to “get the data for themselves”?
Tomorrow we will briefly discuss how statistical testing could look like. I stress the word briefly, because these texts are for the general public to understand. This means we will not go into mathematical depths.
If you are interested in A.I. leadership education or want to start your A.I. journey, just contact me at ansgar_linkedin@goldblum-consulting.com