# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The presentation introduces DAR process and example.

Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) is a support process at CMMi level 3.

The purpose of DAR is to analyze possible decisions using a formal evaluation process that evaluates identified alternatives against established criteria.

Grid Analysis works by getting you to list your options as rows on a table, and the factors you need consider as columns. You then score each option/factor combination, weight this score by the relative importance of the factor, and add these scores up to give an overall score for each option.

List all of your options as the row labels on the table, and list the factors that you need to consider as the column headings. For example, if you were buying a new laptop computer, factors to consider might be cost, dimensions, and hard disk size.

1. Next, work your way down the columns of your table, scoring each option for each of the factors in your decision. Score each option from 0 (poor) to 5 (very good). Note that you do not have to have a different score for each option - if none of them are good for a particular factor in your decision, then all options should score 0.

2. The next step is to work out the relative importance of the factors in your decision. Show these as numbers from, say, 0 to 5, where 0 means that the factor is absolutely unimportant in the final decision, and 5 means that it is very important. (It's perfectly acceptable to have factors with the same importance.)

Finally, add up these weighted scores for each of your options. The option that scores the highest wins!

A windsurfing enthusiast is about to replace his car. He needs one that not only carries a board and sails, but also one that will be good for business travel. He has always loved open-topped sports cars, but no car he can find is good for all three things.
His options are:
Factors that he wants to consider are:

Roles and Responsibilities in DAR process

The decision owner is the person ultimately responsible for making the final decision. The decision owner's activities

A decision participant is someone who is involved in the decision-making process. The decision participant shall have the knowledge and background required to assist in making an informed decision. DAR participants shall have the appropriate organizational authority to make the decision.

A decision stakeholder is someone who is affected by the decision but does not necessarily participate in the decision making process.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The presentation introduces DAR process and example. Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) is a support process at CMMi level 3. The purpose of DAR is to analyze possible decisions using a formal evaluation process that evaluates identified alternatives against established criteria.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Modeling and simulation help you to understand the behavior of a dynamic system and how the various components of that system interact with one another.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Degreed is a lifelong learning platform that individuals and organizations use to discover learning content, build skills, and certify their expertise.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you are like most manufacturers in North America who have begun a lean transformation, you know how difficult it is to sustain the improvements your teams have implemented. Why is it that these efforts, with measurable operational improvements, are so difficult to hold on to? As Robert W. "Doc" Hall, one of the founders of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), says, "It's the culture of your organization that defines 'how we do things around here.'" As a result, you need to change your culture if you want to sustain the changes to your processes that your continuous teams have developed and the measurable benefits they worked so hard to implement.

In every organization, there exist three distinct groups of people. The "change agents" are those who want to change and do everything differently (although not always better), and the "resistors" don't want to make any changes, regardless of the reason. These two groups are at the opposite ends of the distribution curve, but they are small in number, while the vast majority of your people are the "passive majority" in the middle who are pulled from both sides. It is only by changing "how we do things around here" that your organization will be able to redefine your culture and sustain the improvements your teams have made, which means this passive majority has to be won over to the side of change.

The difficult thing about culture is that it's not something you can look at, touch or manage. According to Sherrie Ford of Change Partners in Athens, Ga., culture is the pattern of behaviors and values that employees create for themselves.

It's the legends, rituals and stories that people tell about working in your organization and it's beyond the direct control of management. So, if culture is what determines whether your improvement efforts will be sustainable and it's not something you can manage, what's a manager to do? It's here that leaders prevail and managers fail.

We've all heard the caveat about leaders "walk-ing the talk," but it's much more than that. For leaders to really change "how we do things around here," they have to behave differently than managers and visibly support the people leading the change efforts. If people in your organization really see leaders aligned with and actively supporting their change agents, the passive majority will align more readily with the change agents instead of the resistors, and that's what you need to change the culture of your organization.

According to Tedd Simmons and Larry Fast of General Cable, who spoke at a recent AME Champions Club meeting, people support what they help to create so leaders involve people in decisions that affect them prior to decisions being made, and then they respond to the feedback from these folks. Bob Koski, chairman emeritus of Sun Hydraulics in Sarasota, Fla., says it's up to the leaders to create "psychological safety" for people to enable them to embrace risk and try new ways of doing things without being blamed or punished if things don't work out as expected.

Changes in "how we do things around here" should be viewed like a science experiment. If it works as expected, great and let's celebrate, but if it doesn't work, don't try looking for someone to blame. Instead, ask what we learned so it doesn't happen again, and go on with more changes and experiments to make things better.

This whole process takes a lot of patience since it's changing people's behavior, which takes leadership and perseverance. You are trying to change how people think, act and interact with one another in order to achieve cultural change that will allow your organization to sustain process improvements, and accomplishing this isn't easy.
Ralph Keller is president of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, an organization dedicated to cultivating understanding, analysis and exchange of productivity methods and their successful application in the pursuit of excellence. He has been an operations practitioner for the past 35 years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Continuous Improvement -- Sustainable Improvement Requires A Culture Change

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you are like most manufacturers in North America who have begun a lean transformation, you know how difficult it is to sustain the improvements your teams have implemented. Why is it that these efforts, with measurable operational improvements, are so difficult to hold on to? As Robert W.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Wastes Muda Article on the Seven Wastes of Lean Manufacturing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Seven Wastes by David McBride of EMS Consulting Group, an organization established to assist companies implement Lean and World Class Manufacturing programs.

# data[].attributes.body
Things to keep in mind when reporting the results of a study using quantitative methods:

1. Explain the data collected and their statistical treatment as well as all relevant results in relation to the research problem you are investigating. Interpretation of results is not appropriate in this section.

2. Report unanticipated events that occurred during your data collection. Explain how the actual analysis differs from the planned analysis. Explain your handling of missing data and why any missing data does not undermine the validity of your analysis.

3. Explain the techniques you used to "clean" your data set.

4. Choose a minimally sufficient statistical procedure; provide a rationale for its use and a reference for it. Specify any computer programs used.

5. Describe the assumptions for each procedure and the steps you took to ensure that they were not violated.

6. When using inferential statistics, provide the descriptive statistics, confidence intervals, and sample sizes for each variable as well as the value of the test statistic, its direction, the degrees of freedom, and the significance level [report the actual p value].

7. Avoid inferring causality, particularly in nonrandomized designs or without further experimentation.

8. Use tables to provide exact values; use figures to convey global effects. Keep figures small in size; include graphic representations of confidence intervals whenever possible.

9. Always tell the reader what to look for in tables and figures.

NOTE:  When using pre-existing statistical data gathered and made available by anyone other than yourself [e.g., government agency], you still must report on the methods that were used to gather the data and describe any missing data that exists and, if there is any, provide a clear explanation why the missing data does not undermine the validity of your final analysis.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Research Guides: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Quantitative Methods

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The purpose of this guide is to provide advice on how to develop and organize a research paper in the social sciences.

# data[].attributes.body
What sequence of events leads to the problem?

What conditions allow the problem to occur?

What other problems surround the occurrence of the central problem?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Root Cause Analysis - Tracing a Problem to Its Origins

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Organizational causes - A system, process, or policy that people use to make decisions or do their work is faulty (for example, no one person was responsible for vehicle maintenance, and everyone assumed someone else had filled the brake fluid). RCA looks at all three types of causes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Baldrige Excellence Framework provide the framework and an assessment tool for understanding organizational...