Changes in Process and Life

You keep a mean and range control chart (see above) to monitor a key process. Every two hours, you collect three consecutive pieces of the output, measure a dimension or characteristic on each piece, record the measurements on the chart, calculate the mean and range, and plot the mean and range. The last twenty five subgroups' means ran higher than the historical level but the range stayed consistent. Meaning, the process variation did not change but the location of the process moved to a different place. What do you do? Well, there are two choices:

If the cause of the relocation is due to a special cause or abnormal circumstance, find the special cause, eliminate it, and the process will return to "normal". But what if there is no special cause? Do you adjust the process to bring it back to normal or do you accept the process' new location and adjust accordingly?

This happens to us in life-We float along having good and bad days. We accept where we are and don't do much to disrupt the daily routine. But what if things change and we find ourselves in a different place or different cicumstance? Well, again, we have two choices:

We fight real hard to get back to where we were. This new place is not comfortable and disrupts our equilibrium. We chalk this up to a special cause and wait to resume life as we knew it. Or, we make the best of this new circumstance. We are here for a reason. Instead of working to get past the special cause, we stop and think why this happened and pay attention to what it might mean in our lives. This might be a new opportunity for us and our family and we might just have to "Do" and trust that the outcome will be positive.

The journey we travel in life is not always a straight line. There will be many fluctuations and side paths along the way to teach us lessons and for us to practice our faith.