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What will happen to RPA (Robotic Process Automation) in 2020?

For #futurefridays let’s talk about RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and what will happen to it in 2020.

With all the rage about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the Future of Work, people have been saying that RPA seems to have taken a back seat from all the action.

To the uninitiated, I’ll talk about the difference between RPA and AI.

So back to what will happen to RPA, in the recent past, people have been so afraid about RPA and that people would lose jobs because of it.

That was only for RPA. What more for AI? I guess people are, and were, just afraid of what they don’t know.

But now that people have become accustomed to having a “Digital Workforce” or software robots working alongside them, people’s thoughts have changed from fearing about job security, to scrutinizing where RPA falls short!

In my opinion, that’s a good thing, because we can now start doing innovations!

Here are some of the things I’ve heard people say about RPA lately:

  • It’s becoming a band aid solution
  • It can only do so much
  • With AI coming in, let’s just set our sights on that

With that, I’d like to talk about each of those bullet points in detail.

I will share my thoughts based on my own experience, as well as where I think RPA will be going to next.

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What is the difference in purpose of Variance and Standard Deviation?

For #wisdomwendesdays I’ve been asked by someone trying to learn Data Science what the difference is between Variance and Standard Deviation in terms of purpose.

For the sake of the uninitiated, I’ll share an article that shows the simplest explanation of what Variance and Standard Deviation are.

Now back to the purpose of each, the easiest analogy I can give you is like how the Red and Blue Pills work in the movie – The Matrix.

Let me explain.

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If You Improve Yourself by just 1% Every Day, How Much Better will You Be in a Year?

For #motivationmondays, do you know how much better you’ll be in a year, if you improve yourself by just 1% each day?

It’s going to look like this:

  • Day 0: 100% status quo
  • Day 1: 101%
  • Day 7: 107.2%
  • Day 30: 135%
  • Day 90: 244%
  • Day 365: 3778% of whopping exponential improvement!

What does this mean?

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Does the Future of Work need Lean Six Sigma?

For #futurefridays I was asked a question: “Does the Future of Work still need Lean Six Sigma?”

Well, based on my own personal experience, it’s a big YES.

You see, Lean Six Sigma is simply a structured problem-solving approach.

So if you have a problem that requires root-cause-analysis before you find the appropriate solution, then Lean Six Sigma’s DMAIC approach is what you need.

You can’t just implement some sort of software automation or that snazzy new technological tool just for the sake of it.

To put it bluntly, Automations and such Technologies are part of the Solutions. But to uncover the root causes of the problems that require these solutions, that’s where you would need Lean Six Sigma.

So if anything, Lean Six Sigma is actually becoming a foundational skill that continuous process improvement and innovation experts of today must master.

Let me give you an example.

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DEMYSTIFIED: How and When to apply Logistic Regression

For #thankfulthursdays I would like to give gratitude to Brandon Foltz.

You know when there’s a skill that you haven’t practiced for some time and you feel rusty so you want some sort of refresher to enable you to get a hang of it again?

Well I was in that exact situation a few years ago, specific to Logistic Regression, when I had to create a predictive model to address one of the business pain points I was working on.

Thankfully, I found this tutorial by Brandon that was even better than when I first learned all about Logistic Regression.

And I’d like to share it with you so that you can benefit from it as well.

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How Eduardo reduced Software Bug Fix Lead Time from 25 to 15 days (LSS Green Belt Use Case)

It’s #transformationtuesdays and today we’ll talk about a Use Case of Lean Six Sigma being implemented successfully in the Technology industry.

Usually, Tech firms would default to the Agile approach and talk about how they can make further improvements during their Scrum rituals.

And non-Technology companies take best practices from Tech firms implementing Agile and Scrum, to see how they can work in a non-Technology setting.

But here you’ll see the opposite happening.

Lean Six Sigma, a methodology widely used in non-Technology settings, being implemented in the Software and Technology industry.

Today I’ll be showing you the entire Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Project Storyboard by Eduardo Torres, where he was able to reduce Software Bug Fix Lead Time from 25 to 15 days.

This not only improved Customer Perception in a good way, this has also increased Team Member Morale as they were able to free up some of their capacity for them to work on features, moving them in the right direction to become Best in Class.

Continue on to see the full project storyboard.

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Every Experiment is a Success IF You Learn from it!

It’s #motivationmondays!

Remember when you were a child? The world seemed so huge! And every time you laid eyes on something new, curiosity got the best of you.

You want to touch everything, feel the texture, put things on your mouth, find out what it tastes like, and when you grew a little older you start trying to stand up and walk instead of just crawl.

Did you learn all that the first time around? Of course not. You had to experiment until you got it right, and you kept experimenting until you were able to run, until you could ride a bike, until you could drive a car.

You learned all these new skill through a lot of experiments, and you got good at it because you kept learning something new.

But why is it that now that you’re older, you are afraid of failure? Why are you afraid of rejection? Why are you afraid of losing?

Remember, Every Experiment is a Success IF You Learn from it!

So if you’ve been holding back from learning that new skill, what are you so afraid of?

It’s time to become a better version of you.

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With Respect to This Thing is Concerned

For today’s #thankfulthursdays I would like to give gratitude to the people who have taken me under their wing.

These people have paved the way to me becoming the Business Optimization Expert I am today.

To my first boss in this field – Kalyan, who hired me because he saw something in me through my Robinson Crusoe story, thank you for investing in me and ensuring I have everything I need to become successful in my role, including my learning towards becoming a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

To my former colleagues – Remi, Aubrey, and Mel, thank you for teaching me what you know. Your generosity in sharing knowledge nuggets, and patience in me for constantly bugging you for questions.

If not for these people, I would not have been able to win my first Hall of Fame Award for generating over $1 Million Dollars.

And lastly, to the person who succeeded Kalyan – Marian, thank you for making me feel empowered. I have learned so much from your meticulous level of detail, as well as your coaching and mentoring techniques.

I would like to pay it forward by teaching what I learned from these mentors to others. I will do this by:

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10 Process Improvement Mistakes you Don’t Want to Make

It’s #wisdomwednesdays so it’s time to share things I learned.

Here are 10 Process Improvement Mistakes you Don’t Want to Make.

I was actually going to create a list myself, but my friends Karlo and Tracy at GoLeanSixSigma.com have already put this together, and I agree 100% to all of what they said!

So I thought I would just share it with you!

My personal favorites are:

1. The Glory Hoarder

An example of is when Project Leads take all the recognition, and the team members are not given any credit whatsoever.

Sometimes, Project Leads tend to do this unknowingly too. Like when it’s time to present and demonstrate the project results, the Leads feel they should always be the one to take stage, while somehow leaving the rest of the team out of the spotlight.

How about letting the team members who actually developed the solutions take center stage?

2. The Pet Solution

This is where people already have a preferred solution to the problem.

In my experience, what happens here is that people tend to reverse-engineer their Pet Solution into the DMAIC approach just for them to be able to complete a Lean Six Sigma project.

That’s just wrong!

3. Passing the Buck

This happens when you try to eliminate steps within the process you’re looking to improve, only for another department upstream or downstream to end up taking on that piece of work.

Continue on to see the rest of the mistakes you don’t want to make, along with some great examples.

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