Of course controlling your body weight is measuring !
Six Sigma devotes an essential step of its process to measurement.
So, let’ see what it really means !
What will you measure ? Your own weight.
- Perfect, this is the variable that you want to control.
- It is directly related to your goal.
- It will show you the effect of your changes in diet or physical activity.
But that is not enough !
How will you measure ? Every day, in the morning when waking up, on an empty stomach, after having gone to the toilet, in underwear, on the weighting scale in the bedroom, the two big toes always on the same spot, up right on the scale, without moving, the eyes towards the display. If you forget, leave the measurement missing for the day. If the display oscillates between two measurements, take the higher of the two.
- Good, you now have a slightly more « operational » definition.
But still ?
How will you record and use the measurements ? On a pre-formatted sheet of paper, available near the scale, on which you will make a weekly average that you will record in the prepared box and that you will plot on the graph beneath. You will re-encode your measurements every 4 months (at the end of the sheet) in an Excel spreadsheet for longer-term follow-up.
- Great, now we better understand how those data will be used.
Forgot nothing ?
Oh yes, don’t forget to take note of changes and unusual events on the document. Make a circle around the weight on that day and post a comment at the bottom of the page.
- Otherwise you will never remember the information when you will perform your analysis later.
Oh, by the way, is your weighing scale reliable ?
If you use it 3 times in a row, do you get 3 times the same measurement within +/- 0.1 kg ? When it’s hot like when it’s cold ? Throughout the year ? Have you ever compared its measurement with that of another one ?
- It would be a shame to discover later that your data exhibit too much measurement errors.