Asiyekwenda kuangalia mara kwa mara, hukuta utupu.

 

Methali (proverb)

Asiyekwenda kuangalia mara kwa mara, hukuta utupu.

One who does not check/review regularly, finds nothing.

Taking risks or “going for the moonshot” are a very significant factor for eliminating stagnation to bring out more factors that are not readily available in the status quo. There might be undesired/unexpected outcomes, but these should be outweighed from the benefits of the new factors. This is usually a transcendent scenario and depends on the objectives and their significance. Within an immanent scenario, when the immediate objectives only need improvement and the factors of improvement are known and readily available, reviews are used to reduce unexpected outcomes. Unexpected outcomes are caused by a lack of consistent regular reviews. By regular reviews, things like errors and unaccounted factors can be found, and their elimination will improve the effectiveness and accuracy of the object of interest. This is the concept of continuous improvement.

Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, processes, or models. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once. Processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility. Models are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their accuracy.

To summarize, continuous improvement is a gradual never-ending change which is: '... focused on increasing productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, accuracy to fulfil objectives.’

The key features of continuous improvement in general are:

1.     Feedback: The core principle of continuous improvement is the (self) reflection of processes.

2.     Efficiency: The purpose of continuous improvement is the identification, reduction, and elimination of errors and unforeseen factors that cause less than optimal results.

3.     Evolution: The emphasis of continual improvement process is on incremental, continual steps.

Angalia - 1 look (at), view. 2 pay attention (to), think, take thought for. 3 be careful, beware. 4 regard, take care of, review, take special note (of), tend.

Angalifu - accurate, canny, careful, scrupulous, cautious, circumspect, observant, careful, attentive.

Anga³ – count.

Derived terms

Verbal derivations:

Reciprocal: -angaliana (“look at each other”)

Nominal derivations:

mwangalizi (“supervisor”)

Conceptual derivations:

angalifu (“careful, observant, attentive, accurate”)

Regression analysis

Regression analysis is a process for estimating the relationships between a dependent variable (often called the 'outcome' or 'response' variable, or a 'label' in machine learning jargon) and one or more independent variables (often called ‘exposures’, 'predictors', 'covariates', 'explanatory variables' or 'features'). The most common form of regression analysis is linear regression, in which one finds the line that most closely fits the data according to a specific mathematical criterion. For example, when one has a variety of data collected over a given time period (independent variable), through mathematical computation of constant averages/mean, a rough prediction of outcome can be extrapolated. To elaborate, census data collected and compared over 10-year periods, can be used to compute average rate of growth to give a rough prediction of expected outcomes at a certain time in the future. When the projected time arrives, and actual outcomes are compared to the previously-modelled predicted outcomes, there will often be a mismatch between the predicted and actual outcome. This can be due to unforeseen circumstances or due to inaccuracy of the prediction model. To improve the model, various mathematical interventions are used to uncover losses to inform how to optimize inputs for the next modelled prediction. The mathematical interventions used to uncover these losses include ‘mean absolute error’, ‘mean squared error’, and the more robust ‘hubber loss calculation’ that calculates error at each data point.

 

References

TUKI (2001), Kamusi Ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza; Swahili-English Dictionary. Published by Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.