Situation
President of industrial goods manufacturing company.
Critical issue
President said: “I had these two high-powered engineers spending hours scrubbing data and building databases to get the information they needed for their projects.” The company had to improve on-time delivery and quickly, but key staff were spending days at a time cleaning up data rather than analyzing it and acting on it.
Reason
The plant had an archaic SPC software, with very cumbersome retrieval routines. Plus the system provided very few controls over the data entry process, so data was inconsistent and required scrubbing to become useful. Furthermore, there was no direct link to Minitab for advanced analysis.
Vision
The president and his team identified several Critical to Quality characteristics for a new system. These included data entry mistake-proofing tools, RS232 compatibility, the ability to collect more data with no more operator pain, the ability to interface with existing databases and software, and ease of use – by both operators and engineers.
Hertzler Systems provided
Hertzler Systems installed GainSeeker Suite, along with training and deployment assistance. We integrated GainSeeker with several other business systems to simplify, speed up, and make data more reliable and usable. GainSeeker’s centralized data warehouse and analytic tools are readily available to the Six Sigma and engineering communities.
Results
The company has enjoyed substantial improvements in on-time delivery and reductions in inventory. These gains were realized in record time because access to real-time data, delivered by GainSeeker Suite, enabled the company to scope, prioritize and charter Six Sigma projects faster in the Define phase. In the Measure phase, there is an average 10% reduction in cycle time, and they have an almost seamless transition to Control phase.
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