Inside Six Sigma Publishes Feature by Manufacturing Journalist TR Cutler Six Sigma Busy Work, Data Trumps All
Released on: May 23, 2008, 6:34 am
Press Release Author: Thomas R. Cutler
Industry: Software
Press Release Summary: Inside Six Sigma Publishes Feature by Manufacturing Journalist TR Cutler: Six Sigma Busy Work, Data Trumps All
Press Release Body: "The Six Sigma community puts up with an amazing amount of busy work in order to become data-driven," says Evan J. Miller, president and CEO of Hertzler Systems. "Frequently, manufacturing executives define this data collection process as 'the every day junk work that we do that we call our jobs,'" he asserts. "The roots of this situation are deep within Six Sigma itself: Black Belts are brought into training, assigned to a project, and told to go start measuring something. They are rarely IT people, but they are smart, resourceful, and very driven. They go and get some data. The time this process requires is substantial," says Miller. "Even if only 20 variables are being tracked, it often takes 20 to 25 minutes to capture data for each part number. Since most companies, particularly those in metalworking production, produce multiple products simultaneously, it is easy to see how otherwise productive manufacturing professionals spend their entire time preparing reports."
In the current issue of Inside Six Sigma, published by Quality Digest, manufacturing journalist Thomas R. Cutler, contributed an important feature article titled, "Six Sigma Busy Work, Data trump all."
According to Cutler, "Manufacturing firms intent on capturing and distilling rich streams of data will find them. Companies will often look at CMM in rows and columns-a format common across many industries and many applications-in Excel. Most data dumped from a database end up in a grid, whether it's manufacturing or transactional data. Each row may represent a part that is inspected, each column a dimension or reading. Most engineers see these data tasks as junk work that takes hours to prepare and keep up with. One manufacturing executive reported that it took 24 PowerPoint slides to document this activity, including 43 discrete steps, including two loops, one of seven steps and one of 19 steps."
IT solutions have only been deployed by 27 percent of the population and automated data collection by only 19 percent. Miller, a strong proponent of statistical process control (SPC) insists, "Maybe it is time to stop spending so much effort training people and instead give them the data so they can use the training."
SPC must be used for process control in manufacturing. SPC is the ability to automate data collection and real-time alarms in all manufacturing processes. Use existing quality data-collection processes wherever possible, as well as better support for automatic gauging, and more transparent data sharing. Process owners must be able to respond instantly to process shifts or special cause variation. The ability to track manufacturing and transactional data at the same time, with the same system is a requirement. For most companies that implement this type of SPC solution in a Six Sigma environment, projects are scoped, prioritized, and chartered faster in the define phase. In the measure phase, there's an average 10-percent reduction in cycle time and an almost painless transition to control. Hertzler Systems' research findings reveal that "Organizations that make sure their people have accurate, actionable data available in real-time have more effective and focused Six Sigma programs."
Hertzler Systems (www.hertzler.com) provides seamless, accurate data acquisition solutions that drive business transformation. The company provides the leading real-time data acquisition and analytics software, the GainSeeker Suite. This powerful and flexible system is best used by lean and progressive companies. Gainseeker Suite allows companies to connect with devices and other information systems, collecting data and alarming key personnel when problems arise; this technology allows organizations to analyze data for root cause problems, converting data into knowledge.
The complete feature article may be read at http://qualitydigest.com/IQedit/QDarticle_text.lasso?articleid=12699.
Hertzler Systems Inc. www.hertzler.com Adrienne DePew Communications Manager info@hertzler.com 800.958.2709
Web Site: http://www.hertzler.com
Contact Details: Hertzler Systems 2312 Eisenhower Dr. N. Goshen, IN 46526 800-958-2709