In the current issue of AutomationMedia.com manufacturing journalist Thomas R. Cutler, profiled that Transactional Six Sigma Must Maintain Productivity Gains. According to Cutler, “Six Sigma projects are often hampered by the high cost of acquiring and managing data. Black Belts often invest significant effort in collecting data for the Define and Measure phases. But they risk losing those hard-won productivity gains during the Control Phase if process owners can not sustain costly and time- consuming data collection tasks over the long-term.”
Indeed sustaining the gains in the Control Phase with real-time data collection and control failure notification;
Miller insists these transactional Six Sigma elements require “Focusing attention on improvement goals through innovative Defect Improvement Charts in order to quickly uncover hidden sources of variation with automated analysis.”
Measurement systems rounds out Six Sigma software infrastructure and since the early days of Six Sigma, automation professionals have relied on software. Most people recognize two main types of software packages: Project Tools (like MINITAB) and Deployment Tools (like ProjX or Enterprise Track). If Six Sigma had stayed on the manufacturing floor, that might have sufficed, however transactional Six Sigma often looks for data from business systems.
Few tools provide a measurement system that supports these transactional Six Sigma efforts:
• Connect easily to business systems, Six Sigma project tools and Six Sigma deployment tools
• Build a rich warehouse of enterprise data for easy access and data sharing with project tools and deployment tools
• Provide a framework for infrastructure solutions to both IT staff and Six Sigma practitioners
• Enforce procedures for detecting and responding to out-of-control conditions and other failures
• Ask process owners for additional detail at the time a problem occurs. For example, when an order misses a critical milestone, asking the process owner to record what happened
• Provide the correct level of data granularity for achieving Six Sigma improvements
Hertzler Systems (www.hertzler.com)
Hertzler Systems has been a leader in Statistical Process Control and Six Sigma for over twenty years, and includes a diverse customer base in service, transactional and manufacturing environments;
The complete article may be read at http://www.automationmedia.com/
Hertzler Systems Inc.
www.hertzler.com
Adrienne DePew
Communications Manager
info@hertzler.com
800.958.2709
