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