Data Heads Blog

Creating a data-driven, real-time, problem-solving culture can’t be done without a single source of truth. But building a single source of truth does not begin with a technology solution. It starts with gathering key personnel from across the enterprise to create a strategic data vision. It is not a solo effort. You can’t do this on your own, in a vacuum. In this post, we've identified the key roles that need to be engaged.

In the spirit of Halloween I thought I would TREAT you to some insider information on our Tech Tips LIVE for October as well as some cool new features for our version 9.1 scheduled to be released by the end of this month! Our webinar date is Thursday October 18th at 2:00 pm (EST). You won't want to miss it and it is only 30 minutes long. Join CSD member (David Carroll), our CTO (Byron Shetler), and I battle it out to see what the "coolest" new feature of 9.1 is. You will cast your vote and pick a winner! Remember, in the end we all win because we will have access to all these new features to use!

This week we released our newest edition of the GainSeeker Platform Library - an enhanced OEE Kit. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a powerful tool for evaluating manufacturing performance. The enhanced OEE Kit assembles knowledge and wisdom for deploying OEE in manufacturing. Moreover, it provides guidance for maximizing the value of OEE across the supply chain. Read this post to download the GainSeeker Platform Library enhanced OEE Kit.

Today I'm sharing three tips about how to get the most from our GainSeeker Platform Library. The GainSeeker Platform Library (aka GPL) is a collection of ideas, best practices, and tools for maximizing the value you can get from deploying GainSeeker. It is a repository of different use cases. We continually see GainSeeker implemented in new and innovative ways and want to share these ways with you.

So what does real-time data have to do with tariffs and trade wars? You and I can't control or even predict the outcome of a trade war, but we can take positive steps to better manage what we can control. And that is going to give us more flexibility and capacity to respond creatively to whatever the future brings.

Being in my role of Technical Project Manager, I discuss the needs and wants of our clients and help them figure out the best implementation method to continue forward. I would like to share some important things to think about. As a result, I talk about these topics all the time and I realize the fact that sometimes it is beneficial to do a "using GainSeeker status check". How are you using GainSeeker? Let me help you. Are you on the newest version of GainSeeker? You may be asking why is this important? We are using GainSeeker on and older version and are happy. Well, the Hertzler team continually listens to our customer's feedback and requests to continually provide additional functionality into the GainSeeker software.

We’re very excited to release two new GainSeeker eLearning courses. eLearning is a great way to empower more people in your company to use real-time data to make better decisions. The more people who are trained to use GainSeeker analytics tools, the more real-time actionable data will permeate the decision-making culture of your organization. This leads to better and faster data-driven decisions, which can drive improvements in both top line and bottom line business performance.

What topic for the next Tech Tips Live would be most beneficial and relevant to our customers? After considering a bunch of ideas, we decided to focus on helping our clients move from Templates to Inspections. And get this, Byron wants to convert a working template into an Inspection right before your eyes! This will be really cool because it will give you a peek into how Byron solves problems. But even more important, it will help you on the path of moving from templates to inspections.

Recently we released a new eBook: Overfill and Package Weight Control. The new eBook outlines a proven approach to ensure compliance while minimizing product give-away. Food manufacturers and packaging companies face difficult and competing challenges. On one hand, increasing and often volatile material costs squeeze profits. On the other hand, government regulations impose stiff penalties on any manufacturer who fails to meet its label claim. Additionally, manufacturer’s reputations suffer if they are perceived to short-change their customers. Fortunately, there are well established, time-tested methods that enable the manufacturer to scientifically optimize their business process to ensure compliance AND minimize product give-away. The Overfill and Package Weight Control Kit summarizes those methods and describes a process to reduce product give-away by the scientific management of product overfill.

Greetings! Today let's talk about the Multiple Date Range feature inside GainSeeker. This little gem is super powerful. It makes looking at summary data across various time periods really easy. Want to see week over week capability for the last quarter for a key product? Piece of cake. How about day-by-day changes in the mean and spread of the process over the last two weeks? Easy. The Multiple Date Range feature makes it so easy to see what is going on in your process, and makes decision-making faster and easier.