I'm hearing this complaint a lot recently: “We have all this data stuck out there in all of these systems, and we can't get to it in a timely manner. Sometimes days or weeks go by before we see it. It is so cumbersome to extract, and we're operating so lean that we just can’t sustain this effort. We need to free these people up to do more value-added work. It's killing us.”
"I just want to play with the data," That's what Al Swain, Quality Manager for Exacto, Inc., told me a few months ago as we were discussing his ERP system. Exacto is a high-precision machining company based in Northern Indiana. Exacto’s “A small company with a big-company ability,” as they say it. Al had been using GainSeeker for real-time shop floor SPC for years. He appreciates the flexibility GainSeeker provides for slicing, massaging, and analyzing data to drive improvements on the shop floor Even though GainSeeker Suite includes a comprehensive defect management system, Exacto had never implemented it because operators were already collecting scrap data in their ERP system. The ERP system needed the information to keep track of WIP, inventory, and costing.Data entry into two systems wasn't an option.
You'll never find a kid who, when he grows up, wants to become a data jockey. Fireman, yes. Data jockey, no.
The data-driven organization is in sharp contrast to most businesses. Many business leaders dont realize that they can have it both ways: high value data at low cost. While there may be an infinite number of ways companies fall short of being data driven, our experience is that they fall into three broad camps. I've seen these companies, and maybe you have too. . . .
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