Customer?

[rderoeck@alphaind.com]

James Robert Crow asks: Why not use some real life
examples?

OK, here's one where I work.

Over two years ago  XYZ  Associates conducted a customer research survey for our company. One of their
major findings was that while our customers liked our
products (quality and selection) they said our delivery was
lousy.

The following actions took place:

1. At a communication meeting, the Operations Manager
announced that on-time delivery was our number 1 priority
(finally an external measure). He added that quality 
products/service was not to be compromised  in pursuit of
this goal.
2. An on-time shipment was operationally defined (customer
commit date vs. ship date) and standardized throughout
the company. On-time=0 days late/3 days early. 
3. I was asked to set up a process behavior chart to track
the overall percent of on-time shipments monthly (separate
XmR charts were set up for 8 different product lines).  
4. Meetings were held for each product line in order to
review each month's performance and brainstorm ways to
improve deliveries. Major tools used: Cause/Effect
diagrams and Pareto charts.
5. On-time delivery process charts were posted in several
areas for all employees to see.

Below is the data (total company chart):

Apr/97-61%
May-67%
Jun-66%
Jul-68%
Aug-66%
Sep-67%
Oct-69%
Nov-72% (UCL=76.8, LCL=60.1, Xbar=68.4)

Dec-80.00%
Jan/98-80.01%
Feb-81.73%
Mar-83.24% (UCL=84.1, LCL=78.4, Xbar=81.3)

Apr-88.43%
May-89.42%
Jun-91.08%
Jul-87.30%
Aug-88.44%
Sep-88.46%
Oct-89.37%
Nov-88.37% (UCL=93.4, LCL=84.9, ,Xbar=89.2)

Dec-91.71%
Jan/99-93.30%
Feb-94.60%
Mar-92.98%
Apr-93.13%
May-93.16%
Jun-92.11% (UCL=95.5, LCL=90.4, Xbar=92.3)

Comments?

Here to Learn,
Rich DeRoeck/QA Eng
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