Reporting & Communicating SPC Data for Change: Mastering Quality #5

Let me begin by saying that I think maybe this blog should be entitled “Reporting, Communicating, and Convincing.” Let me explain why. 
 
In the last post in this series, “Analyzing Quality Data with the Right SPC Tools,” we looked at how your “detail people”—quality professionals, engineers, and Six Sigma teams—use your SPC solution’s statistical tools and “mine gold” from depths of your collected in-spec data to gain insight into the big quality picture at your organization.
 
Now that your data miners have completed their analysis, and come up with a few groundbreaking ideas for the plants across your organization, they need to report on what they’ve found.
 
Your company can operationalize the changes they will propose only if those data miners can effectively communicate their findings and convince the recipients that those changes will result in improvements at the core of your operations…and make life better for everyone involved.
 

Reporting to Convince: Tell Them Why Quality Management Data Matters

Your data miners need to take that analysis they’ve performed on your SPC data and report to the local plant personnel: operations directors, plant managers, quality managers, and other operations personnel. They should have one goal in mind: convincing these local plant folks that the valuable information they’ve uncovered will dramatically improve their operations.
 
Why convince? Well, needless to say, data experts are likely not plant-based personnel (no, I don’t mean vegetables or ferns; they just don’t work within the plant). They are, for all intents and purposes, seen as “interlopers.” Although they may be there to help manufacturing operations run as smoothly and efficiently as possible (i.e., they have the plant’s best interests in mind), they are quite understandably considered to be outsiders.
 
However, the information they need to convey is important. It’s organization-changing stuff. The reason that the data experts need to be convincing, is to get buy-in from plant personnel. The real work, the change that needs to occur within any organization, takes place at the plant level. The folks on the floor put the plans conjured up by the data experts into action.
 
So how do your data experts get through to the people that are charged with instituting their ideas? The first step is to be sure that the reports your data miners generate are communicating the right information to the right people.
 

Reporting to Multiple Audiences: Help Them Buy What You’re Selling

Reporting for the data experts is a multi-lingual affair; they need to be able to produce flexible, easy-to-read reports that speak to many audiences. Remember from the previous blog, the statistical tools in your SPC solution should easily support the analysis of aggregated data from multiple plants, product codes, production lines, and features—and place it all on one chart that’s easily digestible by just about anyone. Reporting with the right SPC solution should be engaging, easy, and fast.
 
For example, the kind of information that really speaks to plant managers is most likely cost and efficiency improvement and waste reduction numbers. Plant managers need something quantifiable that makes their operations (and, in turn, them) look good. 


Sites Graded by Yield Potential and Yield Performance

This blog won’t get into a technical discussion of yield potential and yield performance. However, you can see that anyone can glance at this chart and understand how to prioritize actions. The items in red command attention and green is good to go. Through this report, your plant manager can get a visual understanding of the health of their operations at a glance.
 
The local quality professional likely wants to understand the metrics that are creating those colored blocks. To dig into the red cells in the example above, quality pros can simply right-click and quickly see the information they need to act on, including more detailed statistical reports.
 
With the ability to communicate information in the ways that are relevant to each user, you can ensure everyone has a shared understanding of what’s happening in your operations and the most important areas to focus on.
 
When the reports have been communicated and you have everyone’s buy-in, the exciting work begins. In my next blog, we’ll discuss how the reports your data experts have produced can be put into play (made “actionable”), and transforming your organization can truly begin.
 

 

Read the other blogs in this series:

Optimize SPC Data Collection: Mastering Quality #1
Stay on Track with SPC Process Alerts and Notifications: Mastering Quality #2
What’s Your Priority? Use SPC to Maximize Your Impact on Quality and Costs: Mastering Quality #3
Analyzing Quality Data with the Right SPC Tools: Mastering Quality #4
Reporting & Communicating SPC Data for Change: Mastering Quality #5