PRODUCTION DATA COLLECTION
(HBS Solutions Ltd. June 2006 by Bora Büyük)

 Individuals and organizations collect data because the information is needed. They want information to keep records for administrative purposes, for making decisions about important issues, or they require to pass information to the others. Whatever the specific reason, data has to be collected to provide information. Production data collection and analysis is a key component in a succesful manufacturing operation. Many manufacturers do not realize what data collection really is and how collected data becomes useful information. Usually, the missing point is getting the data in the right context, to the right people, at the right time to provide support for better desicion making.

 At management level, the information is needed to plan resources, to make forecasts, to manage inventory, and to schedule customer orders. On the plant floor, information is captured for the purpose of product tracking, quality control, tracking work in process, performance and efficiency measuring, loss time reporting and eliminating bottlenecks.

 Data collection systems work. However they mean an investment in technology. Before justifiying that investment, we need to understant why we want to utilize a data collection system, instead of employees with clipboards.

 When deciding to invest in data collection, the first question is “WHY”. The objective is never “Data Collection” by itself, but serious business objectives like more accurate costing, higher quality level, enhancing overall efficiency and improving individual operator performance. Companies often meet these objectives without a data collection system. They have people writing data on clipboards and later keying it in. However, these systems are tedious, unreliable, expensive and, most important in the event of an incedent, the data is not easy to view and trend. Also it is not accurate and compared to a continious monitoring system, the data can not be visualized at the time the event takes place.

 The phrase “Time is money” is well known. However, the good question is “When do we want to know?”. The answer should be “Immediately”. To gain “Real time”, data must be collected and entered in to the system as the event happens.

 “Performance Management” is becoming misinterpreted. All too often, performance management is equated with the ability to make nice reports and graphs. Of course, presenting metrics in a consize manner is useful, but this is passive interpretation of performance measurement. To utilize full benefits of a performance measurement, a company needs to go beyond presenting metrics. It is necessery to ask questions like; “Are we aware of the metrics before they harm the overall performance?”, “ Is there a quick way to detect why a metric went out of range?”, “Is there a metric that will indicate a future problem?”.

 True performance measurement begins with accurate and real time data collection, defining the undesirable conditions  in a production line like a machine breakdown, poor employee performance, quality issues like reworks, and so on. It takes effort to understand the causes of these and to put in place measures that will trigger corrective action.