Unfortunately, until recently, most of the collected data was not readily available to manufacturing engineers, technicians or operators. If a part failed a test, the results were saved and printed for later reference. Now in production, the system is a quality-control data warehouse that lets plant personnel quickly retrieve and graphically see test results for everything they make. In addition to tracking control parameters in the manufacturing process, it also highlights potential cost savings. Then, users can request a wide variety of reports, including pareto charts and histograms.
Users can look at any value in the system in no more than seven or eight seconds.
In addition, the system has been designed to automatically accommodate changes in product types, locations and test programs, and new types of report can be created whenever they're needed. We knew the issue occurred around a certain time, but nothing more. Before we had DCAR, we would have scrapped the entire pallet. But using our data, we were able to identify the affected parts, and we were actually able to save about 80 percent of the pallet. You can't compete if you don't control your processes.