HMC - Services

In our efforts to improve performance, the more opportunities we have to learn, the better. In addition to analyzing what has 'gone wrong', we can learn a lot from studying what has 'gone right'. The key is to understand why things went so well.

One of the many features of the new Holistic Data System (HDS) from HMC is the ability to analyze production significantly above the target level, as well as performance significantly below that level, in any given production interval. By collecting information on what circumstances enabled extraordinary production, we can learn what parameters, materials, crews, maintenance procedures or a variety of other conditions have a positive impact on performance. These exceptionally-good hours of production can be analyzed separately, but in a similar manner as the below-trigger level hours, enabling us to identify trends and patterns that we can learn from and try to replicate more frequently.

Focusing on successes has some additional benefits:

Asking someone why things went well tends to elicit very open and honest responses
Understanding what factors seem to have a positive effect on performance can help us identify training and maintenance opportunities
Learning from your successes conveys a positive message, is consistent with the Holistic Manufacturing philosophy and is an important element in 'continuous learning'

The ability to analyze above-target performance is one of many new features in the new HDS from HMC which will be available at the end of Q1 of 2004. Stay tuned for more information on this commercial grade system, or contact HMC for further details.

The new Holistic Data System (HDS) will have all the benefits of the Hourly Data System that HMC has developed and installed in numerous client facilities over the last 8 years, along with a number of enhancements to make it more powerful and more user-friendly. With the Hourly Data System some clients have achieved as much as 35% improvements in production in the first month, we expect even greater success with the new HDS.

The HDS is a visual system that can easily be configured to a number of parameters including shifts, crews, standard work week, time measurement intervals, trigger levels, brands, stop-codes, etc. Like the Hourly Data System, it overcomes many of the weaknesses of traditional shop-floor data collection systems. The HDS provides real-time information, comparing performance at regular time intervals with historic performance for each production module. Each hour is a new hour, so Operators are motivated to reach short-term performance targets throughout their shift (in most cases hourly). The graphic display makes it easy to recognize trends in production so proactive measures can be taken before a major problem occurs. Management can monitor production and gain a better understanding of what factors are limiting, or facilitating, Operator performance.

The new HDS is capable of retrieving production data directly from the packers (or case packers) and will interface with the makers to download fault codes for below-trigger performance intervals. All charts and graphs are generated automatically, with enhanced flexibility allowing analysis by cell, machine type, crew, etc. The second phase of development will integrate the HDS with SAP, allowing you to download throughput and reject data to SAP and enabling the integration of maintenance tasks with the SAP system.