Business Problem

Those organizations that have transitioned to electronic forms rarely do more than mimic paper forms while providing field-level validation. Many of the quality processes would be improved by providing flexible tools that support a simple question and answer approach that is dynamically modified by the answers provided.

For example, many organizations are required to document nonconforming material (defects) using paper-based or simple electronic forms. Information is filled out and routed to determine proper disposition of these products.  During this process, information may be missed or inspectors and operators fill in information that is not required. Once the document is completed, it must be routed to determine what to do with the defective material. This defective material is typically isolated from other material and sits on Material Review Board shelves.  Providing a mechanism to gather the right information and then properly identify the responsible individuals for completing the process reduces the amount of defective material sitting on the shelf and increases the likelihood of delivering product in a timely manner.

Another process that can be improved by using a dynamically changing series of questions is the process of inspecting received material.  In some cases a sampling of material may be pulled with multi-point inspections conducted.  In others, the receiving department is only required to count the number of parts received and to insure that the proper paperwork is received. A wide variety of inspection requirements exist in many organizations and managing this can be extremely challenging. Having a tool to support the different requirements of receiving inspection streamlines the process while improving the accuracy of it.

For those organizations that subscribe to the Six Sigma approach on their projects, standardized tools and questionnaires to support the different level of project improves the ability to consistently complete all phases of the project. If these questionnaires are able to dynamically change based on the answers provided throughout the project, the probability of covering all steps and realizing the anticipated results is increased. Steps in the process can be documented and modified based on the results of the previous step. For example, failure analysis documentation can be housed in the Six Sigma repository and the results of the failure analysis can lead to a different path or series of steps depending on the results of it.

 

Active Wizard Solution

Using the Active Wizard to develop and support the Quality processes streamlines and increases the accuracy of the processes. Its wizard driven interface captures required form data and then utilizes that data to dynamically generate the form(s) and the exact route for approval. Impacted documents can also be selected from the document repository and routed within the process.

 

Business Impact

• Signature reduction
• No more incomplete or error-prone forms
• Improved quality processes