Articles by CBAssociates

Published, Newspapers and Technology, June 2002

CONTROL CHARTS:
AN INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH TOOL

Constant improvement has long been embraced in industrial manufacturing as a way to improve quality and increase a company’s bottom line. And now it appears that it is being accepted and implemented at a growing number of printing operations.

Anyone who has followed GE's activity in the stock market is aware of the power of trying to obtain Six Sigma waste levels. Jack Welsh, recent Chairman of GE, has proven effective at implementing Six Sigma by stressing that every aspect of a company’s operations, from sales through manufacturing and service, can reap benefits—benefits that show up on the earnings reports.

I recommend reading "Jack Welsh and the GE Way," a book about his visions and actions during his tenure at GE.

Newspapers jump on board
And now there are indications that some of the larger printing operations are getting on board the Constant Improvement bandwagon.

At last year's ING conference, a panel on Six Sigma and constant improvement presented some eye opening as well as practical projects using these concepts. This program reviewed projects at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Their discussion pointed out that constant improvement efforts are different from one-shot improvement efforts, which are useful in short term, but do not have the foundation to become ongoing.

And in a recent e-mail I received, a production director referred to a lean manufacturing project. Her comments made it clear that this project had been going on for some time. "Lean Thinking" by Womack and Jones provides a good introductory review of these concepts.

Training and executive support
An underpinning of the constant improvement concept is the belief that elements of an operation can be defined, improved and, in some cases, integrated with related operational elements. Favorable results are based on training the people who do the work and providing executive support.

Quad Graphics is the GE of the printing industry in terms of innovation and willingness to share information. According to the Green Sheet, individuals from the bindery staff have been trained in press operation and now work on one of the presses. This has resulted in many positive results. Not surprisingly, the quality of the product, as defined by the bindery staff, has improved significantly and resulted in double-digit production increases through the bindery equipment.

Measurement is key
So just how do you go about developing a process for constant improvement? The first step in any improvement effort is to determine the capacity of the system and whether or not the operation is in control. What should be expected from an operation? What should be measured; how should it be measured and how often?

To be consistent, never mind improving an operation, requires measurements. You can not improve what you do not or cannot measure, is a quality axiom.

Most industrial manufacturing operations utilize exacting measuring techniques. Newspapers, however, do not need the same level of quality that a parts supplier to other manufacturing operations needs. Therefore, current efforts by many newspapers are directed at avoiding problems, rather than reducing the range of variability or constant improvement.

"If it is not broken, don’t fix it," is a concept that is alive and well at many a newspaper. The Quad and GE approach states that everything needs to be improved because that is what's required to be a market leader.

The road to improvement starts with measuring critical elements in the process. An example of a tool that reflects the "old" attitude is the Line Chart. The example shows an aim point of 1.50 SDU and a line that fluctuates through the entire allowable printing range of plus or minus 0.05 SDU from the aim point of 1.05 SDU.

As long as all measurements fall in this area, life is good. However, this chart does not indicate where the process should be. Of course, the plus or minus value should be known to the operator, many would say. The reality is that this chart is not an industrial-strength chart, one that will propel a process toward improvement. It is simply a history chart and is easy to use in Excel.

LINE CHART

This depicts the normal variation of black ink if it stayed between
plus or minus 0.05 of aim point of 1.05 SDU.

Defining expectations
The Process Control Chart, on the other hand, was developed so there would be no doubt about the expectations of the process. The aim point, or centering point, is indicated and the plus and minus deviation indicated by the upper control limit and lower control limit.

The plus and minus number can be different. If a black density went to 1.12, a reader would not notice it; however, he might notice it going lighter than 1.0. For the sake of simplicity, most people make the high and low deviation the same.

A control chart indicates the UCL and LCL that represent either the requirements of the next process, the customer’s requirements, or the capability of process. They could be the same; however, the customer or the next part of the process could have lesser demands than the process is capable of producing. Anything above or below the limits would be waste or sent back for rework.

PROCESS CONTROL CHART

This is a typical process control chart with the UCL and LCL indicated.
The green area is where the process should normally run. Yellow is
the warning track and the red is a warning that it might
be going out of control.

In this chart the green area indicates where the process should normally run. A bit less that 70 percent of the measurement should fall within this area. The yellow is a warning area.

The red area indicates acceptable quality, but extra attention should be paid to this process. If two measurements in a row fall in the red area, the process is out of control and adjustments must be taken immediately.

This is a very useful concept to understand and the chart is a valuable tool. It can be used to check papers at a predetermined number of copies or to check ink preset systems, which would have a wider variation than during the run. It is important for the operators to take the measurements, as they are the ones who need the information.

An industrial-strength process improvement program is built on two principles—industrial-strength executive motivation and industrial-strength charting tools, of which a control chart is a basic.

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