Visually analyzing and improving a production process
Volker Kraft, SAS Institute Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Capability analysis, used in process control, measures the conformance of a process to given specification limits. Using these limits, you can compare a current process to specific tolerances and maintain consistency in production. This case study will introduce a tablet manufacturing process and its current quality characteristics, before demoing how to dramatically improve the process capability. The first step uses interactive visualizations to explore relationships between process factors like materials or suppliers and the process response. The following step will demonstrate various modeling techniques to determine the most important factors and how they collectively impact process quality. Factor optimization will determine the best-case process capability that can result from controlling the factors at their “best” settings. Finally, real-world capability will be investigated by simulating the process under optimal conditions superimposed with uncontrollable variability.