Crimson Press - Charting Features
August 17, 2004

Did something unusual happen last week?  Has Joe been improving his productivity?  Has your volume increased faster than your revenue?

You'll be able to answer these questions, and many more, with Crimson Software's new Charting Feature.  With it, you can:

•  See historical measurements (about 70 of them so far) in time periods (anything from seconds to years).

•  Filter on many different key fields (e.g. CustomerID, UserID, ItemCode, Building, Zone, etc.)

•  Compare two measurements on the same chart to see relationships and trends.

•  Track the current value of a measurement in real-time.  The chart comes to life and keeps you informed.

INTERACTIVE
The chart area is fully re-sizeable and automatically adjusts the scales and labels for your convenience.  You choose how many data points you want to see, the colors, the formats, and the time intervals.  Once you are ready, hit a button and the Crimson WMS takes care of the rest.

FOR STATISTICAL PEOPLE
Process control measurements can show valuable information about unusual data points, either good or bad.  Looking through your measurements in the Process Control view can quickly tip you off to the need for action.

For instance, let's say Inbound productivity reaches the 'Yellow' zone on the high side (this is 2 standard deviations above the mean, if you know what I mean).  When this happens, personnel that are knowledgeable in their process should be able to explain why this happened.  The most common reason for this particular example is that volume increased more quickly than the labor force could compensate.  This creates a rush where productivity soars, and accuracy often declines (which you don't find out until later).

Now you know the questions to ask... Why did productivity increase to such an unusual level?  If it was increased volume, why didn't we know about it and acquire additional help?  Is there something in this process that can be improved as a result of this experience?

FOR OVERWORKED SPREADSHEET JOCKEYS
I remember the days... every Monday I sorted through piles of measurement data from all departments, chased after procrastinating supervisors, printed about 30 pages from the time clock, and entered everything into spreadsheets.  This process culminated into a 14 page report.  Then each chart (about 50 of them) had to be adjusted manually to make it look right.  My deadline was Tuesday at 12:00 PM, and it was a rush to get it all together.

Now, the managers and supervisors, and anyone else with access and permission, can look at their measurements online as soon as the shift ends, or even in real time.

This is a fantastic addition to the tools and features that inform your decisions and drive efficiency.