Real-Time SPC™  Support

Add a new process

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A process represents a single step or a series of steps used to produce a product or provide a service. When you add a new process, you must first decide the hierarchy level of the process. You can add processes at any level of your hierarchy groups, within a company.

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Next, determine the process, output, and defective measures to monitor this process. Usually, each process has at least one measure. If your process includes visual inspections, you can define the defects and defectives that you want to track. For more information, go to Group quality attributes or monitor separately.

If you can identify standard assignable causes, add them too. Assignable causes explain an out-of-control process and list the corresponding corrective actions. Control chart points with assignable causes are not used in the control limit calculations.

Example of adding a new process

The Flavorful Fruit Company adds new processes at the division level.

  1. Open the Components page and select your company folder.
  2. Select the appropriate folder to add the process. For this example, we add the process to the Fruit Spread Division.
  3. Select New then select Process.
  4. Enter a name for the new process and then select OK. For this example, we add the Filling process.
  5. Open the process template that you created.
  6. In the Description section of the template, select Edit to enter a description. Upload an image and add tags, if you like. For more information on using process tags, go to Tags.
  7. Save your changes.

Example of adding measures to the process

The Filling process has two process measures to monitor.

  1. In the Measures section of the template, select Add Process Measures.
  2. Enter a name and an optional description for the new measure and then select OK.
  3. Repeat these steps for all process, output, and defective measures.
  4. If you want to aggregate the number of defects, check Grouped Defects. If you want to aggregate the number of defective items, check Grouped Defectives.
  5. Save your changes.

Example of adding grouped defects and grouped defectives

The Filling process has several defect types and defective types to monitor.

  1. In the Visual Inspection section of the template, check Grouped Defects and Grouped Defectives.
  2. Save the changes.
  3. Select Edit List of Grouped Defects.
  4. Select Add Defect Type.
  5. Enter the name of the defect, the defect severity, and an optional description for the new defect.
  6. Select OK.
  7. Repeat these steps for all defect types.
  8. Save the changes.
  9. Select Edit List of Grouped Defectives.
  10. Select Add Defective Type.
  11. Enter the name of the defective type and an optional description for the new defective cause.
  12. Select OK.
  13. Repeat these steps for all defective types.
  14. Save your changes.

Example of adding assignable causes and corrective actions to the process

The quality team identifies several assignable causes and corrective actions for out-of-specification measures and rates of defects and defectives.

  1. In the Assignable Causes section of the template, select Add Assignable Cause.
  2. Enter a name for the new assignable cause and then select OK.
  3. Repeat these steps for all assignable causes related to this process.
  4. Save your changes.
  5. To add a description of the assignable cause or add corrective actions for an assignable cause, select Edit.
  6. Save your changes.
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