Today, information zips back and forth between companies like lightning from a summer shower. It’s not clear if these are real communications or simply electrical discharges in a silent sky. A recent article in Scientific America reported the discovery of a small “Trojan” planet that shadows earth’s orbit. This discovery didn’t take any special astronomy. The information lay hidden within databases for years before anyone ever “discovered” it.
Knowledge about this sister planet may not be very useful. However, if we can hide something like that in our databases, what else is there that could have serious impacts on our organizations.
Perhaps our data just sinks into a database like the one that held the secret of our sister planet. It’s a murky problem. The evolution of databases may shed some light on it.
Originally, companies developed massive databases to warehouse information. Storage costs were low. Not knowing what might be important, designers developed systems to collect information on everything: the useless with the good. Redundancy reigned. They placed no thought in how they would access the information. Consequently, data extraction and analysis became a specialty. Data “mining” became an appropriate metaphor. Data diamonds hid in the digital dirt.
To address these problems, companies started breaking up their databases. They made them specialized. One database provides shipping and delivery information. Another provides corrective and preventive action reports. Still others provide order-entry information, sales, or customer service information. The era of specialized modules in ERP systems arose.
These modules made it easier access to information. But, it also created problems. Suppliers had to input data into multiple systems. Customer service entered data into one system. The shipping department entered it into another. The quality department accessed a third. Even maintenance had to get involved. They updated customer programs with preventive and predictive maintenance data.
Some customers take their data-hunger to an extreme. This makes it necessary for daily and sometimes hourly updates by the supplier. The automotive industry leads the use of these data hogs. But they aren’t the only industry. According to Al Freeland of The QC Group, Inc., he is familiar with a large electronics company that requires job progress, inventory, run yields, traceability and shipping information uploaded on a constant basis. Suppliers face more tethers to this customer than to their own internal tracking systems. With such oversight, who’s left to mind the store?
Again, we’ve created a new job: Making sure that everyone in a supply organization keeps each different department for each customer properly informed. Failure in just one database risks loss of the entire business.
The question remains, do all these transferred electrons really improve business. The answer is a resounding: “It depends!”
Just-in-time (JIT) business frequently requires more information than the traditional batch-and-queue. However, successful JIT organizations use pull systems. Centralized ERP systems devolve into long-term planning tools. Kanban cards and one-piece-flow handles the day-to-day and hour-to-hour requirements.
However, when your customer is a JIT business, and you are not, you place your customer in a very precarious position. Literally, the loss of a horseshoe can lose not only the battle, but also the entire war.
Cloud computing opens up two exciting possibilities. Mutually accessible data is probably its biggest advantage. Instead of a push data system, the cloud offers true two-way communications. Secondly, the cloud provides the opportunity to redesign the data systems. We can use this to help remove the tethers binding all the different suppliers to the customer’s data systems.
These two possibilities arise from using an open-structured database. With a common language, it is easier to develop interfaces to share data. For example, automatic upload and download interfaces can populate forms and tables, avoiding the need to log into a customer’s internet system.
One service company uses cloud computing to run their business from cell phones and IPad. Pictures and on-line checklists record the progress of field technicians for the home office through the cloud. Customers also access this information to know the status of their projects. Both companies can capture the data they need through simple interfaces that link the cloud to their internal systems.
In many cases, the users interface with the cloud to download only the relevant data using an appropriate queries or customized reports. Sale people access the most current prices; customers access delivery information.
Think of these cloud networks as a data wikis. They won’t provide you messages or meeting notices, but they will populate your programs with important information. They’re there, when you need them, in real time.
Who knows, you may never again have to leave your network: no lost communications, no lost data, no delayed “discoveries”, and no secret planets.
Richard Heller
Dick Heller, a trainer/consultant for The QC Group, has his MBA, CMQ/OE, CQE, CQA and CSSGB. In addition, he earned his Black Belt from Allied-Signal (now Honeywell). Mr. Heller provides ASQ Certificate training, as well as both Lean and Six Sigma systems coaching. He has also implemented numerous ISO 9001 and TS 16949 applications. His most recent innovation, the Action Management© program, integrates executive team management, project management, ISO 9001, process mapping, lean and six sigma into a unified business management system. You can reach him through The QC Group.
