Methods and systems for generating a quality enhancement project report

A method in a computer system for generating a report of a quality enhancement project, the quality enhancement project being directed to improving a process to reduce the number of defects or defective units produced by the process, the method comprising:

• receiving starting process performance data for the unimproved process;
• determining a starting process capability based on the received starting process performance data;
• receiving ending process performance data for the improved process;
• determining an ending process capability based on the received ending process performance data;
• determining a confidence level associated with the starting and ending process capabilities;
• and
• generating a report including the starting process capability, the ending process capability, and the confidence level, wherein the quality enhancement project is a Six Sigma quality enhancement project.

A method for characterizing process capability, the method comprising:

• receiving process performance data
• determining whether the process performance data is attribute data or continuous data;
• when it is determined that the process performance data is attribute data, characterizing process capability with a Z short term and/or a Z long-term value;
• and
• when it is determined that the process performance data is continuous data, characterizing process capability with a Z bench value calculated using equation (1).

A method in a computer system for generating a report of a Six Sigma quality enhancement project, the Six Sigma quality enhancement project being directed to enhancing the quality of a process, the method comprising:

• receiving process performance data;
• automatically determining a process capability based on the received process performance data;
• and
• automatically generating a display description including the process capability for generating a report of Six Sigma quality enhancement project.

A method for generating a report of a Six Sigma quality enhancement project, the Six Sigma quality enhancement project being directed to improving a process to reduce the number of defects or defective units produced by the process, the method comprising:

• receiving starting process performance data for the unimproved process;
• determining a starting process capability based on the received starting process performance data;
• receiving ending process performance data for the improved process;
• determining an ending process capability based on the received ending process performance data;
• determining a confidence level associated with the starting and ending process capabilities;
• and
• generating a report including the starting process capability, the ending process capability, and the confidence level.

A computer system for generating a report of a quality enhancement project, the quality enhancement project being directed to improving a process to reduce the number of defects or defective units produced by the process, the computer system comprising:

• means for receiving starting process performance data for the unimproved process;
• means for determining a starting process capability based on the received starting process performance data;
• means for receiving ending process performance data for the improved process;
• means for determining an ending process capability based on the received ending process performance data;
• means for determining a confidence level associated with the starting and ending process capabilities;
• means for generating a report including the starting process capability, the ending process capability, and the confidence level;
• means for receiving economic data corresponding to the improved process;
• and
• means for determining a cost savings associated with implementation of the process improvement.

A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computer system to generate a report of a Six Sigma quality enhancement project, the Six Sigma quality enhancement project being directed to improving a process to reduce the number of defects or defective units produced by the process, the report of the quality enhancement project being generated by a method comprising:

• receiving starting process performance data for the unimproved process;
• determining a starting process capability based on the received starting process performance data;
• receiving ending process performance data for the improved process;
• determining an ending process capability based on the received ending process performance data;
• determining a confidence level associated with the starting and ending process capabilities;
• and
• generating a report including the starting process capability, the ending process capability, and the confidence level.

A method in a computer system for comparing results from a first quality enhancement project to results from a second quality enhancement project, the first quality enhancement project being directed to improving a first process to reduce the number of defects or defective units produced by the first process, the second quality enhancement project being directed to improving a second process to reduce the number of defects or defective units produced by the second process, the method comprising:

• generating a first report of the first quality enhancement project, the first report including a starting process capability for the unimproved first process, an ending process capability for the improved first process, and a confidence level associated with the starting and ending process capabilities for the first process;
• and
• generating a second report of the second quality enhancement project, the second report including a starting process capability for the unimproved second process, an ending process capability for the improved second process, and a confidence level associated with the starting and ending process capabilities for the second process, wherein the starting and ending process capabilities and the confidence level for the second process are in the same form as the starting and ending process capabilities and the confidence level, respectively, for the first process, and wherein the confidence levels for the first and second processes comprise P values.