The Value of Meaningful Data

Support calls with customers provide great opportunities to address small issues that the PLM administrator or other PLM professionals haven’t stopped to resolve. These problems often are brought up at the end of the call, kind of like those doorknob issues we bring up with our doctor as we’re on the way out the door. Recently, after a configuration training session with a customer, she mentioned the difficulty she was having preparing her monthly metrics report. The problem had to do with collecting meaningful data related to the timely release of change orders. But that wasn’t apparent until we discussed the data she was using to calculate the metrics.

Her report calculated the time to sign off urgent change orders versus routine change orders. To do this she started with her standard report that calculated time to sign off for each change order. Then, using data collected in an attribute called Urgency, she categorized each ECO accordingly and calculated the average time to approve. Each month this report showed that the average time to sign off urgent ECOs was the same or sometimes even longer than to sign off routine ECOs. How could that be?

The Investigation

We started looking at the previous month’s ECOs that had been marked as urgent. After reviewing the description and reason for change, as well as disposition and other information collected on the change order form, we saw there were many urgent ECOs for which we could not identify the reason they had been marked as urgent. I asked her what the policy is for assigning urgent as opposed to routine in this attribute. It turns out that the originator of the change order determined the level of urgency. After a few more inquiries, I realized the company had no criteria for defining which changes were or were not urgent. It was left to the sole discretion of the originator. Additionally, the change analysts did not review the change order to confirm the validity of how any given ECO was categorized.

Our investigation revealed that the data being provided in the Urgency attribute was meaningless because there was no definition or corporate standard for applying a value in this attribute. This fact had not escaped the notice of many of their usual approvers. Consequently they took it upon themselves to prioritize the ECOs they considered urgent. When reevaluating the change orders processed in the previous month, the approvers had actually done a pretty good job of determining which ECOs required their attention first, regardless of what value was in the Urgency attribute.

A Solution with Multiple Benefits

My recommendation to her was to work with the appropriate stakeholders to determine the appropriate criteria for marking an ECO as urgent. By doing this, the data being collected would not only be more meaningful, but ultimately would bring value to the metric data being reported. Executives could look at that report and have a good understanding as to whether or not ECOs were being signed off in the correct priority order or whether action needed to be taken to improve that step in the overall change order process.

While this example applies to a very specific attribute, the same scrutiny can be applied to much of the data being collected in any PLM system. Do the users understand how the data is being used, what the corporate standards are to determine the correct values, and how their choices may impact downstream consumers of the data?

If you’re setting up a new PLM, a new business process, or updating an existing one, it’s a good opportunity to make sure each attribute has a clear corporate definition within the appropriate policies and procedures. Meaningful input results in meaningful output, and can improve not only your workflow processes and reporting, but your user satisfaction and adoptability as well. When users see that the data they are asked to provide is logical and consistent they are more likely to engage in the overall process. In other words, not only do the users recognize improved meaning in the data, and therefore its increased value,  but also improved meaning and value in their own daily work.

These seemingly small issues, upon resolution, can provide a multitude of enhancements in a variety of areas, from process improvement to employee satisfaction. Next time we’re on a call, bring up that tiny problem you’ve been putting off, and let’s see what putting a spotlight on it will reveal. The results may surprise you.