A control
chart, based on this aggregated data, would be of no value. If you really wanted to
improve your month-end closing process, you would need to chart the process for
each individual department, and then determine where improvements are needed.
Know your data. Make sure they represent actual activities that occur, and not
just counts of how many times something or other happened.
the tyranny of Control Charts
Every organization we have ever worked for or appraised ends up using control
charts. At first, we didn??™t understand why. The reason for our not understanding
was because the charts were not generated correctly, and the numbers were never
explained. It was simply enough to draw pretty pictures that made management
Statistical Process Control n 245
happy. One organization we worked for produced 127 control charts. We were
called in to help them reduce the number of charts produced. Our analysis of the
charts revealed one stunning conclusion: although 127 charts were produced, there
were really only 3 charts, produced many times over.
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