The Business Challenge
Northrop Grumman wanted to provide executives and suppliers with "total visibility into quality". Before implementing a solution based on Axceler Notrix and Axceler PowerFlow, defect data from the shop floor changed too quickly for replication to capture. Also, using an alternative interface to the Oracle database is too cumbersome. They envisioned a solution that would entail providing executives with real-time access to product defect information stored in an Oracle database on the shop floor. They also needed a tool to provide workflow automation, auditing, and analysis of the time the workflow takes in order to reduce defects to zero.
The key issues for this organization included: How do we do real-time exchange with Notes? How do we allow executives to make decisions and manage process changes on shop floor such that can impact defects right away? How do we make this data available to suppliers via a workflow process so they can track defect information for their product and improve processes?
The Axceler Solution
The system combines product quality information from the shop floor using Oracle-based applications with Notes-based data distribution and entry for executive analysis and workflow. The Northrop Grumman executives accessed the defect data using the real-time capability of Axceler Notrix, while other data is replicated via Notes connections to suppliers.
This familiarity with Notes provided the perfect underpinning for the Notrix products. With Axceler Notrix, the data exchange was automated, providing the executives with key information essential to their trend analysis. The real-time access to the Oracle database with the Live! option now provided the executives with the most up-to-date information, enabling them to directly effect the reduction of defects.
Axceler PowerFlow was used to automate the business process of moving the analysis and changes throughout the organization. Defect reduction is the ultimate goal and Axceler PowerFlow's built-in audit trails and tools for historical analysis are providing crucial information to help them achieve this goal.
The Result
Northrop chose the Axceler products because they offered a complete solution to his business problem. The key features included having both real-time access to the Oracle data, replication access between Notes and Oracle, powerful data manipulation features, and integrated graphical workflow automation, auditing, and analysis.
According to Dave Hitchings, Manager of Quality Information Systems and Support"We now have accurate data for informed decision which has led to a dramatic reduction in defects... and that saves dollars, lots of them."
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