Help Manual

Contents






Sigma Magic Help Version 15

Check Sheet

Overview

Check Sheet tool is used to capture data at any point in the process to analyze potential problem areas or to monitor improvements in the process. Data is critical to make decisions and if there is no current automated way to collect the data, then a check sheet could be deployed to collect the data. A Check Sheet is easy to use by the operator and can provide data to make good business decisions. There are different types of data that you could potentially capture, such as:
  1. What: Type of the defect
  2. Where: Where does this defect occur (or you could specify part number)
  3. When: When does the defect occur (such as day of the month, day of the week, time of the day, etc.)
  4. Who: Who is responsible for either making or detecting the defect (this could be a department or person)


This tool can be added to your active workbook by clicking on Project and then selecting Check Sheet.

Inputs

Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.

Setup

A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
Input Dialog Box The checklist contains the following 4 topics.
OptionDescription
WhatThis is a required field and there are minimum two categories required for this field. These could be for example the type of defects.
WhereThis is an optional field and captures where the defect occurs. It could be different part numbers or the location on a given part.
WhenThis is an optional field and captures when the defect occurs. It could be different days of the week, hours of the day etc.
WhoThis is an optional field and captures who caused the defect. It could be the name of the person, department or supplier.
1
Description: Provide a short description for each topic. You can leave it as the default or name it to something that is more meaningful for your project. Make sure that all the names you provide for different topics are unique.
2
Num Items: The number of categories for each topic should be specified in the dropdown box. If this box is marked as 0, then we have chosen to ignore this topic in our analysis. Note that the first topic "What" is a required field and cannot be specified as 0.
3
Category Labels: For each topic, specify a subcategory. You will need to provide a label for each count. For example, if we have 5 subcategories for What and 4 subcategories for Where, we could have the following labels.
OptionDescriptionLabels
WhatDefectsScratches, Burn, Burr, Color, Thickness
WhereLocationLeft, Right, Top, Bottom
4
View Example: Click on this button to open the example file. You can view the example to get an idea of how to fill out this tool or you can use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your project needs.
5
Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
6
Cancel Button: Click on this button to cancel all changes and exit this dialog box.
7
OK Button: Click on this button to save all changes and compute analysis results.
Deploy the data collection sheet to the operators and ask them to collect the data. The data could be collected and entered immediately when the defect is observed or you can transcribe the operator notes periodically or at the end of the shift onto the worksheet.
  • Select from the dropdown boxes, the What, Where, When, and Who as applicable. Note, that some of these columns may be hidden depending on the options you have specified in the input dialog box.
  • Specify the count associated with each row. If every defect is being observed, the count column will just be 1's, if not count the total number of defects that correspond to that row and enter the count here.

Charts

If you click on the Charts button, you will see the following dialog box. Charts
0
Pick Charts: Specify which charts you would like to generate for this analysis.
1
Title: The system will automatically pick a title for your chart. However, if you would like to override that with your own title you can specify a title for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
2
Sub Title: The system will automatically pick a subtitle for your chart. However, if you would like to override that with your own subtitle you can specify a subtitle for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
3
X Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your own label for the x-axis you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
4
Y Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your own label for the y-axis you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
5
X Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the x-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to specify the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20 then the minimum x-axis scale is set at 10 and the maximum x-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the x-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is currently disabled and you will not be able to change this setting.
6
Y Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the y-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to specify the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20 then the minimum y-axis scale is set at 10 and the maximum y-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the y-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is currently disabled and you will not be able to change this setting.
7
Horizontal Lines: If you want to add a few extra horizontal reference lines on top of your chart you can specify the values here. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 12;15 then two horizontal lines are plotted at Y = 12 and Y = 15 respectively. Note that this input is optional.
8
Vertical Lines: If you want to add a few extra vertical reference lines on top of your chart you can specify the values here. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 2;5 then two vertical lines are plotted at X = 2 and X = 5 respectively. Note that this input is optional.

Verify

If you click on the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you have entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below. Verify The objective of this analysis as well as any checks that are performed is listed in this dialog box. For example, the software may check if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, then they are shown as a green-colored checkmark. If the verification checks fail, then they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange color exclamation mark and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.

Outputs

Click on Compute Outputs to update the output calculations. A sample screenshot of the worksheet is shown below. Check Sheet Example The analysis provides a Pareto chart for each of the input columns in the notes area. In the charts area, the Pareto charts are displayed along with a 2D check-sheet. The 2D check-sheet can help you identify the possible interaction between variables. The different possible 2D check-sheets are:
  1. What-Where Chart: This chart combines the display of the type of defects and where the defects occur. This chart can be used to identify regions where the defects are maximum and regions where defects are minimum. This may give you a clue as to why this pattern is being observed.
  2. What-When Chart: This chart combines the display of the type of defects and when the defects occur. This chart can be used to identify if there is any pattern between the defects and when they occur.
  3. What-Who Chart: This chart combines the display of the type of defects and who causes the defects. This chart can be used to identify if there is any pattern between the defects and who is causing them.

Notes

Here are a few pointers regarding this analysis:
  • Pareto charts are created one variable at a time and as such total the defects across all other variables.
  • The What-Where, What-When, What-Who charts only occur for a specific combination of inputs and these charts only display if you have the appropriate column inputs in your data.

Examples

Following examples can be found in the Examples folder.
  • Select an assembly process for a product and create a check-sheet to collect and summarize the data for the types of defects, where the defects occur, and who causes the defects. Assume that there are 10 types of defects, 8 different parts, and 4 operators (Chart Sheet 1.xlsm).