| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : APRIL 3, 2000 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- STRATEGIES
Kneading the Data New Web software called NetStat pulls in customer info from spreadsheets and automatically reconfigures it into charts and tables for posting on the Web. Reports can be produced in minutes. Pillsbury hopes to roll out the pilot program to 6,000 of its employees all over the world. Here's how it works: CONSUMER FEEDBACK Problem: Consumers call in by the thousands daily with compliments or complaints. In the past, the comments were typed into an electronic database and required specially trained staff to analyze. Reports came out weekly or monthly. Solution: NetStat can take the customer feedback, crunch the data, and spit it out to a Web page as a chart. Marketing staffers get instant insight into what customers like, and plants can adjust production accordingly. NEW PLANTS Problem: At new plants, engineers test equipment to ensure that everything from biscuits to soup is made correctly. Equipment adjustments are tedious and time-consuming. Inevitably, engineers find problems only after a plant is running. Solution: NetStat grabs test production data, hands it off to a statistical software program, which analyzes the numbers to catch problems early. Before the plant is running, engineers can measure dough at every point along a conveyor belt with no more than a few keystrokes. PRODUCTION QUALITY Problem: Products don't always get in the right package. Occasionally, the icing packets don't make it into Toaster Strudel boxes. Pillsbury might not discover the problem until managers get a monthly report or an irked consumer discovers the problem. Solution: Workers punch instructions into NetStat that tells it to configure routine charts on what's in the strudel packages. If the number of strudel boxes and icing packets don't line up, managers can find out after every shift if there's a problem. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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