CTPlot turns your iPhone into a Cycle Time Analysis tool powerhouse. Answer the question "What is our current process Cycle Time?" in just seconds after finishing your data collection, with data and graphs in hand. CTPlot is simply the fastest mobile tool to collect, analyze, and share your process' cycle time.
Just about everyone that cares about their business and/or their output cares about Cycle Time, and there are many tools and methods to improve or reduce Cycle Time for any operation. They all start by having someone measure the baseline cycle time (the "as it happens today" cycle time, if you will).
Your may be asked: "How does our cycle time today compare to our standard?", or you may see something funny in a report and want to verify the measurements, or simply you are interested in learning about what the cycle time is for a process you care about (that line at the airport, at the coffee shop, or any other process you may think of), and you need the answer now.
How do you proceed? In sophisticated environments, where data is automatically collected by the systems involved in or "attached to" the operation in question, you just pull the data out of a database and off you go to perform analysis. If you are not lucky enough to have these types of systems in place, it means someone (probably you) has to go to the operation with a stopwatch and paper/pencil in hand, or your laptop, to collect the data, put it in a spreadsheet or other statistical analysis tool, and analyze. In either case, data has to be collected in a reliable fashion, entered into an analysis tool, and analyzed before findings can be shared.
How long does it take to complete the data collection to sharing of results cycle? Well, we know it takes no less than the time it takes to collect the data. Pulling the data from a database, or typing the numbers into your laptop takes time. Telling the software to give you a specific type of analysis takes time. Sharing the results takes time. The questions a Mobile Black Belt would ask right about now are... "How much of this time/effort really value-added? What if I could do all this on location, and share the results from the process location instantly?"
CTPlot was designed to eliminate the need to ask those questions. It quickly takes the user through the steps to collect process data, and makes the data analysis and the sharing of the results a snap.
- Collect data for multiple process steps
- Perform a practical review of your data with the Data Review feature
- Look at Cycle Time performance over time with the histogram and fitted normal probability curve
- Compare your measurements to an Estimate, Takt Time, Upper Spec Limit, or Lower Spec Limit Value
- Share the resulting graph and/or the data with anyone you choose right from the tool
- Send your data, graph, ang process image via e-mail
- Save the graph to your Photo Album
- Download your data and process image through iTunes into your computer
- Boast about your performance improvement prowess with built-in, one-click status updating to LinkedIn, facebook, and Twitter
- Please note that CTPlot does not share your data through any of the social networks. CTPlot is hard-coded to share a status update that lets your network know you have completed an analysis, showing them all you walk the talk
Whether you are working to verify current cycles are performing as expected, or learning what the process is actually doing, CTPlot is the tool for you.