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Sorry I missed that about your engineers being able to do the 7 in a row. With the short runs (3 in a row) or 4 Points close to the edges, we decided not to include them in the graph based on two reasons: 

• First, the training materials from Stacey essentially say, “Don't do anything with the 3 or 4; wait until you have the 7 points before acting on it.” 6/7 points is a statistically safe point to say, “we have achieved a new normal,” while 3 or 4 says, “something may be happening, but not with the statistical certainty we need to change course.”
• Second, the XmR charts easily show where the 3 or 4 points are; our executives can see those. But, we don't want to alarm them prematurely by re-calculating anything. We talked about making those data points a different color to highlight them a little more, but decided that, for now, we won't worry about it, and will trust our executives to see those short trends.

The 3 or 4 points seem to be important to you. What value am I missing, or what am I not seeing by not highlighting them out on our charts? I may well have a blind spot here, and would appreciate anything you could point out.

Cheryl- Our computer engineers were able to get something for us that seems to work really well. Basically, they said the key is to take individual time points that are each in their own row, and combine them to put them all on a single row. Then, you can validate if 7 in that single row are above or below the mean, and if they are, automate a recalculation of the central line and the upper and lower limits. Below is how it looks. We've added the Target Zone as an ongoing target to hit, rather than putting the target out into the future (which we may add at some point where it makes sense).

 

 

Also, on our dashboard, we have a link explaining how to understand and use XmR Charts; below is the text I've used for that if it's of any help.

Understanding XmR Charts

 If you timed your commute each day for a week, your minutes would vary; some days would be a bit shorter, some would be a bit longer. If one day were a little longer—or even a lot longer due to an accident—you probably wouldn’t change your course immediately; after all, some regular variation and even an unusual glitch is to be expected. However, if your commute consistently started taking longer than expected, or if you found a route that consistently saved you a few minutes, you would likely make changes.

The same natural variation happens in business processes. Unlike the commute example, however, leaders may respond prematurely to natural variations as if they were significant. An instance or two of poor performance may lead to executive action, when in fact it was part of the natural variation, and no change was needed. Alternatively, a few instances of good performance may lead to false confidence that things are improving, when in fact things are really just the same. To improve processes, leaders need to reliably separate the signals of real change from the noise of natural variation.

An XmR chart shows the natural variation that can be expected in any given process. XmR charts signal when changes have occurred that are higher (Upper Natural Process Limit) or lower (Lower Natural Process Limit) than what would normally be expected for that process. When 7 points in a row are above or below the Center Line (Average), a new Center Line is calculated, along with new Upper and Lower Natural Process Limits. This signals a “new normal” for the process. 

Actions to Take

Unstable/Chaotic – If values are all over the place and the Natural Process Limits are wide, focus on making the process more standard and predictable. Tighter limits indicate more predictability.

Outlier- If a single value or two show up outside the Natural Process Limits, look into it, but don’t make any changes until you give it time to see if it is the beginning of a new trend.

Trends- When 7 values in a row are above or below the Center Line, the graph will automatically calculate the new normal. If 7 values trend downward or upward across the Center Line, wait until the values meet the criteria of 7 above or below the Center Line, or level off, before taking any action. For short trends
of 3 or so, wait until the values level off before taking any action.

 

I hope this helps.

Hi Cheryl-  I work in the IT Department of our organization. As we are improving our dashboard, I have challenged our Business Intelligence/ Dashboard engineers to include Smart Charts. We're not far enough down the road, yet, where I can share any outcomes. But, I'll keep you posted. We've got a great team of engineers who like to be challenged by what I tell them might not be possible, and I am always amazed to see what creative innovations they come up with.